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I went out today for a short sail on my Tech dinghy. I did a little work on it this morning, I put on a new fore stay and put a jib on it. It was a jib that Ed gave me from his old skipjack and it worked out pretty well. The winds were light but I got her heeled over almost to the gunnels. I've still got some work to do on the jib sheets but I think it's gonna make the boat even better than before. Here's a link to some info on the boat.  http://sailing.mit.edu/LearntoSail/Saili...fied.shtml

It's an old design that has kept going for a long time. They were built by the same company that made Beetle cats. I have no idea when mine was built, there are no numbers on it at all. It was given to me from a guy I worked with several years ago. I cleaned, sanded, painted, replaced the seats and splash combings and I've been sailing her ever since. It's a great spur of the moment boat when the day in nice and the wind is blowing. I can have it loaded up and on the lake in about 30 minutes including driving to the water.  Nothing like a January sail with just a long sleeved shirt and blue jeans!

Keith

Sounds very nice!

Only in my dreams Keith, maybe someday I'll be able to winter in warmer climates. Alas I'm stuck in the ice box for now. Good on ya man.

Greg

Greeting Greg,

For January sailing in a Weekender north of the 49th parallel, you just need to build a pair of out-riggers with a hull cradle notched to accept the keel.  Add a secondary set of shrouds to the tips of the outriggers to absorb the sail loads and support the mast.  Brace the outriggers back to the stern post and the attachment points to the hull could be a simple as a pair of bolts through the keel and stern post to retain the boat on the cradle.  Add a replacement rudder and some sharp steel edges and you would end up with something that looked like this …



or this



Some of those Brits across the pond are indefatigable about their sailing, whether the water is hard, or even not there at all !!!

I would suggest taking the time to browse the following links.  You might get some ideas.

More Ice boats at …  http://64.33.116.68/sweden-march.html

The Lincolnshire Landyacht Club … http://64.33.116.68/

and follow the Gr Britain link at http://www.icesailing.org/.  The site is still under construction, but the arrows do lead to some cool video.

More video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC45QJOn8Go

Cheers,
Tom 

They used to have those (the ones in the background) on the ponds where i grew up in winter, I remember seeing those things flying around out there ,I would definately like a ride in one.

Tom, is that "wintervreugd" boat a real vintage ice boat? I mean, did people have craft like that in the old days? Or is it just a fanciful "character" iceboat. It would be nice to think of people zipping around in things like that in the old days.

Greetings Keith,

Both of those photos are of vintage ice boats more than 100 years old.

If you follow this link http://64.33.116.68/sweden-march.html and then scroll down all the way to the bottom (it's a very long page), you will see photos of half a dozen ice boats between 100 and 120 years old.  Ice boats started out as boats with skates attached.  Later on they did away with the actual boat and just planted a normal sailing rig on a skinny platform.  The last 50 years have seen a steady progression to more and more aerodynamic shapes to the point now where some "pilots" are now fully enclosed in cowlings. Now it's all about speed, speed, speed, with high aspect rigs that travel so fast they are always close-hauled sailing on their own apparent wind.

Cheers,
Tom

You can also google "blokart" to see some great wind machines for beach or ice.

Ok, this is not a Stevenson designed story but I had to top Keith's January sailing story so here goes.  At least some of the knowledge that lead to this story was gained on a Pocket Cruiser!

The day promised wind with possible gusts over 20 mph. The average for the day was probably around 12mph with the last race coming in at 13mph. The race course was a straight up and back with wind on the nose for the windward mark (happens surprisingly little on our lake with its unpredictable wind shifts).

Ten minutes before the start of the race I decided to put up the 100% jib rather than the 13% genny I raced most of last season with. This was partly in response to the wind conditions but I also figured the jib, with its sheets led inside the shrouds, would let me point that much higher. Hopefully high enough to make up for the loss of downwind performance.

Well, it turned out my strategy was spot on and my great crew helped as well! We were able to outpoint all other boats including some fairly good racers. Kinda fun to see all the boats attempting to point high and fall off in frustration...I also did well on the starts so was out in front for most of the race. We were also very fortunate in the article of wind shifts always on the right tack for the most direct route up the course and able to make the mark without pinching too much or sailing extra distance. Finally, I was actually faster on the reach than the other boats (masthead rigs) despite jibs as large as 180%! End result was finishing 5-10 minutes ahead in 20-40 minute races. On the second race, we even crossed the finish line before the next closes boat had crossed the windward mark.

What really helped was the fractional rig. I was able to go with a small jib to improve pointing performance without impacting downwind performance much since the power of our boats downwind is in the mainsail and not the forsail. No, I don't own a spinnaker and none of the other boats flew one either. Don't know if that would have made enough difference to make up for our much better windward performance.

So that is my January sailing story.  This saturday I get to go sleep in a cave with the scouts!  Much rather be sailing  :-\ . 

Greetings Scott,

That’s a great sailing story. Success at racing is frequently based on your understanding of how the boat works … like the inside-the-shrouds sheet lead for the jib allowing you to flatten the sail down for better upwind work.  Your head-wind pinching opponents obviously did not know the limits of their craft or they would have footed off for better boat speed; as even though they sail a longer course, they would have done it faster, and not given up so much water so quickly.  One has to understand how the boat works.

I would be curious to know just how unpredictable those winds really are.  You should keep track of the wind shifts.  Every minute or two, write down the compass heading of the wind as a column of numbers.  As the wind shifts clockwise, move the column to the right – counter-clock wise moves the column to the left.  After a while a pattern will emerge as the column of compass bearings to the wind squiggles left and right. A quick glance at the pattern as you round each mark will indicate the favored tack.  If you sail a Clorox bottle, the entire boat is one handy white-board.  Just pick a nice flat spot and start writing with a grease pencil or a dry erase marker.  Captain Crazy Chuck used to write right on the cabin bulkhead of his O’Day.  But be sure to clean it all up before you get back to port or your opponents will see what you have been up to.  So now you have to add a small bottle of Windex, a rag, and a grease pencil to your race-day ditty bag.

Cub Scouts, eh? We just finished our Pack’s Pinewood Derby yesterday and mini-me advanced to the District races.  I would be curious to know if you have had the opportunity to compete in a Rain Gutter Regatta, where you carve little boats from standard sized blocks of balsa and sail them down a race course.  The son of a Back Yard Yacht Builder should be able to win that event hands down.  No pressure there.
;D

Cheers,
Tom