I’ve overstood the windward mark by a few boatlengths, and as I bear away, the windward runner blade lifts a foot or so off the ice, then slams down hard. Still, the little DN iceboat slings me downwind like a proverbial bat out of hell. I’ve rounded third of 11 in my debut iceboat race, and I’m feeling pretty cocky. Until one boat passes me to windward as if I’m standing still. Then, another boat zooms past me to leeward. By the end of the leg, I’m dead last. Clearly, I have a lot to learn about how to sail an iceboat, especially downwind.

As a Midwest teen, I caught the sailing bug early and spent most of my spare time racing dinghies and crewing on any racing boat that would have me. Going fast was always the goal, and I vividly remember crewing on a 28-foot E Scow and planing for a mile or more on a two-sail reach. This was, to date, the fastest sailboat ride of my life. It seemed as though we were sailing as fast as the wind, and I began to wonder if breaking the wind barrier under sail was possible.

A little research back then revealed that, at one point, iceboats were the fastest man-made inventions on Earth. Large stern-steering iceboats on the Hudson River regularly reached speeds approaching 100 mph as early as the 1880s. The secret to an iceboat’s speed is fairly simple: Runners on smooth ice have very low drag compared with a conventional sailboat hull. Runner blade resistance is almost negligible at full glide, and almost any well-designed rig will allow the craft to break the wind barrier. As an iceboat accelerates, its apparent wind shifts forward and the acceleration is addictively breathtaking. 

Getting hooked on the hard stuff

Over the centuries, iceboat designs have evolved. Most Hudson River iceboats had a wide runner plank forward, a rear oval-shaped seating platform, and a tiller-controlled steering runner aft. Most were sloop-rigged, but some had huge lateen sails. These designs worked well enough, but the stern-steerer rig had inherent control problems when the runner plank lifted, resulting in spinouts and capsizes—not fun when sailing at highway speeds.

Today, almost all iceboats are cat-rigged bow steerers with the runner plank aft. The DN is the largest one-design iceboat class in the world, but there are several other successful one-designs, including the Arrow, Nite and Renegade, to name a few. There are also development classes and hundreds of home-built designs. The current speed record is reputed to be 143 mph, set on Lake Winnebago, in Wisconsin, way back in 1938. In a high-tech boat with perfect ice and wind conditions, 200 mph is not out of the question.

Until my late teens, I had never seen an iceboat, but that all changed in 1963 when I was a freshman at Denison University near Columbus, Ohio. In the fall of that year, I had crewed on Lightnings at the Buckeye Lake YC not far from the Denison campus. That winter was particularly cold, with weeks of subzero temperatures. Thick, snow-free ice formed on all the area lakes, ponds and rivers.

One day in February, I borrowed a car and drove to Buckeye Lake, where I witnessed a vintage gaff-rigged iceboat tacking its way toward the docks. The wind was in the upper teens, and the ice was Zamboni smooth. Even hard on the wind, the boat was moving at an impressive speed. The rumble of the cast iron runner blades carving their way across the frozen surface was all I could hear until the boat approached, suddenly spun head-to-wind, and stopped yards from where I was standing.

The skipper, an older gentleman with a big smile on his face, beckoned me, and asked, “You want a ride?”

Apparently, his crew had failed to show, so he’d ventured out solo, albeit without using the jib. He needed a mainsheet trimmer. And I needed a thrill. So, I shoved him off, jumped in, and we rumbled off onto a broad reach. As our speed increased, the mainsail luffed, and following the skipper’s orders, I trimmed the sheet in hard. We accelerated to a speed I’d never experienced under sail. My stomach was telling me that we must be sailing down an incline, even though my brain knew that the ice was perfectly flat. It was an odd sensation. The skipper did some calculations in his head and estimated that we were doing upwards of 60 mph. I took his word for it, but it felt so much faster. We bombed around the lake for about 30 minutes before he dropped me off where he had picked me up, then sailed away. I never got his name, but I will never forget the surreal experience.

Like riding a bike—on ice

It was almost 20 years before I got to sail an iceboat again. That time, I was living in upstate New York, where DN racing was a popular diversion for soft-water sailors waiting out the long winters. One of these icemen was Bill Sill, from Sodus Bay, New York, a large bay just off the south shore of Lake Ontario, east of Rochester. Sill was a gifted dinghy racer but also built boats, including DNs at his father’s marina. We became friends on the summer dinghy racing circuit, and he was always talking about the joys (and frustrations) of iceboat racing.

