iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

Today's Forecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. South southwest wind around 10 mph....

4" + optically clear ice... and a lot of it.

On Thursday's drive south from Fergus Falls, every lake from Lake Christina to Lake Minnetonka is almost perfect...or better.

At least two groups plan to sail, (upper and lower mtka) The only bad decision you could make today is not to sail.

If you're sailing this weekend, check in, post a report; how many sailed, where, how was it. We will need options for next weekend.

4695 the icemaker

I just received a call from Poachee Beach let us all know that Rat's and Allen set up their boats in Cottagewood next to Harry Allen’s house. They sailed towards Excelsior where the ice is like a mirror.
Poachee Beach (Cottagewood USA) also reported main lake is still has open water out past Big Island towards the center of the lake with the water fowl inhabiting water.

I voter for Saturday racing in Excelsior / Tonka Bay instead of Spring Park Bay.

Poachahantas (Antique Roadshow)

US 4824 made an inspection this morning, report taken by phone.

The bay was completely frozen Monday Morning. He bored several holes all were 4"+ in thickness, clear ice.

Out in the main bay it's like glass.

Caution: this bay is unsailed, has a pressure ridge which customarily develops and has gotten people wet in the past.

Sailing beginning 1100 Saturday Dec 9. Primary Launch Site, Spring Park Public Landing. Spring Park Bay Launch Site Map

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJeEjWfbNOE

Shep
KA-1

I'm a journalist looking for someone from Minnesota who would like to talk about iceboating for a story I'm working on ... if you fit that description, please e-mail me smithkelsie@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Update Tuesday, Dec. 11:

From Iceboat.org (Madison, WI):

The Grand Slam Regatta has been postponed until Dec. 30-31st because of lack of conditions. Final confirmation will be on Thursday, December 28. Please mark your calendars. We have adjusted the race schedule to accommodate our out of town skippers. Saturday's racing will begin at 11:00am Sunday's racing will begin at 10:00am and will finish around 1:00pm. All fleets are welcome and the entry fee is only $10!

looking at uppper lake, spring park, set up at ramp on hwy 15 or at doctors moms house. dr. checking ice tonight, should be good. let the germans know to use caution or you can find a hole or open crack. main part of lower lake still open. tonka bay is frozen. tom meyer

this is a great idea we have employed for years on some of our smaaler venues Troopers Lodge,Illinois river oxbows such as meredosia lake where ice sheet is .5 mile wide,youve got it right,multiple laps similar to dirt track,fast,tight races w/ everyone bunched up on same tack for the most part.I also run similar coarses when i am practicing mark roundings w/a tuning partner such as mr brewha,or jr greeley. incidently,i have been skating troopers for a couple of days,hope to sail tommorrow or saturday!Central Illinois Yachts On The Ice reporting.

For almost a decade we've been musing about some alternative sailing tracks which allow sailing on smaller areas, expanding the season, fun to sail, reducing the potential for collisions, creating a course that might be easier to televise, more interesting to watch and fun to sail.

A couple experiments have been conducted which seem to be acceptable to the sailors. Based on a regatta on Elk Lake a couple years ago, JD, and 5214 suggest this combination as an experiment:

"Dirt Track" Sailing
- Windward / Leeward Course,
- Marks ~ 1/8 Mile apart (or ~200 yards)
- Six - Ten Boat Fleet
- All boats start on Port (reducing the number of port starboard crossings on the first beat)
- Ten Lap Course

Rumor has it that Lake Minnetonka froze the other night as one big beautiful sheet of ice. If the main lake is sailable, then we'll be sailing out of Allen/Pratt location in cottagewood. Cottagewood USA Launch Site

Other options could be
Wayzata Yacht Club

Spring Park Bay Landing

So has anybody been out to check the ice on area lakes.

Thanks,
Dave

Races 1-5 are now available on the Kattack web site www.kattack.com. If you already have the player, they should just show up at the top of the list. If you don't have the player, you can download it once you've registered on the web site - it's free(www.kattack.com).

We didn't have GPS units on all boats, only a few from each fleet. Maybe next event we can get more.

Top boat speed on Saturday went to Ron with a peak speed of 51.8 knots.

Hint: The player was designed to replay "softwater" sailboat races and replays the races at 10x clock speed. This makes the iceboat races go pretty quick. You can slow things down by stopping the races and single steping forward and backward using the buttons on the bottom of the screen or the spacebar and "GreaterThen" & "LessThen" keys.

