iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

silver and tonka which froze sun night with no open spots. meyer and miller to scout fri. if tonka bay not safe silvery should be

Our epic run of consecutive weeks of sailing now stands at 5! Several DNers and Drifter, sailing his C Skeeter, spent a good part of Sunday back up on North Long Lake in Brainerd. We scrubbed race till 1 pm and then called it a day as the wind gradually turned off. The DN's stayed off the ice on Saturday so the big kids racing real iceboats could compete in the Western Skeeter Challenge Regatta. Local sailors dominated the event. Highlights include Drifter winning race three over the heavily favored Dennis boat. All three Minnesota Skeeters finished on the podium.

Another great day on North Long Lake. The wind was blowing hard in the morning...... Until the Minnetonka crew showed up. Coincidence or nature's conspiracy?? Set race course 90 degrees different than Saturday, and the winds just kept getting lighter. Started packing it up about 1 PM. Pictures:

Regatta completed on 12/09/17 with three races. All classes were well represented. John Dennis was the overall winner. Thanks to Northern Cowboy bar and grill on North Long Lake for the use of the launch and great venue.
Results:
R1 R2 R3
John Dennis U-194 1.0 1.0 2.0
Pat Heppert I-291 2.0 2.0 1.0
Jim McDonagh I-234 DNS 3.0 3.0

one yr old. $1750. with bag. tom meyer. 612-432-8124 text or call. mast in mols

Sunday is the day to sail North Long Lake. A few may go Sat. Are other options are not safe! Many have said they are in. Just spoke to Northern Cowboy. No snow on lake. Just a few flurries. We can back trailers on ice and roll them to setup spots. Winds look best at 8 or 9 mph from 9 AM to 2PM. Perfect temps. See you there. Scrub racing marks will be there.
The public landing is still ok too. Get there early. Do not try to sail thru the channel to the east big lake or along the East shore- open water out 100 yards!

Swede lake is completely locked up, but too thin. It cracked under my feet, so I didn't make it out more than about 100 feet. It froze in several pieces, and is not "Hollywood" quality, but still will be good in a few days. By Sunday morning, it will probably be 2" thick, but I still wouldn't tempt the mermaids quite yet. Recommend heading to Brainard.

Drove by Waconia, looks mostly frozen but many large holes, and not ready for at least a week.

UPdate at 10 am
Silver Lake- Many open spots yesterday, froze overnight. Nathan hopes to kite scout it Sat for possible Sunday racing, but could be sketchy. No snow on it yet.

Christina- Large parts had opened up on Monday incl a large area of open water by his property with big winds since. Jim has not looked at it since. He expects the calmer winds locked it up last night. He will check it for depth and report back.

Despite heavy air sailing on Thursday, tons of scrub races Friday and some hot laps over the lunch hour on Saturday, the Gold Fleet only sailed one "official" race. Here are the results:
1 M 53 Peter Hamrack -- Hungary
2 US 5432 Mike Bloom
3 US 5469 Chad Atkins
4 US 4824 The Doctor
5 US 216 Rich Potcova
6 H 467 Dideric van Riemsdijk -- Netherlands
7 US 5352 Dan Hearn
8 US 4868 Julie Richards
9 US 5166 Chris Berger
10 US 4480 Aaron Stange

Thanks to all those who traveled extreme distances to sail the GWC.

Sunday first race silver fleet 10 am

Skippers meeting 10 AM at the Northern Cowboy launch.
Racing shortly after.
Per JD

The Northern Cowboy Flame & Brew. The owner Brian will be happy to let us park up to 15 trailers on the lower yard next to the lake. They can be left there all night. The boats can park right on the lake next to the restaurant. Vehicles may drive down to this location on the grass. Once you unload, move vehicles to the east on the large grassy space behind the storage building and home, as he owns 600 feet of shoreline.

Do not park your vehicle or trailer in the restaurant parking stalls!

Hollywood ice as good as it gets! North Long Lake. Drilled a dozen holes all thicker than 5” ice. No hazards noted.
Do not back trailers on the ice. Need to keep it solid. We will look at 2 additional launch sites on North Long shortly. Meyer proclaims Oh Yea!

Our ice is holding fine, in case you were concerned.
Just got off a FaceTime call from my local icescout. The launch site is solid. Lake is still a 9 rating and only one on it now was a guy ice skating all over!
Monday morning we had a legendary ice surfer on it in AM. He reported “magical ice”. He covered most of the 1 mile X 1.1 mile bay. The only reason he left at 12:30 was fear of falling on the skim coat of 1/4” moisture. Today it has no shell or standing water. Reported to be 4-5” thick.

Launch Site right on Hwy 371, 6 miles north of Brainerd. Note at this point the sailing area is the scouted smaller bay of North Long Lake right next to launch.

Headquarters Hotel is the Days Inn- Baxter/Brainerd. Phone is 218-829-3080. Located 4 miles south of Launch Site, just north of Brainerd.
https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/days-inn/baxter-minnesota/days-inn-and-sui...