"Walt" wrote
Ever hear of the DN class?

Oh yeah. My one and only excursion into iceboating was in a DN.

Our club has an Arrow (basically a 2 person version of the DN), but I
haven't tried it yet. I'm afaid that I might like hard water sailing a
little too much, and it's a damn fickle sport - you need cold, but not
snow, which can be hard to come by.


Does seem like a bit of a paradox, now that you mention it.
I'm not tempted to try such a climate.


Maxprop wrote:
That's the quintessential problem here--we so seldom get black ice that it's
probably not worth owning an iceboat. I once owned a Nite, which is a
two-place, side-by-side one-design racer. It would top out at around
100mph, so some claimed, but I probably never got it above 80, which is
plenty fast. The shore comes up mighty rapidly at those speeds. I sold it
after 6 years, during which we only had a brief period during one winter
which was really premier bare ice. The only other occasions to use it were
questionable, with patches of snow which have the same effect on iceboat
speed as throwing out an anchor.


My understanding is that soft patches & snow can be pretty
bad, although the thing to *really* look out for is
port-tackers cleaning their goggles. A capsize isn't so bad
if you don't mind sliding on ice.

I had fun sailing the DN but got too cold to stick with it
for long. I also declined the opportunity to join a race,
since it was obvious I'd get badly waxed and only delay
everybody.

DSK