        2006 The Great Western Challenge Regatta - December 2 - 3, 2006
                        Dead Lake, Buffalo Lake
                        Maine, Minnessota,  Buffalo, MN

                                   Gold fleet
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Pos    Sail#            Name          Race>    1    2    3    4  Points
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
      1   US   44         SHERRY,           RON     2    1    1    6   10.00
      2   US  379         HARPER,      JOHN (S)     4    9    3    3   19.00
      3   US 4824    CHRISTENSEN,          MARK     1    4   15    2   22.00
      4   US 4691         DENNIS,          JOHN     7   11    5    1   24.00
      5   US 4811     Chatterton,          Mark     3    2   11   10   26.00
      6    G  900 GROTHUES-SPORK,      MATTHIAS     6    5   13    7   31.00
      7   US 5144           REHE,   MICHAEL (J)     8    7    8    8   31.00
      8   US 1183        GOUGEON,       JAN (M)     5    3    9   16   33.00
      9   US 4975          EVANS,        ROBERT     9   17    4    5   35.00
     10   US 3283       WILLIAMS,   J.BRUCE (M)    10   15   12    4   41.00
     11   US   45         SHERRY,   WENDELL (M)    12    6   16    9   43.00
     12   US  445           CAVE,       BOB (S)    11   13    2   17   43.00
     13    G  737           BOHN,         JOERG   DNF    8    7   11   59.00
     14   US  602          MEYER,       TOM (S)    14   10   18   18   60.00
     15   US 4137     SMITH, JR.,       KEN (S)    13   16   20   14   63.00
     16   US 5214       MCDONAGH,           JIM    15   19   17   15   66.00
     17   US 5053           REIS,    GEORGE (S)   DNS   12   14   20   79.00
     18   US    3         GROGAN,       JIM (S)   DNS  DNS    6   12   84.00
     19   US 3271      JANKOWSKI,      MIKE (S)   DNS   14   19   19   85.00
     20   US 4602      Kickhafer,         David   DNS  DNS   10   13   89.00
     21   US 3433            Bob,       Cummins   DNS   18  DNS  DNS  117.00
     22T  US 3535           KENT,       JEFFREY   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     23T  US 4926       ORLEBEKE,         STEVE   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     24T  US 4915           COOK,    ROBERT (S)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     25T  US 4961      DAVENPORT,          JOHN   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     26T  US 4000        JOHNSON,     RANDY (S)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     27T   G  107         ZEIGER,         BERND   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     28T   G  551        SEEGERS, CHRISTIAN (S)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     29T  US 4266     BUCHBINDER,      BILL (S)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     30T  US 3662          SMITH,      GREG (S)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     31T  US 4695         KIEFER,      MARK (M)   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00
     32T   G   55        SEEGERS,       ANDREAS   DNS  DNS  DNS  DNS  132.00

All in, A RECORD 61 DNers launched the 2007 North American DN Season in Minnesota... and for the second time in event history, with a turn perhaps only iceboaters would understand...have risen before dawn, broken camp and moved 50 people and boats 180 miles south to better ice and forecast; all in less than 12 hours, half way thru the event.

Legends of Iceboating were abundant in both boat parks, and on the starting lines, 6 or so past Continental or World Champions, Standing tall among them 5 time former world champion Jan Gougeon from Bay City MI, and Jeff Kent, setting the driving record at 1750 miles one way! Leading in everything but the 4th race, Current World Champion, and long time supporter of the Great Western Challeng Regatta Ron Sherry,

Me and Tom & Tom were driving home from Fegus tonight.(Sat.) Stopped at Buffalo Lake on our way back tonight,at 10:30pm.From launch site. the ice is absolutley sexy. There is no snow or drifts. The ice is absolutley smooth black ice as far as we could see. The ice appears to be about 2-3" thick. It was dark we only walked out about 50 feet. the Temp. was 15 deg. a heat wave after a day at Dead Lake.
From what we could see this is going to be some awsome ice for sailing tomorrow. Further investigations should be made in the daylight.
For those of you who couldn't make it up North to Dead Lake, here's your chance to get out for some of the best looking ice there will be this season. Everyone from Dead Lake is coming down in the morning. Load up your boats kids it's is going to be a blast out there.