iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

The ice was so sweet today. I had some great rips until a spin out ended my day.The first thing I noticed was the mast slowly going down. Then I looked to the side and the plank was gone! I was about two miles away from my launch spot. I lashed the broken piece of the plank to the remaining plank with the mainsheet so I could push it home. Then Andy and Rats came by and we were able to fashion a tow by putting my front runner on Andy's plank and I straddled the bow of my boat and held onto the side stay of his. Pretty slick and it saved a long walk home.

Cool Story, Good Pics.

On Line Copy: On Line Copy:

I followed the link but had to search "iceboat" to find the story

4695

White Bear has near perfect ice conditions. We had something like 25 Nites, a handful of DNs and a few other craft out there today. Winds were only 6 - 11 mph or so, but some nice rides anyway.

Forecast for Sunday is similar. Best breeze may be early morning.

Dr. Lee-vil
Nite 512

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.