From Mike Bloom, having his patience tested in Baikal…. The sailing may be leaving a little to be desired so far but I’m sure the parties are making up for it!

Bottom line: no sailing today.

After being served lunch in the pits, the fleet was instructed to assemble a few miles down the lake on the other side of a huge rock island. Once there, a silver qualifier was attempted but black flagged due to an expired time limit on the 3rd Lap. Next it was the OptI fleet’s turn to be blacked flagged when nobody made it to the weather mark.

No gold fleet races were attempted. We can’t sail till the silver qualifier takes place.

Finally, at about 5 pm we were excused for the day. And yes, no sooner were we told to go home then the wind came up. Since the sun doesn’t set till nearly seven Chris Berger convinced Peter Hamrak, a Russian named Sergei and Mike Bloom to sail multiple hot laps back near the pits.

The ice on Baikal is less than ideal. I’d rate the ice a 6. The lake is full of snow drifts that are deep and hard. It takes some great steering and lot of luck to navigate the course. Hopefully, our evening session will serve us well tomorrow, when the wind is predicted to reappear.

It’s been another long day. Time for a shower and some shut eye.

Mike

Check it out gang, another masterpiece from Deb Whitehorse- This issue features an article by Kingston’s own Peter Van Rossem!

March 2020 Runner Tracks Now Online – DN North America

Bill Bucholz shares his thoughts on Great Pond, which delivered the goods in a big way yesterday!
“Great Pond is one of the three fabulous lakes in Maine that iceboaters cherish. All three have their times and attractions. Damariscotta has it’s intimate charm, Pushaw it’s great north south orientation, but Great Pond is just, well, great. The majesty of big Hoyt Island dividing the lake into two halves, and then the two deep ends beyond Oak Island south of Hoyt. When the plate is as flawless as it was today you just rack up the miles with a smile frozen to your face. Deep downwind gybes going on forever. Long upwind tacks with an occasional self-indulgent peel off into a power gybe just because you can offers an amazing sense of freedom. And this with well matched boats side by side the whole way.

The great photo of the day was missed due to a frozen phone, but it was of Gee Whizz, W-5, the red boat against a blue sky in a long, tall hike which, from the view from my cockpit, put his windward runner above the horizon, miles away at the top of the lake. The air was crystal clear and the colors vivid. Time stood still.

Perhaps twenty boats showed up, including a clutch of hot DN’ers training around the marks. The NEIYA is hosting the DN Worlds in the eastern region next season so if you’re not in training to get the gold then please consider helping out with the operations end. Stand by for details over the course of the off season.

Not that this is the start of the off season yet. There is still scads of ice up north, so tank up on the ridiculously cheap gas and come quarantine on the ice! We’re all good: we already wear masks and gloves!’

See below for photos and correction re location and launch!

Great Pond Belgrade Maine

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Jim Gagnon

Here are some photos taken this morning from the Great Pond launch site off RT 27, in Belgrade Maine.
As you can see in the second photo the condition of the ice which looked to be fairly consistent. Still lots of ice. See you tomorrow.

img 0926img 0928

This is just in from Bill B. in Maine. One of his scouts reported in and this is the summary "Great Pond looking good. Better surface than Pushaw last weekend. He is calling it a six. Four inches of ice over an inch of slush over still more ice. Overall thickness unknown. No pressures ridges observed through binoculars from shore. Launch is tight. We will sail it tomorrow."

I asked about any pictures and none were taken.

Great Pond is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States.

I know the forecast tonight is for very cold temps and the same for tomorrow night too. Wind looks good for both days.

Check Chickawaukie website for additional updates. https://iceboat.me/

Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club | Maine ice boat enthusiasts and friends The race was postponed because of wind: too much of a good thing. Four Whizz with DN storm sails managed to keep boat and body in one piece enough to get a couple of test laps, reset the marks that were blown down and find a quiet lunch lee. iceboat.me

More from Mike Bloom in Baikal- Sounds like he is waking up a little bit…..

“First day.-

Nice breeze when I got up.

Having traveled through 13 times zone my body is so confused from jet lag I don’t know what time it is. So today, getting to ice very early was easy.

A few folks came down to empty the shipping containers so we could all set up.

The amount of gear in the containers was impressive. 35 hulls, masts, planks, sails and runners take up a ton of shoreline. Here’s a picture when we were about 1/2 way done.

The best part was watching the sailors get to the ice. It looked like Christmas morning as the sailors all picked out their gear.

Opening ceremony was at 11. Then wind died.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Should be wind tomorrow!”

Minnesota DNer Mike Bloom checks in from the other side of the world in Baikal- He sounds a little worn out at the moment!

