Check out YouTube Lake Riley Iceboats

Comments

The Season Begins!

Nice sheet of ice in the middle of Riley. Wind willing we will be setting up the boats tomorrow. I was just out to White Bear Lake for a birthday gathering and saw 12 iceboats ready to sail on clear black ice. Rock and Roll People!!!

Lk Riley....

Awesome video - gave me goosebumps first time I saw it!
Was wishing I was the extra on that one! Best "In the
cockpit" ride I have ever seen. Lots of other iceboat
movies on Youtube, but this is the best! (I used to
rent an apartment on Lake Riley, about 1973-74.) Now
am a frustrated wanna-be 50 miles north of Brainerd
and can't find anyone to go with up here...:-(.

Whut open water ??

Nice video

This is Lake Riley in Eden Prairie/Chanhassen right? I really want to get into the sport this winter (I currently live in Chaska), but am not really familiar with everything (also am tired of sitting around the house during the winter months). I have had some experience with sailing growing up on the West Coast.

Does anyone in the Twin Cities area have any suggestions for any good novice boats for sale and/or any ice boat clubs in the area?

Lake Riley, EP

That's the lake! There is no reason to sit around in the winter. You are welcome to come out and enjoy our lake this winter. It would be a stretch to call us a club, but we have a few DNs and Nites, an Arrow and an Iceflyer. You can usually find a DN for a reasonable price. We sail with plate runners and aluminum masts to keep our fleet even and cheap, resisting the temptation to buy the good stuff (so far). If you don't have your own, come sail ours until you do.

John Bushey

John Bushey

Sounds good - i was looking

Sounds good - i was looking at http://windline.net and was wondering if anyone has any experience with their products - they seem more focused on land sailing, but they have blade attachments for their rigs. Any thoughts? Building something is probably out of the question for me right now as I don't really have the room to work on any projects.

Also I was curious, does Lake Riley stay pretty clear of snow usually?

Jeff

Riley ice

My favorite iceboats are Nites and DN's. Iceflyers are pretty fun, too. I think the Windline stuff would be like a super version of a Slicer or a Skimmer 45. Plenty of fun but not the same as a DN or Nite. Others here may have experiance with them... I'd like to here some opinions, too. There is a swap meet in Wisconsin this weekend. A couple of us are thinking of going. Interested?

Riley usually has the same conditions as Minnetonka. Last year was pretty bad. With lot's of snow, we only got in a few days of good sailing. The previous couple years were great, like in the video. You never know what to expect, but you know what to hope for. If you wnat, you can email me direct at: jabushey (at) mac.com

John Bushey

John Bushey