The Rodent Brings Us Luck

Punxsutawney Phil may be calling for six more weeks of winter, but based on what we sailed this weekend and the solid, thick ice holding beneith the snow on our larger lakes, we appear to have considerably more opportunity than the shadow seeing rodent suggests.

Conversations and conjecture ran high on last Thursday’s call. We all acknowledged that many of our colder lakes had too much snow, so attention shifted to smaller waters that may have frozen after with the recent cold snap and missed the snow. Another possibility was snow that had settled, wetted out, and refrozen into white ice. The third option were the brackish coastal bays and estuaries, Red Bank and Oceanport delivered in New Jersey, with Orient Point and other Long Island locations also seeing good sailing.

The prize of the weekend, miles and miles of smooth black ice. Members of the Chickawaukieice boat Club (iceboat.me) have been patiently watching Sebago for a while and the past several days were doing what ever was in their earthly or otherwise powers to ward off a fresh batch of snow. Their patience and many others were rewarded this Sunday with what was described as epic black ice. I will leave further elaboration to those that make it up to Sebabo on Sunday and those that are there as I pen this post.

My choices for Saturday were pretty much between Long Island and the Jersey Shore. Since I had to be Nassau County Saturday morning traveling out to the end of the North Fork was an easy choice. There were a good twenty or so boats on the ice. Some DNs, J14s and smaller skeeters as well as a number of Lockley Skimmers and one infamous South Bay Scooter. The bays of Long Island are there home and most every ice boater I know has some odd attraction to a craft that doesn’t have active steering capabilities. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t come in all that strong so there was more catching up with Long Island friends then sailing but that’s iceboating sometimes.

The NEIYA DN North American Regatta contingent are all safe back east and ready do for the next regatta. Congratulations to T on winning the newly minted national Championship and very strong showing in the NAs with a fifth a mere seven points out of first. Jeff Roseberry finished with a 10th place in the NA Gold Fleet. In the NA Silvers Paul Chamberland took a third place. Eben Whitcomb clawed his way to 12th after sitting out race 2 and 3 with some boat damage and taking a fourth in the Nationals. In Bronze Bob Haag pulled off a tenth place with consistent finishes throughout the regatta. Stay tuned we may get some first hand accounts from those who competed on Green Lake. NA Results / Nationals Results

Looking ahead we have a growing number of opportunities across the region. We are running right into a feast from our state of white famine just a week or so ago. To name a few Sebago, NJ shore, Long Pond in Harwich MA, Some of the bays on eastern Long Island including a high likelihood of sailing the Great South Bay a prize notch in any iceboaters belt. Also in the line up is Lake Champlain again and the prospect of Hudson ice.

Plenty of activities await us including some vast cruising and we will be looking to get the Don “Doc” Fellows race completed soon. The Doc Fellows is the NEIYA’s longest running regatta originating in 1975. Keep your eyes open and report in any findings you have. Did you drive by a body of water that needs further checking? Let us know.

Think Ice and encourage the winds to scrub our ice clean,

John
DN5023
John@neiya.org