Today's forecast warm temperatures will melt down a lot of the snow cover on Minnesota's frozen lakes. There are a some lakes that have been just outside the envelope for sailing since the New Year began, e.g., Lake Pulaski near Buffalo has not seen 3 inches of snow in total since we sailed there between Christmas and New Years.

The NWS Interactive Snow Map shows no snow cover in the Marshall/Tracy area in SW Minnesota, with current 10:00 AM temps at 36 F, and forecast high temperatures today in the Mid 40s! We're looking for an ice report on Lake Shetek.

The webcams on Okoboji show about 25% clear / 75% snow cover.

Matt Struble, US 183, of Michigan, has achieved one of the great pinnacles in Sailing, Winning the North American, European and World Championships in a Single Season, successfully defending his 2007 World and North American Championships, Matt take his place as one of the true great ones in Sailing, hard or soft water.

Struble's demonstrated spectacular speed, winning all but one of the 6 North American Championship Races, on Lake Pepin, MN and consistency by winning only one of the 12 Races Sailed at the Worlds and European Chamionships, but always being close. In what one former world champion called a veneue that is always flukey in the wind department. His worst finishes (throw out race) in 18 major regatta starts, was a 9th, in the Europeans, 7th in the Worlds, and he threw out a 4th place finish in the North Americans.

From: European Championship Provisional Scores

American Sailors and those we know who sail in Minnesota...

GOLD
                               R1  R2  R3  Points Pos
1   US- 44     Sherry, Ron      6   1   1    8,00    1   
3   US- 183    Struble, Matt    4   2   9   15,00   3 *1 pt to 2 
5   US- 4691   Dennis, John    11   13  7   31,00    5   Better!
8   US- 4480   Stange, Aaron    2   8   22  32,00    8 
10   G- 107    Zeiger, Bernd    3   27  4   34,00   10
18  US- 4379   Harper, John    16   28  14  58,00   18

Final Confirmation:
NIYA Regatta ON for Geneva Lake at Fontana, WI
February 18, 2008

NIYA News from the webpage:
Geneva Lake welcomes all iceboat sailors (of good nature) to the Northwest Regatta! Plans are under way for a fun filled and good racing weekend.
____________
From the Icemaker....

If you haven't done a Northwest, It's a must do at least once regatta, a real classic, all the Rock Stars are in Europe, odds are somebody new to winning will taste victory in the DN Fleet. It could be you! It is a sweet taste.

Northwest Regatta Home Page

From http://icesailing.org forums

Dietmar Gottke (Admin)
Post Number: 49
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 08:06 pm

Matt Struble won the Worlds 2008

Top 10
1. US183- 2-2-3-5-6-(7)-18
2. P155- 4-7-6-6-5-(10)-28
3. G624- (16)-8-10-8-4-3-33
4. S81- 8-1-14-2-9-(15)-34
5. US44- 1-(dnf)-1-1-11-20-34
6. P55 - 11-3-11-9-1-(19)-35
7. S8- 19-5-2-3-14-(28)-38
8. G107- (17)-6-12-12-3-13-46
9. US4691- 5-12-8-14-8-(25)-46
10.US4480- 3-10-16-10-16-(23)-55

Wind came in around 2 o�clock and was shifty in between, plus going up and down between very ight air.

---------------------

Tom Sweitzer sailed Geneva today (Wednesday)and suggested we hold off another week for the Nite Nationals to let some of the rough spots get knocked down. He said there were some real launchers in the area the Nites would have been sailing.

He knows his stuff as he's won the National 10 times.

Stay tuned.

Browner
Nite 559

I phoned over there to see what was up.. and talked to Mike Rehe.

Today it was light and warm in Cerna, no racing, and there was water everywhere. Then it started to honeycomb and really deteriorate. Tomorrow morning skippers meeting at 9:00am and go from there.. (they're not sure what they are going to do)

Yesterday it was Mike Rehe that had his bow taken off. He got tagged on the stern, spun out and the next guy took his bow off. They are still trying to figure out who tagged him so they can finalize the protest.

so pretty interesting yesterday.

Provisional Results DN Worlds After Day 2

Pos Sail   Skipper   Points

1   US- 183   Struble, Matt   12,00  
2   US- 44   Sherry, Ron   14,00  
3   S- 81   Lindgren, Thomas   20,00  
4   P- 155   Zakrzewski, Lukasz   21,00  
5   P- 55   Zakrzewski, Tomasz   24,00  
6   S- 8   Lonegren, Fredrik   24,00  
7   G- 624   Bock, Andreas   30,00  
8   G- 107   Zeiger, Bernd   33,00  

Northwest Called ON for Lake Geneva

Via Paul Krueger: The Northwest Ice Yacht Regatta has been called on for February 22,23,24, 2008. Check the answering service at 608-838-3861 after 1:00 P.M. CST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 for the final confirmation.

G 107 Bernd Zeiger sent a couple shots from the Opening Ceremonies, on Lake Lipno, Czech Republic. We'll post more as they come in. 2008 Worlds Images

We had a great day of practice today in Lipno, Czech Republic.

We have black ice that is 15-20cm thick with small bumps. (way better than Pepin - JD) JD has 1000 kronner bills in his pocket and is having a great time. Everyones equipment made it here safe with a few delays and we are looking forward to a great event.

Qualifiers start tomorrow with 180 sailors racing. Check back for more updates.

-Mike Rehe (with some help from everyone else talking my ear.)

Western Regionals Hotline recording for Thursday, announced another postponement... it's Izzy's intent to stagger the Western and Central Regionals to allow people to attend both regattas.

The snow maps show an area from about Kanas City to about Springfield IL that's not snow covered... of course there aren't many known iceboaters to call or lakes for them to check in that part of the planet...

Maybe it's time to go make some Ice!

Link to WebCam (Kamera)

A shot from the surf shop - www.lipno-windsurfing.cz thanks guys, maybe we'll see some DN's sailing past...

IDNIYRA WORLD COMMODORE, Niklas Müller-Hartburg OE 221 writes on http://www.icesailing.org/

Dear friends,

as I wrote before we were driving all night long from Rostock to Lake Lipno to check ice conditions here.

When we arrived at 06:30. Temperature was -10°C

Iceconditions: hard ice about 15cm - 20cm thick, partly bumpy. (Some areas are thinner but that doesn't concern us)

So this is the FINAL DECISION:
LAKE LIPNO; CERNA V POSUMAVI (Village); CZECH REPUBLIC.

weather forecast:

Tomorrow I fly to Germany.

I hope they take all of my stuff.. In order of importance; Trophy from last year, 16 runners, runner plank, boom and sails, wires and tools, helmet, sailing clothes, a few clothes. Lets see.... With me that makes about 500 pounds! I hope the plane gets off the ground.

Looks like we could be sailing anywhere at this time.

JD
US 4691