Anyone know of a company that produces a small and affordable ice sailboat. Our lake is totally frozen over and thought we should try our hand at ice sailing.



I am also wondering if a hot dog H16 sailor, or I20 or Tiger sailor would consider sailing on a 550-acre lake (probably 400-450 acres is the actual sailable area I think). Our sailing group has been offered a permanent site at this lake, plus funding for equipment and for construction of a building. Great news but I am a little concerned with the size of the lake, still it looks fairly big, and the wind there is consistent as compared to the other lakes in the area, and is a beautiful area. Oh yes, the lake is 10 to 40 feet deep, nice warm summer lake. One thing for sure there wont be any long distance racing on this lake.



Our club has Access Dinghies and Hobie 16's with and without Trapseats and these sailboats will do fine on this lake, but I know a couple of local H16 speedsters, and N6.0's and Supercats sailors. They may go across the lake to quickly, to really enjoy it or maybe my perspective of the size of the lake is not correct.



So what is your perspective on the size issue and if you would enjoy sailing on this lake.

I think that you have a wonderful opportunity to start a sailing club. We have a great club here, with a clubhouse, storage buildings, and bathrooms. We do not limit our membership to any particular type of sailing craft. We have a strong community of windsurfers, catamarans, and monos (up to 25 feet). About half of the Cat sailors own a mono-hull boat. We sail Cats all day long, cook out, then pile on a Catalina 22 or something and go night sailing. It is nice, because we sail all year round (I am sure it is a bit warmer in West Texas than Idaho; will not find any ice covered lakes here.).



I do believe your lake will be a bit small for catamarans. I have taken my boat camping on a lake about the same size as your lake, and it doesn't take long to get your rounds in.... I am not sure how big our lake is, and after sailing it 2 or 3 times, I am ready to kick back on a mono and party.



Last summer, we started going to some of the Hobie Regattas; it is exciting to sail new waters, and I love hanging out with the Hobie sailors...made several new friends. This is a great answer to small to medium size home lakes.



Our biggest problem is that we are in the 5th year of drought. We cannot put most of mono-hulls in the water. We are going to try to float something tomorrow for a New Year's sail. Looks like it is going to be cold...brrrr.... Wish you guys would send the cold back to Canada....lol



David

H-16

It is a small lake I think for the H16 and access dinghies its ok, but putting in a 22 or 25 foot mono with its deep keel would not be posible, because the launch ramp would not allow it, just two shallow. So this club would be for small dinghies which could be a good or bad thing. On the other hand its a warm lake in the summer more so than any other lake in the area. Luckily there is already a sailing club for bigger monohulls on another lake, but there is nothing for the dinghy group. I guess I will just have to test it this summer and see how it goes. The size is a real issue but maybe it will be ok, I have not sailed on this lake but once I do it might turn out to be ok.

Go for it! Our sailing club does have the deepest water ramp on our lake, but most of our boats are swing keels, because when our lake is down it has many shallow places. We are about 17 feet down now...not a pretty sight...cannot launch many boats because we only have about 3 feet at the end of our boat ramp.



Well, New Year's Day, and it is snowing....rare here...we are going to try to put a Dolphin in for a quick sail this afternoon.



Have a great New Year,

David

By my calcs your lake is roughly a mile long and a mile wide. I do not think this would be attractive to spinniker cats. Even kind of small for H16. In poor/cold weather we sail on Broad Bay in Virginia Beach. It is approx. 1 3/4 miles long and 2/3 miles wide, which is marginal, especially for racing. Depending on wind direction, the corners often get cut off by shallows, shorelines, etc.



If the goal of your club is recreational sailing, by all means go for it on the H16s. If you desire a racing program, perhaps dinghys are more appropriate (Lasers, Flying Juniors, even Thistles or Buccaneers).



As for ice boats, they are even faster than cats and tend to be very racing oriented. Have to be pretty hard core to blast around at 20-30 MPH in sub-freezing temps. Could be a nice home build project but probably not something you want to spend a lot of money on.

A small tarp and a couple of kids on skates can be good fun, too.

From the emails and responses I have gotten on this and the open forum it appears many feel this lake will be ok for H16’s and monohull dinghies. I took my kids for a walk on it yesterday (Lakes Frozen) and stood in the middle of it and it appeared to me that the size is fine for the H16 and Access Dinghies. So this summer I will try it out and get things going there, and most likely it will be a nice place for a fun sailing club and not for a serious high tech club, which suits the current membership.

Do a search on excite, snap or lycos for ice sailing. Good links will come up. Thought you might get a kick out of this photo. Hobie 17 mast and boom.



Doug Snell

H17 #6325

"Stress Free"