Classic Hifi Care

I didn't even think about getting the iceboat out this year. Mine is the engineering equivalent of my 1942 GE phono, but even a slow iceboat feels like going 90 mph when it accelerates. Where is the ice?

And love the photos. Especially when they show extreme mast bend.

Chris Campbell

Just below 60...in 10 knots..."Here's for extreme"

Wonderful photo! Mast & runner plank both flexed. I'm always amazed that the structures survive. My original mast exploded one day, but that was from multiple sudden stops on Elk Lake when snow covered pressure "subduction zones" full of slush. I figured that the sudden stops were introducing forces not intended to be placed on the mast. It gave up while sailing at speed. My old boat was built with Weldwood Plastic Resin glue, way pre-epoxy, and it has survived much mistreatment.

For the rest of you, the DN iceboat was the product of a design contest conducted by the Detroit News newspaper in the late 30s as a way for readers in the Depression to build stuff at home. It was a success and more then 8,000 have been built since. The class has always emphasized rules that encouraged home building and not throwing money at it. DNs are not the fastest iceboats. There are larger classes that go much faster but at much greater expense. There are DN racers all over the world. The class was revolutionized by the Gougeon Brothers in Bay City, MI who decided they could build better boats within class specifications by slight but significant design changes and the use of epoxy glues. Two of the brothers remained winners in iceboat and soft-water racing to the ends of their lives. They never stopped figuring ways to make boats lighter, better, faster. When Meade Gougeon was dying at his waterfront home on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay, a local multihull race group chose a course off his home. He died on race day. His last words were "The wind is up. Tell the boys they may commence the race."

As you can see from the photos, when you sail a DN you are lying down about 6" above the ice surface. If you're going 30 mph it feels like 90. And they can go 60, at least the modern varieties, and that must feel like 120. The acceleration is remarkable. One spring a buddy and I kept our boats out on Grand Traverse Bay in downtown Traverse City so we could sail a bit after work. Spring temps made the ice a bit soft. You sail in this fog of ice chips. When we were done we both looked like we had measles because the ice was taking divots out of our faces.

Chris Campbell

Following up. I'll post a photo of my Dad with the iceboat in 1959, on Saginaw Bay. He built it in 1957. He's wearing his cold-weather garb--red-and-black plaid wool hunting clothes. In those days we did not have all the specialized clothing that we have now. You made do. Look closely and you'll see his hunting license pinned on the back of the coat. Chris Campbell

Not too many of those craft out here in AZ, but the premise is fascinating!

As you know Chris, ice is a moving target. My GoPro shot this off Honke Rd, South Lake Leelanau just after Xmas.

Others should know that these boats are "vertical airplanes" in the sense that they're moving faster than the actual wind. This means the "air" or "wind" is always in your face, it's called "apparent". As with planes, the flatter the "wing" the faster you go. The modern composite (carbon/glass) mast shown above, are purpose built to be in synergy with the boat's yield combination of skipper's weight and boat components stiffness). There's huge compression involved which allows the mast to bend out of column. While bent the sail opens up at rear allowing you to pull it tighter with use of a mainsheet in your hands. Idea is to get mast to bend and then tighten sail as flat as possible which is advantageous to airflow at these high speeds. The front to back curve of a sail trailing the mast is called "draft" or its measurement, "chord". Basically the faster you go the less "draft" you want. Guys who get this right, win ! As mentioned, I'm going just shy of 60 mph above, with as little as 10 mph wind, the very definition of "efficient" ! If only our electronics could be such. An analogy would be producing 115 dB of audibility with 1 Watt !

Meade and Jan Gougeon were pioneers of their own product line, epoxy. Though advantageous to their boat building prowess, their designs and minimalist construction reached far and wide as in aerospace. We in the sport miss them, great friends who shared "findings" with all. I sail all year round, there's nothing like iceboating, at these speeds you can travel as many miles in a day, as you do all summer on the water ! I've always reiterated to our participants, "this is a sport of hours and minutes", be in the ready and tell the "boss" your "ill" !

Even though Lake Champlain has a big ice boating scene (we're only there April to October) I don't know from Ice boats, however there's also a huge sail and power boating scene and some class Nationals are held there.

I've used Gougeon Bros. West System epoxy for decades, for work ranging from new plywood bottom on a Hagerty "Sea Shell" sailing pram, to wood transom replacement on a 12' aluminum rowboat, to new coaming on a 15' Thompson lapstrake runabout, and planking repairs on a 30 ft. mahogany-planked Chris Craft Crusader to keep them in good repair, which is a never ending task. Gougeon Bros.had the best products ever for keeping that "hole in the water into which you throw money" afloat and alive.
I finally got smart and got an aluminium pontoon and a Fiberglas sailboat that ignores the years and the weather with minimal repairs. While I do miss the charm and character of a properly maintained wooden boat, I don't miss all the work involved!

I can't resist another iceboat photo showing mast bend, this from a female sailor, posted on the Quantum Sails newsletter.

Got Bend ?

Love it!! And the boom tucked under the elbow there.... My old boat doesn't do any of those cool tricks. And oh my, look at that ice!

Chris Campbell

Got ice ? South Lake Leelanau Jan10.

Dream ice, for sure. Is there a local hotline again?

Chris Campbell

Contact me Chris... TC group is all but dissolved. I spearhead a serious group in Leelanau.