GeoffS's blog

"Loaner Boat" project - looking for a sail...

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:42:43 -0500

[This has been posted on the "DN America" site and iceboat.org, so apologies for the duplication. I'm looking to cast the widest possible net in hopes of getting this together for next season...]

I'm putting together a "loaner boat" around my old DN. Last year I got the hull and plank back in shape for Jori Lennon to use while her new hull was under-construction. That catalyzed an effort to assemble the rest of the parts for a complete program. My old Norton-Winder fiberglass mast should be nearly perfect for a beginner, and the Mattison/Krueger shop on Willy Street has donated some wire to make stays. Two years ago, Wayne Schmiedlin helped fix my spare boom to use with his new hull, and just yesterday I acquired a set of plate-runners from Eric Olsen of Milwaukee.

A couple of photos from the 2008 Northwest Ice Yacht Association regatta

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:13:21 -0600

To the south, there was the main pits area for the NIYA:

(click "View Original" to see the full-size photo)

... and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses ...

It's too hot for iceboating but...

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:55:18 -0500

Matt Struble's two throwouts in the NACRA F-17 North American Championship regtta were a third and first.

'nuff said.

Cheers,

Geoff S.

More photos.

Passing of a great DN'er: Skip Boston

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:34:39 -0500

Skip Boston, DN US 150, passed away during the night of August 15, 2005.

DN Building Jigs

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:58:39 -0500

A week ago a few of us visited Dan Hearn here in Madison to talk about building the 4-Lakes Jr. Iceboating Program. While we were there we got to see Dan's building jig. He designed it to be flexible enough to loft and build both full-size DNs and the Opti-DNs (or ice-Optis, if you prefer):
[image:1189]

After seeing his setup Byron Tetzlaff and I decided it was the way to go for our building plans. We may be building slightly different sized boats (min/max length, different cockpit widths, maybe even an Opti), so the flexibility of Dan's setup of screw-down blocks seemed ideal.

Pretty good spring so far...

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 12:30:34 -0500

My personal measure for the "goodness" of spring (and fall, for that matter) is how long I have to wait between the last iceboating and the first soft-water sailing.

Hull assembly line...

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 13:17:52 -0500

The sailing season is done (at least on the hardwater), so that means the building season is started!

Sometimes photogenic and stable aren't compatible...

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:05:58 -0600

Technorati Profile
Yesterday we decided to get a couple of photos of our boats with the State Capitol building in the backround.

Some more equipment photos from the GC

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 13:05:28 -0600

More to follow as I can get them uploaded.

Ugh - split sideboard...

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:44:29 -0600

I was going over my boat looking for some spike-marks to fill and I found that one of the sideboards had started to split! Some unexpected quality time in the shop this week...

Probably that rough ice last Friday.

Cheers,

Geoff S.
US-5156

Gold-Cup Quotes from the Madison Media

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:05:59 -0600

Here are a few quotes about the GC regatta published in the various Madison media last week (names removed to protect the misquoted):

"When I was 16, I raced everything I could, motorcycles, cars. But as I grew older I discovered those were just things I did until I discovered iceboating. This is a blast."

"You can't be picky, this is probably one of the nicest pieces of ice in the country right now."

"This is probably the last place in the world to iceboat today."

"We've been here nine days and this is the first day of the regatta. It is sometimes very frustrating to wait on the ice."

Cold, "Blue Juice"...

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 12:41:39 -0600

At the swap meet here this fall, Paul Goodwin remarked that one downside of the water-soluble "Blue Juice" cutting fluid is that it will freeze. I stored that little factoid away in my mind, and decided I'd keep my WD-40 soaked stones in the "on the ice" toolkit, and the blue-juice ones in the shop.

Well, the best laid plans, etc. I loaded up the car with spare parts and extra tools for the Western Challenge regatta and took my stoning bench and shop-stones with me. They went into the hotel room for post-race runner-tuning, and all was good. I got home late Sunday night and postponed cleaning out the car for a couple of days... Guess what happened!

"The Plank Deflector"

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 22:15:33 -0500

Ever since I got burned at the NAs last year by aligning my runners with an out of whack set of aligners, I've been thinking about how to align my chocks without relying on a "gold standard" fixture. Optically seems to be the only way to go to align things from "first principles".

My Favorite Iceboating Links

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 17:05:57 -0600

Iceboating.net:
http://www.iceboating.net
(of course!)

Iceboat.org - 4 Lakes Ice Yacht Club:
http://www.iceboat.org

DN Bulletin Board:
http://cerebus.winsite.com/laser/DNboard/DNmain.html

Yahoo! Iceboating Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceBoating/

MSN Landsailer and Iceboat Design and Construction Group:
http://groups.msn.com/LandsailerandIceboatdesignandconstruction

Tom Speer's Home-Page:
http://www.tspeer.com/

"Trust Me" Renegade Rebuild Status

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 10:42:02 -0600

While I love my DN, here in the 4-Lakes club the Renegade is king (there are typically more than 20 boats on the line for a club race). So, last summer I bought a "fixer upper" Renegade. The original hope was to have it ready for the 03-04 season, but my day-job and other stuff happened and it's still sitting Jim Nordahus' shop as a work-in-progress. I'll try and keep a running commentary on the work as the boat progresses to sailable condition.