“All good here. Except I’m exhausted and sleep deprived. Jet lag is hitting me hard.
Arrived at Lake Baikal yesterday. All it took was an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam followed by a 4 hour flight to Moscow followed by an 8 Hour flight to Irkutsk followed by a 5 hour bus ride down a dirt road Lake Baikal.

Don’t want to say this place is in the middle of nowhere but the town is so small and so remote the locals haven’t even bothered to name it.

Lake Baikal it is literally half way around the world. There is a 12 hour time zone difference from Minnetonka to Baikal.

75 sailors are here. Upon arrival saw many familiar faces and meet many new ones. This place is so remote I’m not sure the locals have even heard of the coronavirus. Every Russian greets you with a big, full on, Russian Bear hug.

Today the fun begins. Must get boat out of shipping container. They containers were sere shipped via Semi from Germany via semi truck nearly a month ago. They arrived last week. They were brought down to the lake by Semi truck last night.

First order is to set up boat Opening ceremony at 11 then then it’s off to race course.

More later.

Mike Bloom”

Photo 1 is a DN on the roof of a car. With the plank on and the mast stepped. Something tells me this would be a bad idea anywhere but there!
Photo 2 The Road To Utopia
Photo 3 Looks like a lake ahead….
Photo 4 The Lake
Photo 5 A town on the way that Bloom claims is so small that no one has bothered to name it!

Hello All- I found these tags in the NEIYA regatta kit along with the starting blocks and number chips. Anyone have an idea of what they are and what they are for? Please email me at t_thieler@yahoo.com if you have any insights… Thanks, T

There are endless theories and discussions about runners- How long, what kind of steel, how much flat, 90 or 100 bevel, what should lead in and exhaust look like, how thick, and on and on….

There are still more endless discussions on how to get the perfect shape on them. I start by sending them to Duhamel and letting him work his magic…. He once wrote an essay about a bumper-mounted sharpening jig that would tune your runners up on the drive to the ice. You’d drive on different surfaces to shine it up to perfection- It was a source of great amusement to all! Happy to say he has an even better method in place at the shop.

Then there is the question of how to get the perfect surface- and what IS the perfect surface? Sharp edge or dull? Shiny and smooth as you can get them or leave a satin finish? What to use? Diamond stones? Blue or brown? Is sandpaper better? Which grits? What kind? And what kind of fluid? I’ve used everything from the proper Boride stuff to blue windshield wiper fluid (I’m convinced it’s the same stuff, just re-labled) to soapy water to Windex, WD-40 and even coffee.

Everyone has their own secret sauce as it were, and here we see world-class Polish sailor Robert Graczyk revealing his special formula…. I reckon if you speak Polish you’ll get a lot out of this but even if you don’t you’ll learn something!

Click and learn….

https://www.facebook.com/bojery/videos/vb.128091410578775/457466190974627/?type=2&theater

We all love how bendy rigs work on an iceboat, and the photos we all love usually have the boat loaded up and the mast popped way out…. Such a cool look!

Take a look at this photo collection and see some serious mast torture going on…. As Jeff Kent says it looks like a few people “voided the warranty” that day!

Click and take a look….

Bend It Like…a DN Mast – DN North America

James “T” Thieler

12 Channing St.

Newport, RI 02840

401 258 6230

t_thieler

There is a boat shop in Bristol RI called East Passage Boatwrights http://www.epbws.com/ that restores classic yachts and builds new ones out of wood.

The owner/proprietor is an interesting guy named Carter Richardson- When not making old boats seaworthy and beautiful again he does a podcast that covers all things sailing and yachting….

I was flattered that he asked me to sit down and be interviewed about ice boating and as I hate to miss a chance to pimp the sport (or talk with a captive audience) I gladly agreed. It was a lot of fun and hopefully entertaining for the listener!

For those of you who haven’t heard me go on and on enough about iceboating yet have a listen here:

https://aroundthebuoy.com/ep-41-hard-water-sailing/ The iceboat talk begins at about four minutes in. And trust me, it’s riveting!

Be sure to check out the other episodes as well- all interesting and informative!

Happy listening! Think ICE

John Bushy is a Minnesota DN sailor who, like most Iceboaters, has other unique interests in the off season…

One of his is making maple syrup! He says they made 15 gallons in a day last week. They just ordered 1000 bottles…. they must be on a roll!

He works with his sons Zane and Sam. Here they are keeping an eye on things

And here is the works- or whatever the proper name is…. John says they throw in “an armful of wood every three-four minutes!”

If you’re lucky he will fill one of these for you- I recommend it highly!