One Friday night in early spring, he called to tell me that the bay has smooth ice. He had an extra boat and invited me up to race the following morning. At 6:00 a.m., I was in my VW Rabbit heading to Sodus, about 2 hours away. 

He was right. The conditions were near perfect. The ice was about a foot thick and as smooth as nature can make it. It was sunny and the wind was in the midteens. I was dressed in downhill-skiing clothing, tinted ski goggles and a full-length international-orange jumpsuit (to make it easier for the first responders to find my body).

Bill threw me a motorcycle helmet that loosely fit and explained that the first race would start in five minutes. He gave me a 60-second safety briefing, including the fact that in iceboat racing, a windward boat has right-of-way over a leeward boat. I reminded him that I’d never skippered an iceboat before and maybe I should spend a few hours practicing before entering a race.

He dismissed that notion, saying that practice would be “boring.” Racing, he said, will be a better way to learn. Five minutes later, we were on the starting line. Six of the 11 boats were angled on starboard tack and the other group on port. Somebody counted down aloud: “Five, four, three, two, one—GO!” and we were off.

There was a lingering deep freeze that produced fine ice conditions.  I didn’t own an iceboat at the time, so I committed to building one in one night.

Sailing a DN upwind is somewhat similar to soft water sailing, but a lot faster. At that moment, I was feeling somewhere between exhilarated and terrified. By dumb luck, I caught a big lift going into the first mark (a bright red traffic cone) and rounded in third place close to the leaders. I knew that I would have to tack downwind because going straight was simply not an option, but I also assumed that the sail needed to be eased a little sailing on a broad reach. Not so.

Within a few minutes, the entire fleet passed me on the way to the first jibe. Knowing what angle to sail, optimal sail trim, and when to jibe is a very seat-of-the-pants skill learned over time and many races, and changes constantly based on wind velocity, ice conditions, and tactical considerations. I was utterly lacking in those skills. I improved as the day wore on but still finished last in every heat, and yet, it was one of the best racing days of my life and certainly the most exciting.

To the ice by whatever means necessary

Iceboating is a true addiction, and there is something unexplainable that happens to hardwater fanatics whenever perfection presents itself. Drop everything, reschedule meetings, cancel plans. I can attest to this: One week in January long ago while living on Cazenovia Lake near Syracuse, New York, there was a lingering deep freeze that produced fine ice conditions.  I didn’t own an iceboat at the time, so I committed to building one in one night.

Using a pair of long downhill skis I’d rescued from the local landfill, I assembled a rudimentary stand-up iceboat out of scrap plywood, two-by-fours and an old Windsurfer rig and two sails. I bolted the skis to the two-by-four frame, angled so only the inside edge touched the ice. I then installed foot straps made out of rope and short lengths of garden hose looped through holes drilled through the plywood deck. It was done by midnight and ready to test.

The following day, the ice was perfect, and the wind was 10 to 15 knots. I donned a bicycle helmet, ski goggles and ice hockey pads, and rigged the larger of the two sails. My kids looked on, with one of them dubbing the boat “The Rails of Death” and predicting my imminent demise. Undeterred, I hopped on, pulled in the sail, and took off at an alarming rate of speed. Seconds into the ride, a puff hit, the sail got overpowered, and in a blink, I was thrown into a 720-degree flat spin, me still dangling in the foot loops. To my surprise, I rose from the ice injury-free, and my craft was undamaged. It was back to the beach to bend on the smaller sail.

My next runs were much more successful. Rails sailed surprisingly well with the smaller sail, and I could steer it like a Windsurfer by moving the sail fore and aft. My kids even tried it and admitted that my contraption was great fun. I did some rough calculations and concluded that it could sail in the 25 to 30 mph range. No world records would be set, but it was not bad for a one-night workshop wonder. 

Subsequent winters got warmer, making for more snow and thinner ice, but I couldn’t resist buying an Icefish class boat that came on the market at a bargain price. The Icefish is an aluminum tube design that’s steered with foot pedals. Its double fiberglass seats look as though they’ve been stolen from a school lunchroom. This one was powered by a 75-square-foot Sunfish lateen sail with a Sunfish mast modified with fore and side stays. I got about five years of memorable days of breakneck speed on the Icefish before selling it to a farmer who wanted to try sailing it on his frozen 5-acre pond. 

These days, I get an occasional ride on a friend’s Locksley Skimmer, an aluminum frame affair with a canvas seat and a 45-square-foot sail. It’s no DN, but it’s still a thrill to sail on the rare days when we get clear ice and a fresh breeze.

