iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

Look at your plank as your boats suspension (your sail is your engine, masts your transmission and runners your tires). Although this is the way some of the top sailors here in Michigan set up their DN's, it really applies to most all boats. If you are using the Sarnes stud plate attachment system, you need to put thin washers (spacers) under the ends of the plates. This helps prevent the plank from rocking when attached to the boat. No matter what system you use, don't allow the plank to rock. The next thing you need to do is to mount the plank on your boat and load it up to sailors weight plus 30-40 lbs.. This is important since this is the situation where plank setup is most critical. This is what you're faced with when you are trying to get the boat moving when starting and also when sailing in that miserable very light air. Continuing, you can either load the boat up with weights or deflect the plank that amount with the mast and shrouds or a similar fixture. The next thing to check is if the sides of the chocks (therefore the runners) are 90 degrees to the ice. If they aren't, and it's unlikely that they are, shim them to 90 degrees. I do this by putting a glob of epoxy between the chock and the plank and tightening them up in the proper shimmed position. If there is any twist in your plank (and twist isn't good) you can eliminate it at this time. eliminate 1/2 of the twist in each of the chocks with shims before you squeeze this whole mess together. The final thing to do is align your runners. Whatever method you use i.e. triangles, parallel rulers,lasers etc. this is the time to do it, again with the boat in the loaded up position. If you go thru the trouble to do all this, you'll have as good a plank setup as you can have.