iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

0.02 Bert Foster is to be commended for attempting to resolve this thorny issue…

My plan is to be invited by the Commodore to request a permit for next year’s Gold Cup on Minnetonka, under the legacy process… and be turned down,

In response:

- Call a press conference explain on 4 TV stations, newspapers, to the people we can’t hold world class events on Lake Minnetonka,

- Raise Hell with the Governor, and our elected Reps. Get the law changed, exempting amateur iceboat regattas from the statute…

- It’ll be easier to change the law than work out another solution.

Some thoughts on the process he articulates:

- The statute that allows a county to regulate events on lakes is:

- 86B.121 Races, competitions, and exhibitions.
(a) A person may not hold or sponsor any scheduled or public race, regatta, tournament or other competition or exhibition, or trial race on water or ice, whether or not involving watercraft, without first having obtained a written permit from the sheriff of the county where the event is to originate.
(b) The sheriff, in the permit, may exempt watercraft from any of the provisions of this chapter relating to the licensing, operation, and equipment of watercraft while participating in the event authorized.
(c) The county's issuance of a permit under this section does not make the county liable for any injury occurring at the event.
HIST: 1990 c 391 art 9 s 7; 1992 c 584 s 2; 1997 c 204 s 1

Clearly Paragraph (b) of the statute holds the cleanest solution to the issue…they do not have to issue a permit, they can, if they wish, chose to “exempt” the iceboat regattas from the permit process. Note: This is the process in every other county we’ve conducted Principal Regattas in Minnesota.

In the alternative to Mark’s Plan A, of inducing change in legislation…I suggest we solicit a blanket exemption from the Permit Process, for a One Year trial period. Perhaps a bit of education would be in order, but IMHO, the people of Hennepin County really don’t want to be in the business of regulating the game of Iceboat Racing.

- They have no domain knowledge about the craft, nor the ice. Hence no basis for assessing risks or standardizing the issues.

- Ice is fundamentally unsafe, it’s not a in their interest in regulating these sorts of things.

- The most appropriate responders to any event are the sailors…

To Bert’s points:
1. include ice boat regattas in the WYC scheduleand permit process The purpose of this would be notification of the regulator?

2. The WYC insurance certificate would satisfy the government agency or is there special ice boating regatta insurance? What are the requirements fo the agency for insurance? What do they base their power to compel the stuff?
3. If this works out, the WYC could have an Ice Boat "Fleet Captain" to take responsibility for the ice boating program

And what would the charter of this Fleet Captain be?

5. The course would not interfere with ice houses. (so if I nail a board that says Mark Kiefer, Fergus Falls Minnesota on the sides of my DN am, I a Fish House and then have rights?) hehehe

6. The regatta will place orange cones or other”marks” on the ice for the regatta and remove them at the end of each day. We regularly mark ice hazards as well as turning marks… is it their desire we also remove those marks overnight, placing our safety people in peril on a daily basis?
7. Testing the safety of the ice will be the responsibility of the WYC using the protocol testing method outlined by one of the national authorities. I need to how the DN Assoc process works. The agency will then use that documentation and procedures as a requirement on the permit for the ice boat regattas.

NEVER…This is a really big issue with me… Ice ain’t safe…ever. Suitable is a better word, the suitability is ultimately subjective and should be left entirely in the hands of the competitors and organizers. (period). Again this year in Hungary, where the competitors hung out for a week waiting for suitable ice, the requlators decided they really didn’t want to be involved in the process of opining here, but as I understand the law… if we show up and some regulator decides we can’t race because the ice is unsafe (which we define to be always)… we can all go sailing and they have no means to stop us… (they have no basis in law to suggest a citizen or operator of a non-motorized craft (not vehicle, not vessel) refrain from being on the ice), if the sailors think the ice is ok, they’ll go sailing and that’s that. Maybe not racing but sailing (frankly creating a more hazardous condition)

For the regattas where I’ve served the fleet in Governance, the process worked like this, and is damn subjective.

- The IDNIYRA tasks the governing committee and the Commodore specifically with conducting regattas.

- They alone decide if the ice is suitable for conducting an event, and are accountable to the members for their decision.

- Some respected and generally highly ranked sailor must sail the ice and report on conditions… More sailing = better assessment…

- Based on that individuals assessment the event is tentatively called on… The fleet arrives and does another inspection / assessment.

- Go/Postpone/Cancel decision is made.

- If the Ice Condition Reporter is not a competitor registered for the event, the ice is unsuitable.

- The Ice Reporter MUST show up at the Bar after the first day of racing… and be personally accountable to the membership/competitors for the conditions from a reputational perspective.

8. There was something mentioned about looking at the need for a standby emergency medical vehicle. They did require the recent kite event to have an emergency medical vehicle at the event. However, those ambulance/trucks won’t go on on the ice, so it parked at a Beach, about 1.5 miles from the actual kite flying event. If it was required, it would represent a cost. Maybe we could not have it required and instead have an event vehicle available to deliver an injured person to a medical facility. However, here again, an auto would probably stay on shore and an injured person would have to be transported to shore with a 4 wheeler or snowmobile towing a sled. How the DN Assoc. handle this

The first two time we sailed the Western Challenge in Buffalo, the Wright Co Sheriff brought down their hovercraft and hung out, (they also asked if we wanted them to call up the Lions Club to come down and cook up some Bratwurst). This is an education issue… they don’t understand the game… Some of the places we’ve sailed have compelled a standby medical vehicle (at least they were there) most tend to leave us alone.

Here’s a solution posed by one of Excelsior Fire Dept officers…

- We should arrange a knowledge sharing thing with the responders (this is ice, these are iceboats, these are the risks, these are the operating perameters)

- During an event, portable telephones shall be required equipment. (phone reporting/response times will not impact treatment in any event, standby medical response simply isn’t needed)

- We notify dispatch when we’re on the ice (e.g., people are sailing on the big lake today in this general area.

- In the event of an immersion… (causing probably 20 "man in the water" 9-11 calls) which burden the system) A quick report to the dispatcher (eg. This is the Minnesota Ice Sailing Assn (WYC, whatever), confirm iceboat/person was in the water at XXX location, person and boat are now out of the water, and transported to shore, no injuries, no need to respond) saving them a ton of time in needless call responses, and adequate response time in the event of an injury requiring attention. (Their immersion response process is really Recovery not Rescue, they cannot be expected to be there in the minute or two that matter)

- As we’re the earliest people on the ice, and become aware of Ice Hazards that exist… we could coordinate in developing some process of marking obvious hazards… but then again… we wouldn’t want people to think that just because some hazards are marked the rest of the body is “safe”

Think Ice,

Mark Kiefer