"Walt" wrote in message
...

Ever hear of the DN class? I'm sure you're aware of the fact that it
stands for Detroit News, who sponsored the design competition that
resulted in the DN. Let's just say I'm in the armpit of the iceboating
world. (c:

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.

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.

Max