Here we see Jeff Kent working out the shoulder and back muscles required to deal with main sheet loads while also developing the keen eye/hand coordination required to sail (and build) the best DNs out there.

And yes, that mast is really, really RED!

James “T” Thieler

Things are brewing out on the Cape…. Tom Olsen, Rick Bishop and Neil Fowler had a little boat prep session a week or so ago- here they are getting a few tips from RI DN builder/tuner/racer Chad Atkins- Looking forward to seeing these guys ripping it up this winter! T

James “T” Thieler12 Channing St.
Newport, RI. 02840

401 258 6230
t_thieler

Hello All-

Just a heads-up that the fall issue of RUNNER TRACKS (the magazine of the IDNIYRA) is online at http://runnertracks.org/

This issue is packed with all kinds of cool stuff- rank lists, regatta dates, suppliers, photos, articles, and a BRILLIANT story on how to take a DN to Europe and compete over there written by yours truly.

Don’t miss it! Read it online for free or order a printed copy for a few bucks- Great either way!

Chilly last night… Think Ice! T

Here we see Canadian DN sailor Colin Duncan ripping up the lake near Kingston, Ontario in a vintage Flying Dutchman. He reports that is was an awesome day and the kid in the front of the boat is keen to get into an iceboat this winter- Keep your eyes open!

Looking forward to seeing that body of water when it freezes over- soon!

T US 5224

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From NJ, Jim Hadley reports that fighting and boating a 600 pound mako shark for 4.5 hours provides a good workout! The DN main sheet will be child’s play compared to reeling this beast in.

The place was Hudson Canyon off NJ, the bait is rumored to have been a stool pigeon (this is Jersey folks- it’s how they roll….)

Well done Jim!

James “T” Thieler12 Channing St.
Newport, RI. 02840

401 258 6230
t_thieler

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You may recall Doug Raymond posting some good results last spring in the DN New England and Eastern champs.

Not one to rest on his laurels he has been training hard this summer up in Maine- Eben Whitcomb went on a little spy mission up to Belfast Harbor, ME and caught a few photos of him soft-water cross-training on his Drascomb longboat…. Have to keep tabs on these secretive Maine types-

Looks a little like Sir Ernest Shackleton sailing the JAMES CAIRD…. if you use your imagination!

Looks like a good day on the water- Looking forward to seeing Doug and the rest of the gang when the days get short and the temps drop!

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Hello All!

The tall ship L’HERMIONE went up to Castine, ME last summer- She is quite a sight and our own Don Stearns was able to check her out up close and personal- and he shares his thoughts with us:

“When this rig rolled in to Castine last month I had a first hand seat and a few observations.
1- These guys were living history.
2- They knew how to dress.
3- They had great rigging.
4- They were hands-on when it came to sails.
5- They had a grand flag.

In short, they had one more item than the traditional iceboater.”

Thanks Don! Think Ice!!

Tim Woodhouse and Ain Vild

Tim Woodhouse

The iceboating community sends our condolences to the family of Tim Woodhouse who passed away Monday, August 31 after a long illness. He was highly regarded and had an impressive regatta record.

Tim won the DN Worlds in 1974 in Zergrze, Poland, was third in 1975 in Saginaw, Michigan, and 4th in 1981 in Hamilton Bay, Ontario. He won the DN North American championship in 1970 (He was 16 years old at the time!!) on Lake St. Clair in Michigan, 1973 in Sodus Bay, New York, 1974 in Hamilton Harbor, Canada, and placed 3rd in 1977. He was the highest scoring junior in the DN North Americans in 1969, 1970, and 1971.

He was also a highly accomplished soft water sailor in all kinds of boats, and an owner of Hood Sails.

For more reflections on the man see Ron Sherry’s tribute on his website, http://www.iceboatracing.com/

And another at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2015/09/03/eight-bells-tim-woodhouse/

Fair Winds And Black Ice, Woody!

