iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

I am pleased to confirm the Great Western Challenge is ON. Dec 5, 6. & 7 someplace in Minnesota.

At present we're compiling inspection reports from a dozen or so suitable lakes... and assessing where we're taking this party. The Great Western Challenge's Dilemma Open in New Window

The range of locations is from Detroit Lakes, MN on US 10 on the Northern end of our range and Buffalo Lake, Buffalo, MN on the Southern End, with several attractive options in the middle.

At this moment, the Alexandria MN area is known to have 3 regatta grade lakes and for now we'll call that the Primary Location,

Lake Minnewaska, Glenwood Minnesota was sailed today by 7 DN'ers. Launched right next to the Big Ballrom, bar and restaurant right in town. Sand beach and parking lot. Able to back right on to ice from this city park. Ice was 4-5 inches every where Adam drilled. A couple of pressure ridges 2-5 inches high about 1/2 mile from shore running East/West. Able to slowly ride over with a little water visable at the crack. The ride out downwind in 5-6 MPH of wind was slow, trying to glide thru many 3/4inch hard drifts. Once past the pressure ridge it was much improved with 1/2 inch hard drifts covering 30% of the ice. The rest was black hard ice. Wind built to 15MPH. Set a 1.5 mile course and were ripping. No obstacles out on course.No damage done. A few bumpy spots but no hazzards noted, except the ones above.

A good DN Sailor I know recently learned he could catch a flight and make the Great Western Challenge... unfortunately the boat is in Western PA.

If we can find him a charter boat, or perhaps because I expect a two fleet event, share a boat splitting fleet participation it would be cool... mine's already double booked.

An alternative might be if somebody coming from the east could give his yacht a ride out.

Please advise by email: mark (at) onemorebid dot com

4695

Does anyone know if Swede Lake ice survived the warmth of Saturday so it will be safe tomorrow?

BUFFALO LAKE, BUFFALO, MN IS CURRENTLY UNSUITABLE! 5214 and I had one of those rare iceboating moments today inspecting Buffalo Lake... I am pleased to announce we did not go swimming today, although dressed to do so. The only thing that kept that from happening was our lack of ambition. The last hole we poked, keeping a safe distance, rescue lines at the ready... was clearly and unnervingly under 1.5 inches.
And that "little voice" was screaming...

BIG ICE UP NORTH Here's one plan under discussion. We have one big sheet of ice in hand and unsnowed upon with Lake Christina, One Promising though not quite ripe lake in Buffalo, needing a little time and temp before inspection... and we apparently lost North Long Lake near Brainerd from snow today.

Sailing Conditions are excellent on many recently frozen lakes throughout Minnesota in our Second Sailing Weekend of the 2008-09 Season. Here's some of the known information around the area.

• Lake Christina, Ashby was sailed for two days last weekend by 12 DNs and rated a 9, 5.5 inches minimum, one hazardous thin spot observed, since then no snow has fallen in the area I expect Christina looks alot like this:
• Dead Lake, Dent - Has been inspected but not sailed, 5 inches was the report.
• North Long Lake, Brainerd - Sailed last weekend by the "The Stand Up Guys, Board Sailors, 4-5 inches reported on an excellent sheet of ice
• Swede Lake, Watertown, MN - Swede was sailed this week Weds, Thurs, Friday by 12 DN's, no observed hazards, lake is too small for a regatta, ice is nice and fast there
• Lake Minnewaska, Glenwood, Clear ice reported by fishermen to be in the 3.5-4" range, no snow, fishing traffic substantiates some of it is fine, no reports from local sailors yet,
• Buffalo Lake, Buffalo, MN, will be checked over the weekend by MISA Sailors

Sailed Buchanan Thanksgiving day with 4-5" of great ice and winds up to 20. Rush Lake which is a mile down the road is excellent too. Ottertail still open water. Christina I would assume is good but a 45 min drive from me so a little hard to check out for everyone.....Dave 218-367-2662

Six DNs and 5 kites/freeskates/boards etc. were on Swede Lake this Thursday... on a solid 3 to 4 inches, as reported by Team Vegemite, er the Aussies. I understand they use Vegemite to lube up their runner chocks.