Skills transfer to soft water sailing

Iceboating skills certainly translate to conventional sailing and racing. One of my Cazenovia clubmates, Ray Cudney, who sails a DN when conditions permit but also races everything from Lasers to J Boats, says, “One thing that always struck me was how quickly an iceboat responds to the slightest of sail trim. Iceboating teaches one how important the small adjustments are because it produces an instantaneous response. When you get it right, everything tightens up, the mast bends like a pretzel, and you are given that instant speed reward.”

Cudney also notes that small adjustments in mast design, runner shaping, perfect runner alignment and plank interaction, and even efforts to reduce bow-stay diameter all play a part in developing winning boatspeed. If you think about it, there are striking similarities between iceboats and the current crop of foiling craft. It’s all about reducing resistance and drag to a minimum, and both can sail several times the speed of the true wind.

Perhaps future America’s Cup skippers should have winter training blocks in Minnesota in February. But then again, once they experienced the rush of iceboating, they might be forever jaded and never go back to soft-water sailing.

The post Iceboating: An Adrenaline-fueled Experience appeared first on Sailing World.

I look to my left and then to my right and think, I can outrun these guys. I’m rocking the boat, carving channels in the ice so my runners don’t stick. One hand is on the tiller, and the other is clenching the limp wire shroud. The stay flexes as I rhythmically push and pull the boat, building up potential energy, like drawing a bow. When the race starts, I want to be on the back stroke so I can catapult it ­forward and sprint away from the line.

When I go, I’ll be running full tilt, steering as I sprint like a 50-yard-dash maniac. I can cheat the boat into the wind to climb high on the guy to leeward of me before jumping in the boat and bearing off for speed. Other DN sailors tell me it’s better to immediately bear down to get it going and reaching over the guy beneath me, ­building speed while doing so.

I wouldn’t know either way, because it’s my first DN iceboat start, my first race and really only my fifth time sailing my DN. Bolted to US 8 is a set of used runners I bought hours before the regatta, and frankly, I have no idea what I’m doing out here on the ice. But I’ve always been a fast runner, and the week before, at the gym, I did sprints to condition my legs and make sure I don’t pull a hamstring.

The starting line is a nylon-webbing strap pulled taut to the ice. Half the fleet faces the wind on port tack, the other half on starboard. The leeward runner has to be close to the webbing. Everyone has a starting place based on rank, marked with little metal medallions on the webbing. High rankings and previous finish orders determine your placement. Even numbers start on starboard tack, odd on port, with lower numbers starting in the middle. On account of my registering late, I’m pretty far to the outside, low 30s, with only two boats outside of me.

I’m uncertain how the whole start thing goes, but I’m rocking my boat and ready, channeling my inner Usain Bolt. While I wait for a clue that signals a start, I’m confident, thinking, I have a decent chance for a good finish. With any luck, maybe I can qualify for the gold fleet. How hard can it be?

I have no idea.

All I know is I’m just going to start when the guy next to me moves. I got to the regatta late. I’m tired from my solo drive halfway across the country and through the night. I haven’t had a healthy meal in days. I didn’t even have time to read the sailing instructions, but I know the course is windward/leeward. How many times? I have no idea.

When the racer to windward of me lunges forward, I push and run, head down, like an Olympic bobsledder. The javelin-throwing cleats I bought on eBay bite into the ice, and I sprint until I find myself having to hold the boat down by the shroud as the boat accelerates and the windward runner starts to sky. I step one foot on and continue to push with the other, as though I’m kicking a scooter down the road.

I clumsily drop into the cockpit, settle in and get low. My heart is racing, and I’m thinking, Don’t sheet in; don’t choke the sail. The boom is trimmed onto my right shoulder, ­pinning me in the cockpit.

The guy next to me is rolling. Maybe I should pull more sheet on. Maybe I should bear away. I search for an answer while the boat rattles across the ice, runners hitting bumps and imperfections in the ice. The boat resonates like some sort of large, hollow musical instrument. I’m in the moment, in the zone, in the noise, staring at the telltales. I don’t want to stall the sail, but I’m not sure how its shape is really supposed to look. There are no other boats to be concerned about hitting, so I focus on my speed until I’m near the layline. Boats nearby start to tack. I question my tactics. Should I go too? Tacks are costly, I think. I’m trying to go fast, to settle my nerves. I don’t need to outthink anyone. I just need to keep the thing moving. There are no waves, no visible puffs on the water to gauge what the wind is doing. All I have are those seven telltales to rely on as I steer around snow piles, avoiding them like Boston potholes.