Hello All-

Big news from up north!! This just in from Joe Meade up in NY: Sounds like a very cool event!!

The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY is hosting local iceboats on display from August 25th through September 20th. If you are in the Finger Lakes area stop by the Curtiss museum – it is a must-see attraction.

Glenn Curtiss is considered the “Father of Aviation”. He started out building bicycles and then moved on to motorcycles in the early 20th century. He held the land speed record on a V8 motorcycle on Ormond Beach in Florida at 136 MPH for 11 years in starting in 1907. He was the first to publicly build and fly an airplane in 1908 from a field here in Hammondsport. Before that he flew planes off of the very same ice we sail on Keuka Lake. The Curtiss Museum has a huge collection of motorcycles, airplanes, and flying boats.

Pictured in with the iceboats below is the “America” flying boat which was built in the museums active restoration shop and flown from Keuka Lake in 2007.

Over 5,000 people will pass through the Museum in September and so far the display has been well received. The top two questions are – “How fast do they go?” and “Where do I go to ride one?”.

Info here:

www.glennhcurtissmuseum.org

Upfront apologies employing the oldest trick in the advertising/PR/communication game. My old ad copy instructor would have failed me for using a dog picture. Cute babies and dogs will capture most everyone’s attention and in our case a “black ice” is even more effective. We are almost through the dog days of August and time to THINK ICE once again. We are only a few months away.

Now that I have your attention, there are a few things I need to share.

1) Classified Section https://neiya.org/classifieds/
I have purged all the old classified ads for the upcoming season. If you had something posted and it’s still available give me a shout john@neiya.org. I may be able to resurrect what you had or better yet just submit a new one.

Ad posting reminders

• Post and view ads at https://neiya.org/classifieds/
• All ads MUST have a way to contact you either email or phone. This limits the number of nuisance posts and reduces clutter in this section.
• Include pricing and location info.
• Want a picture send directly to me at john@neiya.org.
• If your item sells please let me know via email so it can be removed.
• Don’t forget, all ads will appear after approval. If you don’t see it right away give it a little time.

2) Annual swap and lunch date to be announced in the next week or so. Other off ice racing and cruising events will follow shortly there after.

3) Still need some website administrative help. You don’t have to know anything . The job comes with instruction and a help line (me).

4) Always seeking input and suggestions from seasoned sailors and newbies alike. Just reach out or post a comment below. I know this is not a shy crowd so speak up.

Thinking of ICE to play on,

John Stanton
NEIYA Vice Commodore
DN5023

P.S. For those who only come to look at the pictures, you know who you are. There’s more!

Hope everyone enjoyed (or at least remembers) Part One of this little missive. As I was halfway through writing it I recalled another “knots-per-dollar” story that had to do with iceboats and yachts and, while seemingly innocuous at the time, ended with me getting fired from a perfectly good job.

This one was a life-changer.

A few years back (around the turn of the Millennium if you must know) I was working as a first mate / deckie on a big carbon maxi boat. 80 feet long, lightweight, former race yacht turned daysailer. She went pretty well to say the least. It was a cool job but we never raced and I found myself increasingly bored with the same ol’ same old. Iceboating had reared it’s ugly head the previous winter and I was hooked — and had a bit of an attitude I guess…. Anything less than 45kts or so wasn’t fast enough to impress me anymore.

The boat’s owner was really proud that he had paid for the boat by selling a vintage Ferrari to a certain (recently retired) late night talk show host. The sale price of the car was the same as the purchase price of the boat. He liked to mention this- often. I used to kid him that he’d been ripped off as the Ferrari was faster than the boat. He would kid me back by saying not as many people could sleep in a Ferrari and it didn’t even have a galley.

All in good fun of course.

So there we were one summer day, beam reaching down Buzzard’s Bay toward Newport, RI in about 15 knots of breeze. Boat making an easy 10-12 knots. Pretty darn idyllic.

