iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

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...

The Great Western Challenge is called on for Dec 1-3, 2017. Primary Site is North Long Lake. 5 miles north of Brainerd, MN. The boys did a great job scouting in light air. No soft spots like last year!
Watch for lodging information by the end of the day.
3 possible back up sites located near Twig, MN, 120 miles NE will be scouted this week. Just about zero chance of snow or rain with below freezing temperatures each night look promising.
See library image for photo taken today.

Friday 3 PM ice report of Christina:
1. Had a short period of light rain this afternoon. Now has a great skim coat.
2. 46 F high today, 33 on Sat, 40 Sun, 48 Mon, get the idea!
3. Ice and landing holding good at 5” ice out 100 ft.
4. The same 3-4 open holes/seams from last Sunday have somewhat increased in size
5. There continues to be a small racing area we used Sunday good for maybe 20 boats on a half mile course at most.
6. Twin Cities group plans to skip Sat and head up Sunday in hopes they can find a 1 mile square area that is safe of holes

Lake Christina at 11 am Thursday. The same seams and holes we avoided last Sunday are still open water but larger! Mike says a lot of duck and goose activity in the area recently too.
The landing and solid ice is still a good 4” so there is space for short course scrub races this weekend. However, Friday’s forecast in Ashby with wind, warmth and some light rain could change things.
He also scouted the small east bay of Pelican Lake. Two large open areas and poor launch site makes it unusable.
Mike will do a comparison look again late on Friday for an update.

Based on the preliminary ice report it looks like we will be sailing Lake Christina in Ashby on Saturday. Check back Thursday or Friday for an update. Friday looks like a "no-go." Weather Underground predicts winds in Ashby on Friday of over 20 mph by mid-day. The tentative plan is to head up Sat morning. Hopefully, the Doctor will have had time to rebuild the weather mark that US 5432 bulldozed in the second race last weekend. Sorry, Doctor.
If you are new to the DN fleet this weekend would be a perfect time to come out and get some pointers.

It should only take a few cold nights to solve any issues that may exist with the ice on Lake Christina.
The plan is to return to Christina after Thanksgiving for the 3rd straight week of sailing. Hopefully, the Past Commodore will have an ice report later this week.

DN sailors of all abilities are welcome to join us. We have seen several newbies the last 2 weeks and all have left with huge grins and sore necks.

First boats there must check the ice. Never sail alone. Wear ice claws.
Think ice.

Hi, I have a Paul Mindnich Freeskate (iceboard). I was able to work with a fiberglass guy and create a fiberglass mold to make more boards which I have created our first board but I need runners for it. I had a friend cut runners from steel to match the originals. However, I need to have a cut or grind them down on the blade/runner sharp edge that goes to the ice. I'm not sure if there is a tool for this or somewhere I can go to have this done?

photos at: bit.ly/2zRq0Hh

Thanks for any insight/ help! I'm in Minneapolis.