Annual Meeting and Swap Meet Saturday October 27th
DATE: Saturday October 27th, 2012.
PLACE: NOTE plan ahead for new venue. Knights of Columbus Hall, 17 Willow Street, Westborough, MA 01581
TIME: Swap Meet 9:00 am with Luncheon at 11:30 and Annual Meeting to follow as usual
COST: Luncheon $25 / Annual dues $30
Schedule: The swap meet starts at 9 :00 am with lunch and meeting starting at 11:30 sharp. Most of us have too much ice boat stuff. Look through your garage and basement, find ice boat gear you don’t need and bring it along. Remember your old gear is something new to someone else and helps to get more people on the ice.
Get to the swap meet early. Lunch and meeting will start promptly at 11:30 as there is lots to discuss this year. More on that from our Commodore to follow very shortly.
Help Solve an Ice Boat Mystery
Mystery Ship: Please Help Us Solve the Riddle of this Unusual Metal Iceboat
The NEIYA has been asked to help solve a mystery involving the type, age, provenance, usage and ownership of an aircraft fuselage-style metal-skinned iceboat found in the basement of a bank building in Bridgeport, CT in 1990. The bank staff had no knowledge of the boat or how it came to be located in the basement. The boat is part of the non-public small boat research collection of the Mystic Seaport, located in the Rossi Mill building across the street from the north entrance to the Seaport. The collection will be viewable during the Wooden Boat Show June 29 to July 1 and is available for private viewing at other times. The collection includes two Great South Bay Scooters and two other iceboats in addition to the Mystery Ship.
The metal boat in question is 18’ 3” long, 4’ 4” wide and is made of heavy timber strakes supporting a wood frame sheathed in tin in the rear and fabric-covered aluminum in the front. It appears to be a stern steerer. In one of the pictures, a possible (double) runner can be seen. The purpose of the large steel ‘A frame’ atop the bow is unknown, but is presumably related to the rigging. The plank is an aluminum strut with a foil shape. There are four additional metal struts from 8’ to 13’ long. Note that in the pictures, the bottom of the boat is unsheathed. No sails were found with the boat. An examiner in 1995 noted that the construction and materials used suggested that the builder might have had experience with aircraft and suggested a build date in the 1920s or 1930s. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has been located near Bridgeport since 1929.
A major effort was made by the Seaport in the mid 1990s to learn more about this iceboat, with no luck. Hopefully the collective knowledge base represented by the NEIYA membership will produce a happy outcome. Please send a link to this article to your friends in other iceboat clubs. Reply to me with any questions or suggestions and I will summarize the responses at a later date.
Peter N. H. Burrow
NEIYA Treasurer
Please drop me a note below if you have any information or click to leave a comment.
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Updates from the Officers:
Yesterday, Black ice was mailed to all current members of NEIYA. Ed did a great job of editing the newsletter, and the printing, binding and mailing were done where I work at Marketing Solutions.
This was a weird year for iceboating, both in the USA and in Europe. The weather was considerably warmer then in years past and I don’t think there was any safe iceboating in CT,RI or MA.
On the racing front, we successfully held the Doc Fellows and New England’s, as well as the Eastern’s. Thanks to Jim “T” Theiler and Eben Whitcomb for that. Unfortunately we did not get an official cruising event completed You can thank mother nature for that one.
We completed the NEIYA Banners, they will be on display at the next Meeting. Thank Peter B for spearheading that one.
There are Burgees for sale, See Eben Whitcomb if you want one. You can find his contact info in this months Black Ice.
We have also written a new NEIYA iceboating handout. There will be copies available at the fall meeting to hand out to people that are interested in iceboating. Ed A did the layout for this.
As many of you know, at the last NEIYA meeting, We formed a committee to review the NEIYA bylaws. This was done because we have not updated the bylaws since they were originally written in the 1970’s, and we are having a hard time conducting business in strict accordance with the bylaw changes. The committee is actively reviewing them and suggesting changes. The next step is for the NEIYA governing committee to review these changes and offer suggestions. It is anticipated that revised bylaws will be brought to a vote at the next meeting in the fall of 2012
In addition to the bylaw review, The treasurer has filed the paperwork for federal 403B nonprofit status which we really need for legitimate tax purposes. This should be in place by the fall meeting.
We have also changed the location of the annual fall meeting. The previous location has proved to be too costly and would have required us to raise the cost of the event again, which the officers did not feel was appropriate in these difficult times. There will be more info coming on the location change this summer.
Sail Fast,
Eric Anderson
Commodore NEIYA
That’s all folks… and NEIYA Calendar for rest of year
Greetings all,
The proverbial fat lady has sung her song and we all know that that means a long season of warm, very wet and very soft water. Last known sailing was last week on Sunapee in NH and Damariscotta Lake in Jefferson, ME where the Maine DN State Championship was successfully held as well as some fine spring sailing.
To help through the warmer months I ordered Bill Converse’s NEIYA calender. It just arrived and wanted to tell everyone that it is once again a home run!
It runs from February 2012 thru January 2013 and is 17 inches by 11 inches. Tons of great photos taken mostly last season in and around New England as well as a few from last years World Champs in Illinois.
Cost is $25 with a portion going to the NEIYA.
Click for larger image view:
To order call Bill at 508-273-3224 or fill in info below and he will get back to you. Do it today!
Your message has been sent
Think Ice!
James “T” Thieler
An Ice Mia Copa
Mia Copa Mia Copa Mia Copa
Yours truly pulled played the funeral march too soon. My disappointment with the season got the better of me.
Good sailing continues on both ends of Lake Sunapee in NH as well as the previously reported Damariscotta Lake in Maine. Call the hotline (508) 481-1011 and get on the road.
Keep thinking ice and keep the fat lady at bay. There is more sailing somewhere.
John
DN5023
Sorry Web Guy
P.S. I’m on the road to Main in six hours.
New England Ice Yacht Association 