iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

What would George do?

Forecast is near 32 degrees, wind south at 10
mph

The ice on the St. Croix is awesome! There is virtually no fish traffic to rut it up due to the lack of public access. Just miles of 18+ inch thick grade 8 ice. You can set up at the Lake St. Croix public beach. Park in the lot and haul your boat about 25 yards accross the beach to the ice. My friend Kent has had his DN set up at St. Mary's Point (about 1/4mile south of the beach) for a few days now and sailed today. I set up my Nite at St. Mary's Point tonight and hope to sail till the next snow.

If you're an iceboater in Minnesota, this is your weekend.

Minnetonka has recently been sailed and judged to be acceptable for sailing...

Two DN's sailed Lake Calhoun today in Light Air, hoping for details.

The Fire on Ice Course on Phalen has been regularly sailed...

I suspect other lakes are also quite boatable, medicine lake in plymouth was driven today. there's a touch of shell ice and some healed drain holes on 24+ inches of ice. moderately heavy fishing traffic...

Wow... Who would have thought you could Ice boat on Tonka in Feb.

I took my Nite and Mike Maloney took his DN and we sailed around the whole lake today.

Conditions are Fair to Good. Where there has been a lot of car traffic and ice fishing, the conditions are fair. Pretty rough and bumpy from ruts etc. I've sailed in worse. Elsewhere is good.

I just drove around on Minnetonka from Excelsior. No standing water, the deeper puddles (one every 100 yards or so)are covered by 1/2"-3/4" of ice over 1/2" of water, the truck would break through them but I don't expect the boats will. The whole lake looks to be sailible, we will be playing hooky and setting up @ SYC.

For those of you in Oshkosh---The regatta has been moved to Menominee Mi./Marinette WI.

Regatta Headquarters are at the Best Western hotel on hwy. 41.
Skippers meeting 12 noon at the lake.

Still time to get here and race the NA.'s it's going to be fun!!!

Check the ice hotline and official noticeboard for official info.

Hotline #732-747-5665

Torch Lake, Michigan
8 February 2009
World Gold Cup DN Championship
Silver Fleet
Race #3
around 2:30 pm
East Wind 11kts
Temp: 28F

Music: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Babe I'm on Fire.

This is dedicated to my girlfriend Molly.

What is going on over that way?

Is the Zamboni on nitrous or what?

/Adam

For those not heading out to Michigan for the Worlds, come join the local DN class for a day of fun at Lake Phalen. The track was scouted again on Thursday and looks better than ever.
There is a N/S track and an E/W track. Wind on Saturday is predicted to be around 15-18 MPH out of WNW and around 32F.
Should be ideal conditions, similar to last Sunday's epic day during the Fire on Ice. All you need is a sharp steering runner and any DN.

Racing starts Sunday.
Registration Saturday at 7:00pm

No HQ hotel yet, but it will be posted on the hotline (732-747-5665) asap.

See you on the ice!

The Southern Tier of Iceboating

Acc. to the GC/Nats hotline, no suitable sites exist out east. However a site somewhere in the midwest will be called in 24 hours (Thursday, PM).

Stay tuned...

/Adam

Thank you to Mark Kiefer and his entire organization for hosting such an incredible event. The huge crowds and media coverage was outstanding. The event ran over 40 races in 2 days of 5 laps each on a short track. Saturday winds were 6-10 MPH and required a push here and there. 4 racers were on the track at one time.
Sunday with west winds of 15-20 we used the N/S track and were flying all day long.

Way to go JD!!!!

Lake Phalen, St. Paul, MN was the site for the First ever St. Paul Winter Carnival Fire on Ice Regattta.
What blast the First ever Oval track iceboating regatta was. For Those of you who couldn't make it out to spectate, or race you missed an incredible time.

The Oval track provided for a whole new set of challenges to make it even more exciting. There were all types of winds for the event. From light air, to blowin and providing a great show for the audience.

I think the picture says it all