Day 1: Gold Cup Championship Photos by Debbie Parker – DN North America
Great pics from day one of DN worlds- Great Racing at the pointy end of the fleet and everywhere else! Stay tuned to idniyra.org for details!
https://www.idniyra.org/2019/02/18/day-1-gold-cup-photos-debbie-parker/
Day One DN Gold Cup Lima OH
Reporting in absentia. Competitors are mulling about on the ice waiting for the start of the skippers meeting. raceGeneral procedures and of course safety will be discussed. Long Island sailors assisted in a the extraction of sailor and boat yesterday but the hazards are marked and should be no additional incidents.
The starting ceremony directly after the meeting and racing at 11.
Three races today bronze qualifier, silver qualifier and first gold race.
There will be some intense action in the first race for those looking to break into the silver qualifier. The first 12 racers advance to silver.
Same goes for the silver qualifier with the first 12 advancing to gold.
Looking at the competitors, some local, I would not be surprised to see a couple qualifying for gold out of the first bronze race.
Good luck to all the competitors. International, regional and of our own local favorites. Sail fast and bring home silver wherever home might be.
Check out provisional (unofficial) results here
Think ice
John
DN5023
P. S. Personally checked on Bantam (CT) and it is a definite no go till the snow cooks down.
DN Worlds Update
Hey Folks- been a hectic few days gettin here but greetings from Lima, Ohio where the DN world champs start in a few hours.
There is a good crowd here from several countries although there is some bad news for the Poles as several of their boats were stuck in Paris, France due to a shipping glitch and/or global IceBoating conspiracy, depending on who you ask.
I kid of course but this is a bummer for the Polish group. Good news is extra boats have been cobbled together from extra bits and pieces so at least they can sail “as tourist!” as one guy put it! They seem to be in good spirits in spite of the mishap.
Plenty of NE faces- NEIYA, Deep Creek, Ronkonkoma, Kewasa, and of course the Canadians from KYC and vicinity.
Ice looks ok on Indian Lake and so far there is a bit of breeze. Stay tuned for updates here and at https://www.idniyra.org/
Hope y’all are getting some good conditions out that way.
Think ICE! T US 5224
Rural Ohio
Steve Madden, Co-pilot extraordinaire describing the scrambled eggs at the hotel breakfast.
Bob Crinion In The News
Hey Folks- Some of you may know Bob Crinion of Halifax-an avid and enthusiastic winter sailor to say the least! Anyone who has spends ten minutes with Bob will come away with at least one great story, probably more.
Great to see him getting some ink- and not on a “wanted” poster.
Click the link and enjoy a moment of fame for our good friend up north!
Ice Threat
Great photo stolen from the front page of Sailing Anarchy….
Have to wonder where this is and will that sea wall survive?!?
And of course how’s the plate on the other side look…
Out in Madison, WI, there’s this guy named Dan Hearn….
Dan is a big figure in the Madison DN scene these days, an interesting cat to be sure! Learn a bit about him and the Madison, WI iceboating scene here:
February Runner Tracks Available
The February issue of Runner Tracks is available online or in print- all kinds of good articles and photos- Take a look and enjoy the read!
https://www.idniyra.org/2019/02/12/february-2019-runner-tracks/
DN GC/NA Champs Announcement
If you are planning on attending the DN Gold Cup and North Americans take a look at the latest bulletin below- also stay tuned to the IDNIYRA website for up-to-the minute details-
Looking forward to the event wherever it ends up taking place! Always an adventure…. Which is part of what makes this sport interesting!
https://www.idniyra.org/2019/02/13/2019-gold-cup-update-weds-13-february/
Stay tuned….
Mystic Seaport Ice Festival This Weekend
Hello All-
If there is no sailing this weekend be sure to head to Mystic Seaport and check out the Ice Festival-
All of the stuff on the schedule looks pretty cool and there is also a South Bay Scooter and a Stern-Steerer (the SLIPPER) set up along with great old photos and video of the Scooter in action.
Deep Creek Maryland In The News
Our Maryland correspondent (Ed Thieler, my dad) sends this along- Great vid of some sailing in Deep Creek and some good press- Well done to Ray Gauthier for making this happen!
The segments early in the program are cool (bald eagles, model planes) but of course they saved the best for last- see Ray and some sweet ice starting at about 17 minutes in.
Hope to sail there one of these days!
Sailing In New Jersey!
Looks like some folks got out on the Navesink!
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/middletown/articles/icebirds-spotted-on-the-navesink-watch-the-video-3
Interesting Ice Article….