I can’t wait anymore. There’s only one boat outside of me. It’s time to tack. I slide forward in the cockpit, push the tiller slowly and ease the mainsheet so I can get my head underneath the boom. It still bangs against my helmet.

The turn seems like an eternity, but the sail comes across and I trim it again. Not the best tack, but I don’t get stuck in irons. Now I’m on the layline and possibly overstood. Without any traffic, I make it safely around the mark, complete the remaining laps and finish 29th of 42. Hey, it’s not last place, but it’s my first taste of DN racing.

Plus, I didn’t hit anyone, and that was it for the day. No gold fleet for me. I’m solid silver, and I’m cool with it.

As twilight arrives, I kick and glide 2 miles back to shore, where a friend from New England suggests I tie my boat to his for the night. I didn’t bring an ice screw because I didn’t know I needed one to keep my boat from being blown to the other side of the lake. Sleep comes easy. I’m exhausted and intent on getting to the ice early.

2018 DN NAs Iceboat Championships Lake Charlevoix

The Charlevoix, Michigan, air is frigid under a hazy cloud cover when I arrive to rig. The place is bustling with racers swapping sails and runners, and race-committee types firing up their four-­wheelers. The forecast is for stronger winds, so now I’m apprehensive because my sail is designed for lighter conditions. I’ll be overpowered and slow, but it’s the only sail I have. I also realize I’m overthinking everything.

When I get to the starting area 2 miles downwind, the wind is at least 10 knots in the gusts. It’s hard to tell because winter wind is denser, but I can feel its weight against my face. The ice plate groans like a distant jumbo jet, an eerie sound caused by racers practicing. I’m excited to race, and when my time comes, I find my little medallion on the webbing. To my right is Chris, who I know from Nantucket, Massachusetts. He’s been racing DNs for a few years and still relatively new to it.

I know how the starting system works now, and again, I’m ­thinking my running ability will give me a head start into clean air. I slide the boat back and forth, start on time, put the bow down and get it flying as soon as possible. As I run, my cleats slap the ice. I try to load the rig, and focus on having a smoother entry into the cockpit. Once I’m in, I take a quick look around. I’m in a good position, ­paralleling and keeping pace with Chris.

It’s windier today, so I know I can two-block it, flattening the sail. I’m trying to keep all the telltales streaming. Chris squirts out and is suddenly 50 yards ahead, faster and higher. In the moment, I find myself questioning everything again: What am I doing wrong?

It’s windier today, so I know I can two-block it, flattening the sail. I’m trying to keep all the telltales streaming. Chris squirts out and is suddenly 50 yards ahead, faster and higher. In the moment, I find myself questioning everything again: What am I doing wrong?

I regain my composure but realize I’m now high of the mark, doing what feels like 40 knots. A boat in front of me tacks, gets walloped by a gust, spins 180 degrees and wipes out. I think, This is getting crazy. There’s another one approaching on port tack. I’m on starboard, but I don’t know what to do about him. Careening into the mark, I’m nervous. I have other issues, and it’s all snowballing. He’s out of ­control, I’m out of control, and all I’m thinking is, I hope he tacks.

He does tack, and in a heartbeat, his rig buckles. I’m high of the layline and coming into the mark fast, faster than I’ve ever sailed. In the chaos I see a group of race-committee people and observers sitting just above the mark with their four-wheelers. If I have to put my bow down and ease my sheet to get around the mark I’m going to have problems. Losing control and spinning out come to mind. The gap between them and the mark looks too small. If I turn and suddenly have no way out, I’ll surely plow into the race committee. Back and forth in mind is a rapid volley of attempted logic: How do I turn? Shoot, what do I do? How do I get out of this alive? Do I stay on the course or bail?

Screw it. I stuff the boat into the wind, sail off the course and shoot above the race committee. I calm my nerves before turning back downwind and onto the course the long way.

Before the next race, Steve Madden, another New England fleet guy, who went on to win the silver fleet, explains to me that I need to lean out of the boat and hike it flat to make the turn. When the opportunity arrives in the following race, it’s the same, with the race committee and observers and a seemingly small gap, but now there are other boats around as well. It’s like going into a corner in NASCAR. It may not look pretty or aerodynamic, but I’m hanging halfway out of the cockpit. I have to pinch to make the mark, which means I’m slow, with less apparent wind. Boats zip past me as if I’m on the side of a highway, passing 18-wheelers spraying me with slush. Still, I make it around, learning how to tame this thing one day and one race at a time. I can’t wait to sail and race again, but sadly, spring is here.