As of this morning 0530 Nov. 28, the Average Temperature for the last 24 hours at Buffalo Airport was 32.64 F it's uncertain how much ice was lost yesterday on Swede, see standing water in photos.

Did I mention it was windy?

I apologize to all the new users who signed up but then their new account wasn't activated. The settings got changed because of the spammers, and then the email was getting put into a folder I wasn't checking... I enabled all the users, (including the spammers.. let's see if they come back)..

Think Ice.

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KA-1 reports on Tuesday 11/25 that Swede is still locked in. He drilled out to 200 yards from the launch site and found 3-4", no snow on it. He plans to sail it on Wednesday AM with at least one other DN and will report back.

UPDATE:
As of noon Wed. 11/26, Mike and John have sailed the northern half of the lake. They report 3-4" over most of the lake. No holes. So far so good...

UPDATE #2 (Wed. evening)
5369 reports...
"I stopped by Swede at 2:30PM or so and both KA1 and KA2 were zipping around the lake.I took John's for a few laps and moved out great.

There seems to be great interest in Ice Sailing this coming weekend, in preparation for the Great Western Challenge.

Swede Lake, Watertown MN was extensively checked on Saturday 11/22 and found to be a bit thin in most assessments.

Since then the average temperature has been almost 32 F, as of this posting, with chilly icemaking temperatures currently hardening up the ice, and forecast average temperature from now to Friday is about 27 F,

This lake will require a careful assessment as I'm not seeing much in terms of icemaking conditions, This is not on the Scale for Ice Growth: Wojtek Kuznicki's Ice and its sailability... http://www.idniyra.org/articles/ice_sailability.htm ... there might be more ice there, somebody will have to find out.

Kiefer-san just called with the following updates:

• He's on the road to Christina with boats and some other sailors after stopping by Swede.
• A group is setting up boats at Swede Lake where there were varying thicknesses measured.
• Buffalo Lake is 80% frozen, and looks like a good possibility for the Great Western Challenge in two weeks.

Hopefully we will have an update on the conditions at Christina soon.

It appears the NA iceboating season is starting!

Cheers,

Geoff S.
US-5156

The fine people at the Ashby Resort reported in a call this afternoon (Friday) that Lake Christina was frozen on Monday...

Given the temperatures in the Ashby area for the past 3 days this looks like the best bet for big ice tomorrow, and the fact that I made the bold prediction there would be 4 inches of Ice on Christina tomorrow morning (saturday) this sailor's going to drive up north, check a couple lakes, and make sure there's frozen inventory for the big thanksgiving weekend sailing adventures.

4695

Heard we're sailing Swede tomorrow, Saturday, November 22nd. I'll be there at ~9 to check ice with Bloomer. Who's in?

5298
Browner

From: 5369
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:48 PM
To: 4695
Subject: Ice conditions

The attached photo is a small marsh lake about .75 mile across. It is located about 15 miles south of Long Prairie near a town called Grey Eagle, which is about 40 miles east of Christina. It was taken around 9AM on Wed Nov 19. It had a few small open spots, but supported my weight out only a few feet. I had dress clothes on and didn't have an ice chisel to measure, but appeared to be 1-2 inches on shore.

I also drove by a few other similar lakes today Thursday and were wide open with a 12F temp and North wind last night and all day today of 15-22MPH, so freezing ice was a challenge. The forecast and lighter wind will surely freeze Christina tight, I am sure. I had planned to drive over there today at 7AM, but with the big winds, suspected it would have stayed open. When I drove past the photo shot today at 4PM, the small open spots were a little bigger with the wind. I see on the website you may go west this weekend. Be safe.I would love to join you, but I have a weekend meeting in Wisconsin Dells!