I was chilling out in my usual spot by the running backstay grinder pedestal, watching the scenery go by. I was still jazzed about a bunch of whales we’d seen in Cape Cod Bay the previous day and looking forward to seeing friends in Newport. But mainly I was wishing winter would hurry up and arrive so I could rig my ultra-cool, new-to-me 1962 DN (US 2172) and get on the ice for my second winter season.

I was already hooked in a bad way.

The Boss was steering, happy as could be when we surged to about 13 knots on a puff and he mused aloud that he was probably getting the best knots-per-dollar ratio of anyone out on the water. I won’t say what he paid for the boat but his Kts/$ ratio was hovering at about $70-$80K at that moment.

What can I say? Bored and feeling a little cocky I pointed out that “Hell, the iceboat I bought last year goes fifty or sixty maybe and I paid just shy of $700 for it! Wanna do the math on that one?” I must have gone on for another sentence or two, just for the hell of it but I do recall the Captain looking at me out of the navigator’s hatch, bugging his eyes out and making throat-cutting gestures telling me to zip my lip. I guess he realized that the boss was getting a little annoyed…

Did this shut me up? Shockingly, no — I just kept babbling about it. Finally, I got the hint and let it go.

But about a minute later (right on cue!) we were passed by a couple on an orange Hobie 18. What they were doing out in the middle of Buzzard’s Bay is beyond me but there they were — not even trapezing, just sitting on the hiking racks, possibly drinking beers, waving and having a great time as they smoked by.

Now, I grew up sailing a Hobie 16 and the sight of this couple on the Hobie set me off all over again; speculating at length about the cost and speed ratios of the Hobie 18 mixed in with a few comments about the male/female ratio on that boat versus ours. (All guys on our boat. Bummer.) Oh, I was on a roll alright….

Once again, the captain is making a face that says “Dude, what are you thinking, the guy is annoyed enough!” And once again, I just had to keep going, wondering aloud if they were going double our speed or only 30% or so faster, noting that they weren’t even pushing, that they would be in the bar and/or at dinner before we would, that there are things besides sailing that are also fun to do on a Hobie trampoline…. You get the idea. Basically, I was being an ass.

That trip and season finished up without incident but the writing was on the wall. I was (very rightfully!) let go at the end of that season for a list of things which of course included an attitude problem (which was worse than they thought) and a tendency to not work much during the winter when the boat was in the shed and the lakes were frozen. I was already skipping work to go iceboating. Writing. Wall.

So there I was, the day I got canned, in the middle of my “retirement party.” By which I mean that my awesome neighbor Jules and this guy Tony I worked with were over and we were blasted drunk by about 10:45AM. Seemed like a reasonable course of action at the time.

Have to back track a little here: A day or so before all of this I had emailed Lloyd Roberts (one of the very first emails I’d ever sent, by the way) looking for guidance on how to make a new plank — I’d broken my first one the year before and needed to replace it. I’d met Lloyd on the ice once and had read “Think Ice” but didn’t know him that well. He called in the middle of the festivities and in my condition (blotto) I think I was a little short with him —I didn’t realize who it was. (I think anyway. You’d have to ask Jules.)

As the fog lifted the next day I had a hazy recollection of talking with him and felt terrible that I had snubbed him. So I emailed him, explained what had been going on the day he called, and performed a full mea culpa. Tacked on a plea for forgiveness and begged once again for help with a new plank.

Shameless then as now!

His response confirmed my hunch that he might be one of the coolest people I’d ever met. I recall it verbatim to this day. He wrote:

“T — Don’t sweat the job thing — the happiest, sailing-est iceboaters are the ones who don’t put too much emphasis on things like work. Call me when you’re ready and I’ll tell you how to make a new plank. THINK ICE! Lloyd” Thanks Lloyd!

I took his advice to heart, built a new plank (Still have it!) and have been having a blast sailing iceboats ever since. Even if it’s meant a few lean winters over the years….

And by the way, my knots per dollar ratio is still way better than that carbon maxi boat’s….

THINK ICE! T. US 5224