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The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Malletts Bay, Feb 2016. A bit of snow on the ice this year but the DN's are still out there. This was shot by one of the fellows in our mooring field. Just pause when you get burned out.
Lovely! Whaddaya guess for speeds and tacking angles?
Dave Bristle Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired), Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge
Dave B -I have no idea on boat speed in this video. I know DNs can reportedly sail up to 10x true wind speed and <10° off the apparent wind. According to Wikipedia, DN's regularly sail 50 mph in 9-10kt winds with recorded speeds over 65mph upwind. The unconfirmed speed record (Wisconsin) is 108mph. Downwind the record is 56mph in 15kt wind....and that while sitting a few inches above the surface...
Whew... I once did speeds like that on a snowmobile across a frozen lake--it reported about 75 mph for a moment--that was too fast for me! I guess if you crack up for some reason, you just slide for a quarter mile or so...
I think it's so cool the way ice boats going off-the-wind cross a threshhold to where they're making their own apparent wind, thereby sailing "upwind" and exceeding the true wind speed. I'm guessing you can't reach that threshhold speed sailing dead-downwind, but once you do reach it, your apparent wind will keep you above the true wind speed in any direction. Are we bordering on "perpetual motion" here??
Dave Bristle Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired), Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge
There’s a fleet locally on Bantam Lake in the town of Morris, Litchfield county Connecticut. N41.7055° W73.2226 Most years they get a solid freeze on the lake and when conditions are right the call will go out and you’ll see the ice boats flying around the lake. The lake is only 947 acres but has some longer runs from north to south. It’s nothing like Lake Champlain but it’s still fun out there.
Then there are the snowmobiles—they’re like dirt bikes on the golf course, or PWCs in the anchorage.
Dave Bristle Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired), Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge
And they say about snowmobiles, that every spring they find one or two “floaters”. Apparently a few of them get lost out on the ice and are found around the end of the season...
Sad but amusing...our clubs page. Actually the cover photo (I was told) is from Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.
Ice fishing...Not an issue on our bay (Malletts Bay) it's too deep. The fisherman focus on shallow bays for perch, pike, ...
As for the DNs on the lake...there are few areas that have the right conditions, i.e. protected enough so the ice forms smooth, enough fetch for a good run and fair but not crazy winds. And then the less snow the better. I think those guys are always on the hunt for the right spot.
DNs look like fun. Even more edgy are the 20-year old wind- and kite-surfers.
Dave Bristle Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired), Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge
Great video on the Little Harbor sinking. Heartbreaking to see such a fine vessel mistreated so. I am sure here will be much more that is revealed about the owner and their behavior.
Peter Bigelow C-25 TR/FK #2092 Limerick Rowayton, Ct Port Captain: Rowayton/Norwalk/Darien CT
By the way, for anyone who hasn’t heard of the brand “Little Harbor”, this is a company created by the legendary Ted Hood, and a few decades ago bought by Hinckley in Rhode Island. Many or most of the boats were built in Taiwan. Knowing a couple who owned one, they are known among yachtsmen as being among the very finest—in the category with Hinckleys. They are drop-dead gorgeous and top-line design and construction. This incident is unimaginable.
It might be somewhat fortunate that Hamburg Cove, which is off the Connecticut river north of Essex, not far from me, is virtually all fresh water—slightly brackish in long dry spells when the river’s flow is lower. The CT R. is the main flow from about the Canadian border down to the Long Island Sound, and we’ve had a lot of flow this winter. People spend nights at anchor in the cove to kill the barnacles on their hulls, props, etc.—it seems to work. So the damage here might not be as bad as some imagine.
Dave Bristle Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired), Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.