iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

We got to the launch site today at 9:00am and a few of the competitors had already arrived. It was great to see everybody, and those that came thru sault ste. marie said the drive was great. There was also a full moon so it must have been nice.. even though it was long, and it sounds like you had to do a little fuel management.

We told everyone we haven't seen any water, or any working cracks for two days. Jorg's gal thought it would be good to go out for skate ski. She was the first one out.. and it turns out there was a 18" crack that opened up last night.. with the dreaded skim ice.. so she got a wet leg, right near the launch site. And it spooked her. Tomorrow she is going to go check out the town of Thunder Bay.

We showed the gang where to cross the crack, and the wind had down a 180 since yesterday and the course we left out on the ice turned out to be pretty close..

We adjusted the course.. and by 12:00 we had over 35 boats on the course. We sailed a half dozen different scrum races with different competitors. The wind was at the minimums and you could see if you had any speed with the fleet. At the end of the day I was going better. Everyone loved the huge scale of the ice and the bay and the bluffs..

Dale came out with his 1968 Peter Bourgh Boatworks DN. He was struggling in the light air. When we got back to Dale's we got the polish sharpener (2x110=220) going in Dale's basement and JD started profiling his very flat runners.

We came back in with the bulk of the fleet around 3:00pm for registration. There were still a few competitors that set up late and stayed out on the ice.

The Thunder Bay Yacht Club really has really stepped up to help out and have found a 4-wheeler and a few volunteers for the Race Committee. They also were the first contact up when I was wondering how the ice was in Thunder Bay.

Light airs forecast, but we are hoping for some sort of magical mystery seabreeze to add to the 5km/s of south breeze.

By the end of the afternoon the circus was definitely in town!