Way back in the day….
https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2019/02/06/ice-sailing-ice-harvesting/
Sailing on a Frozen Chesapeake….
Meanwhile down in MD….
https://www.chesapeakebaymagazine.com/features/2019/2/1/sailing-on-a-frozen-chesapeake
Sailing on a Frozen Chesapeake
February 1, 2019
<img src=”https://neiya.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/858b0-iceboatmkeenebykbosin.jpg” alt=”Mike Keene, in sailing position. Photo by Kathy Bosin” />
Mike Keene, in sailing position. Photo by Kathy Bosin
By Pete Lesher
Most sailors lay their boats up for the winter and console themselves by reading sailing adventures when outside temperatures drop below freezing; a lucky few head south to the tropics. But when bitter cold persists and the Chesapeake Bay freezes, the “hard water sailors” emerge. Ice thick enough for winter sports doesn’t happen frequently on Bay waters, but when it does, the iceboats begin to appear.
On a chilly December 31, 1917, with a high temperature of 9 degrees, Talbot County sailor and boat builder C. Lowndes Johnson, recorded “We have been skating and iceboating all day … I have never known such ice as there is now on the [Miles] river and we are sailing everywhere, but have found a few small places which are not very strong, and these we go around.” Lowndes and his brother Graham constructed their 20-foot stern-steering iceboat in January 1904, but the winter of 1918 provided unequalled iceboating conditions.
Their neighbor’s iceboat provided the inspiration. Jacob G. Morris had relocated to the shores of the Chesapeake from farther north, where iceboats were more common. By February 16, 1904 it was “blowing a gale all day” and the brothers pitted their iceboat against Morris’s. “We tried her first with a single reef in the mainsail but could not keep the weather runner on the ice … She outsailed Capt. Morris’s although he was carrying it on her for all she was worth.”
<img src=”https://neiya.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/4de91-walmsleyiceboat9.jpg” alt=”Iceboats at Rock Hall in 1977. Photo by Austin Walmsley” />
Iceboats at Rock Hall in 1977. Photo by Austin Walmsley
Like the Johnson’s boat, earlier iceboats were homebuilt. Iceboater Vance Strausburg recalled one made from the former cross at a community church in the Middle River area in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Stern-steering iceboats continued to appear on Chesapeake creeks and coves, but a new type appeared in the 1930s that gradually replaced them—iceboats with a steering skate in the bow—particularly the
DN class, named for its sponsor, the Detroit News.
The winter of 1977 was the coldest in memory for the region, with overnight lows below freezing for 58 nights in a row. Ice closed the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal for the first time since its opening as a sea-level canal 50 years earlier. Barges delivering heating oil were frozen in. Oystermen wielded chain saws to cut holes in the ice directly over the oyster bars and worked from trucks instead of boats.
In January 1977, the DN North American Championship, followed by the Gold Cup World Championship, was to have been held in Red Bank, New Jersey, but snowfall there made the ice unusable. Veteran iceboat sailor Homer Sieder had moved to St. Michaels several years earlier and reported clear ice, so the competition moved south to the Miles River Yacht Club, the farthest south the championship has ever been held.
Sailors from the Midwest, New Jersey, New York, New England, Canada, Germany, Holland, and Poland arrived. Three local sailors scrambled to participate, purchasing or borrowing DN class ice boats: log canoe skippers Vance Strausburg and Jimmy Wilson, as well as St. Michaels dentist John Mautz.
Iceboating has unique perils, including rough ice and open water. Ice formed on brackish Chesapeake water is softer than that on freshwater lakes. The cold persisted, but by the weekend of February 5-6 pressure ridges had formed in the 8- to 10-inch-thick ice. Hitting the ridges spelled catastrophe for about ten of the 98 boats registered for the North Americans, especially at speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour attained in the 20 knot winds with gusts to 25. Capsizes not only damaged the boats, but catapulted sailors onto the ice, resulting in injuries. On the first weekend of sailing, iceboater Stan Nadler of New Jersey broke his nose when his boat fell into an open-water hole that had formed where the tide ran faster.
Mautz qualified for the finals in the North American Championship but didn’t finish the third race when a port tack sailor failed to give way and collided with him. He told Washington Post reporter Angus Phillips, “It all happened so fast” and Phillips noted that Mautz “still didn’t know who it was” at the end of the day.
The North American championship concluded on Monday, February 7, with Michigander John Schuch winning the five-race final series. The following day, the World Cup got under way, and Henry Bossett of Red Bank, NJ, took the honors.
