https://www.inkwellinspirations.com/2014/01/historic-winter-sports-ice-sailing.html

Food for thought if you are looking for some great sailing and a greater adventure! Trust me, I’ve gone on one of these trips… just amazing. And won’t break the bank either! Click and read:

https://www.idniyra.org/2019/10/13/dn-sailing-on-lake-baikal-in-march-2020/

Don’t forget our Annual Meeting and Swap Meet first Saturday of November. Please pay your dues and lunch online. And dig out your old gear and post for sale. People will appreciate the preview online!

The NEIYA Annual Meeting Swap Meet, and Luncheon is Saturday, November 2, 2019, in Hudson MA. Remember the new venue, same as last year. Parking lot activities generally begin around 10 am with lunch at noon. The full schedule of activities will be released in a couple weeks.

Hudson-Concord Elks Hall
99 Park Street, Hudson, MA 01749

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Steve Duhamel of NorthWind IceBoats sends in this slighty-less-than-accurate description of his latest barn-find…. Read and learn….

Barn / Shed Find DN

Late 30’s style DN Closely built to DN 60 Plans as published by the Detroit News Sunday addition projects to build at home work shop.

Great care of construction details were exercised in following the plan’s measurements.

Hardware is all Blacksmith formed.

Hemp rope rigging and sheet line was produced by the Cortege Park in Plymouth MA just before shutting down for good in 1939.

Sail material is Egyptian Cotton with corn starch sizing and black silk reinforcement.

Battens are slow growth Vietnamese bamboo foam core fiberglass.

Blades are forged from used horse shoes. Glue is suspected to be from that same horse that donated the blade material.

While walking in the woods one day, looking for a suitable mast. A bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and struck a nice straight wing shaped tree. Although burned black by the lightning strike, it proved to be just what the project needed. A branch from the same tree provided the boom.

Pulleys (from the sliding barn door from which the boat was pulled) were the only parts from the original design drawings.

Ready to be enjoyed again after a sympathetic cleaning.

Offers will be considered.

Steve’s description is amusing (who knew he had that sense of humor) and is even more so if you’ve ever seen this boat- It’s not a legal DN as it is made of carbon and God only knows what else. But is it ever sexy. If there is a piece of metal, it’s polished to a mirror finish. If there is a piece of carbon (ie the entire hull), it’s clear-coated to perfection. The sail is high aspect, high tech, and this thing is ready to blaze across the ice and elicit some serious drooling in the launch area.

I don’t know if he really wants to sell it or not but it can’t hurt to ask!

Contact Steve through http://www.northwindiceboats.com/ to take a look and for all of your iceboating needs!

Don’t forget our Annual Meeting and Swap Meet first Saturday of November. Please pay your dues and lunch online. And dig out your old gear and post for sale. People will appreciate the preview online!

The NEIYA Annual Meeting Swap Meet, and Luncheon is Saturday, November 2, 2019, in Hudson MA. Remember the new venue, same as last year. Parking lot activities generally begin around 10 am with lunch at noon. The full schedule of activities will be released in a couple weeks.

Hudson-Concord Elks Hall
99 Park Street, Hudson, MA 01749

Read the rest of this page »

Another Canadian raising hell in Europe is Kingston, Ontario DNer Peter Van Rossem. He’s been campaigning in his Shark 24 pretty hard and it’s been paying off-

A win at the North American champs was impressive enough but he followed that up with a second at the World Champs in Germany.

Well done Peter and crew! If he is going as fast this winter as he was last summer he will be a force to be reckoned with on the ice….

Check results here:
Shark NA Champs
https://www.shark24.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_North_American_Championship_Results.pdf?x45197

Shark World Champs
World Championship SHARK24 2019 in R�bel-M�ritz – powered by http://www.raceoffice.org

…But great to see! Dave Ross (DN KC 5202) is over is Lisbon, Portugal doing a little travelling. Of course he wandered out of the 80 degree heat and into the local Maritime Museum and what does he see?

A very nice model of an old stern steerer. Portugal is not exactly a mecca of iceboating activity but very cool to see that they included the model at the museum. One wonders what kind of reactions it gets every day. And who had the idea to feature it in the first place!

As Dave says, “The cult is very far flung.”

Thanks Dave!

Think Ice!

Dan Hearn still working furiously on the new Skeeter….
Click and catch up!

https://www.iceboat.org/2019/10/07/spaight-st-syndicate-bubble-baby-skeeter-got-back/

Scott Valentine and the gang on LI are getting into the apparent wind zone… Not a frozen lake but in a pinch a parking lot will do! Will be watching out for these guys when it gets cold…

Not long until the Swap Meet, early Ice and Western Challenge…. mark your calendars!

I believe there has been quite a bit of iceboating done on Michigan’s Gull Lake over the years, and this weekend there is a cool soft water event going on;

A regatta for Vintage Star Boats. Sounds like a great event, full of vintage boats and some of the true legends of the Star world, including my old college buddy Arnis Baltins crewing for Lars Grael. Pretty good bet there will be some hard-water sailors in the fleet….

The boats will be on display Friday for all of us aficionados to gawk at. And you never know who you will bump into on the dock!

Click the link and take a look…..

https://mailchi.mp/358a5ffa1c78/3rd-annual-vintage-gold-cup-regatta-on-gull-lake-michigan?e=f576e4cc07
Think ICE!!

…Take a look at these photos and you will have it. This is the secret lab of the one and only Bill Bucholz, hidden away in a secret location in the Maine Midcoast region (Camden).

It has everything an iceboater could ever want. Heat, ceiling high enough to step a mast indoors, benches, light, every tool you could ever need, a thousand clamps, cool pictures, and for style points a stained-glass window depicting an iceboat. Wow.

Look at the pictures and have a drool! And when you’re done get yourself into your own shop and start working on your gear- there’s a nip in the air….

Think ICE!