I ask myself, “What’s the equivalent of frostbiting for an iceboater?”

The post First Time Experiences of Iceboat Racing appeared first on Sailing World.

Seeing an iceboat fly across the ice at more than 40 miles per hour is usually met with excited and amazed curiosity from bystanders: “Wow, how does that work?” they ask. “I’d love to experience that, but I don’t know how to sail” or most commonly, it’s, “Dang that’s cool, but I know I’ll never experience it.”

I grew up racing sailboats in the Midwest and competed on both coasts of the United States. However, from an early age, I knew I wanted to live and raise my family on a ­Midwestern lake: Weatherby Lake in Missouri is perfect mid-America, where I could raise my family surrounded by similar people, who would be my friends for life.

I accomplished my first goal when I ­married my wife, Lyn, in 1985. I found a house on Weatherby, knocking off goal No. 2. I was contemplating goal No. 3, having kids, when I stumbled upon a garage sale in the neighborhood. Bingo!I had always wanted an iceboat, and there sat an old, dust-covered light-blue DN needing repairs. Michael and Jan Gunn, who had purchased it used from Weatherby residents who built several in the 1960s, were excited to pass it on, as long as they made sure I knew what I was getting into. You know, the dangers and all.

I brought home the boat, stripped it down, made repairs and painted it white, knowing I could choose an appropriate color scheme and name later. Ice-boat season was upon us, and iceboating at Weatherby is very inconsistent. Competitors wait for thick ice, wind and no snow. We can go through a season without a single opportunity to race, so it’s paramount our boats are ready, day or night, workday or weekend. “The wind waits for no man,” my good friend Augie Grasis would always say.

During summer, we race and beat up on each other in other craft. But as soon as winter arrives, iceboating is the premier social event, with all different types of iceboats: homemades, DNs and Nites, usually surrounded by miscellaneous activities like ice bocce, ice golf, ice skating, ice camp-outs, ice fishing and even ice horseshoes.

In 1988, my white boat had its thrilling maiden voyage, and I was a welcome newcomer to the club. It left me wanting to share the experience with others. As luck would have it, some nonsailing friends, Faye and Dave Southard, from Knoxville, T­ennessee, were considering a visit the ­following weekend.

I’d just finished another moonlit ice-boat run with Augie, and called Dave. “You’ve got to get here and try this!”

He agreed under one condition: “Don’t tell anyone it’s my first time.” True to my word, I didn’t tell anyone, but proudly cut and applied the name in black vinyl across the boat, 1st Time Dave.

Dave was a sport that day, grinning ear to ear, run after run, among our ice-born ­neighbors. After a successful day, I asked him to autograph the hull. He did so proudly, sparking an amazing tradition that would live on for more than 25 years. Even my wife, who once considered it “a barbaric sport,” wanted her name on the boat after Dave’s experience. She made her maiden voyage and signed 1st Time Dave. By the time our sons Seth and Blake were old enough to sail and sign, there were at least 50 signatures already. When newbies see the signature-covered boat, fears subside.

Sailing an iceboat is easy. Because it goes so fast, the wind is always on the nose. The instructions are simple: Sail between two spots (reach, reach), pull in the sheet to go fast, let it out to slow down. To stop, drag your feet and release the sail.The signatures, now in the hundreds, reflect countless 1st Time Dave stories: “I fell in the water” wrote Adam Stulman at age 8. Elderly Floyd Adams, a retired sailor, once took off down a cove, scaring all of us. Bob Mulhall forgot the feet-down stopping technique. Ron Knop wished we’d pulled the racing marks before the freeze. Eventually, the Seth and Blake years — filled with their friends sailing 1st Time Dave — put wear on the aging pine boat, while adding to its legacy. It became a challenge to repair and retain as many signatures with comments as possible.

I only wish a “permanent” marker were actually permanent. Our beloved DN is now mostly retired. We’ve had several iceboats, including the two-seater Nite, but 1st Time Dave was the one with a line, wanting to sail and sign. Most everyone in our ­community of 800 families has their own 1st Time Dave story, but whenever Dave ­Southard visits, he’s a folk hero. He’s the original 1st Time Dave.

To read more stories about sailors who love their one-design classes, new and old, click here.

The post My Class, My Story: DN Iceboat appeared first on Sailing World.