The iceboating during the long, hard freeze of January and February 1977 had a lasting impact on the Chesapeake. The newly acquired iceboats have reappeared every icy winter that followed. In 2007, they sailed in Claiborne Cove off Eastern Bay, where the water is uniformly shallow with little current beneath,
“so it’s super safe, other than crashing and bruising,” according to local sailor Roger Pickall. “If the ice is talking to you, if it’s groaning, if it’s pinging, if it’s making noise, you’re on good, solid ice,” says Pickall. The Miles River is regarded as risky, because of the greater depth and current under the ice, which will open holes—often in the same places that caused problems in 1977. In February 2015, two iceboats went through these holes on the Miles River. While the sailors were rescued promptly, recovery of the iceboats had to wait until the following day.
Pickall says, “It’s quite a thrill, that’s for sure.” The boats go so fast, “you create your own wind. When you feel yourself slowing down, you just heat it up [steer closer to the wind]. You’re always sailing close-hauled.”
Pete Lesher is a log canoe sailor and chief curator at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels. He lives in Talbot County with his wife and two Bay-soaked children.
Meanwhile In Maine….
…Bill Bucholz gets some well-deserved accolades in the media. Click and read! Congrats Bill, remember all us little people now that you are big and famous.
Click here:
Maine’s only commercial ice-boat builder has a passion for his craft
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Polish Champs Done- And More Video!
Well done to Chris Berger who has apparently moved to Poland. A 7th place in that fleet is nothing to sneeze at!
Maybe he’ll get homesick and come back to Chicago someday.
Story and great video here!
https://www.idniyra.org/2019/02/04/2019-polish-championship-the-conclusion/
Thought Experiment….
This is wild- thanks to Joachim P. Roesler for sending it in- Does NOT have to do with ice but it DOES have to do with apparent wind sailing, which we all know something about…
Polish DN Champs Underway- Photos and Video
Check it out gang- Looks wet and wild over on the other side of the Pond….
https://www.idniyra.org/2019/02/02/day-1-dn-polish-championship-photos-by-gwidon-libera-2-2/
The 2019 DN Eastern’s Are Postponed
The 2019 Eastern’s are postponed until further notice.
Best, Chad Atkins
US 4487
IDNIYRA Eastern Rear Commodore
Last Weekend
Looks like the gang from NJ had a good day on Budd Lake last weekend. What’s in store for this weekend? If you have sailable ice let’s hear about it!
Stay tuned….
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DN Euro Champs Video
If all the photos of the DN European Champs got your motor running this video will knock your socks off. Click and enjoy!
Another One Bites The Dust
Jay Whitehair sent this shot of a DN sailor finding out exactly where the limit is on a mast…. Look closely at the boat on the left……
Kingston YC Aftermath!
The gang in Kingston, Ontario had a day of good sailing last weekend but then the call came that the water level in the lake was rising (the wind pushes the water around in the big lakes- a westerly wind makes the tide come in, so to speak) and big breeze was on the way.
Looks like a few people didn’t get the memo to get the boats off the ice and when the storm hit some boats got moved…. Glad the wind wasn’t blowing offshore!
Two lessons here:
1) When the locals say to move your boat be sure to listen!
2) No matter what the weather ALWAYS secure your boat with an ice-screw.
Same thing happened to me once- at the DN Worlds in 2003. I was a newbie, didn’t own a screw yet. A big squall rolled through overnight and when I showed up at the ice (late of course) Jack Ericson greeted me by saying “You have to get a screw- we pulled your boat out of the trees this morning!” Lesson learned!
Glad to report no big damage or injury- Hope to be back at it this weekend!
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- carnage 1
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- carnage 2
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- carnage 3
IDNIYRA Easterns and Beyond
All,
The 2019 IDNIYRA Easterns is scheduled for this weekend February 2-3. We are currently looking for venues from NJ to Maine, as always we have a full weather system moving through the entire region Tuesday and Wednesday so please let me know Wednesday pm if your area may have made it out in reasonable shape. I can be mobile for ice checking with a few other dedicated scouts Thursday morning for a possible call as late as Friday February 1st at 2pm.
Also the IDNIYRA Gold Cup and NAC is slated for February 17-23 hosted by the Central Region. We have a good base of Mountain Lakes and Eastern Race Committee and they are looking to take the pulse on any volunteers that would be willing to travel anywhere the event goes all the way to if it comes local in the East or Mountain Lakes (east of ohio/pa). If you haven’t been to one of these events and arn’t planning on racing this could be a very cool experience as about 100 competitors from all over North America and Europe are already entered.
Think Ice!
Best, Chad Atkins
US 4487
IDNIYRA Eastern Rear Commodore
Catkins4487@gmail.com
New England Ice Yacht Association 
