iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

If you ask anyone on the iceboat circuit to name one person who singlehandedly has had a profound impact on our sport the unanimous answer would be Jorge Bohn (G-737). Unfortunately for the fleet, Jorge recently announced his retirement as European Commodore.

Jorge frequently travels to Minnesota to sail the Great Western Challenge. He is a true ambassador of our sport and the Minnesota sailors owe him a debt of gratitude for his service and leadership. What follows is his final post found on the IDNIYRA-Europe website.
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(click for pictures) We got in 4 races today before noon, which is quite obviously a BEIYC record considering our races usually don't even start before noon. Ice was soft and sticky, winds were high but plenty manageable. The new marks and starting blocks have catapulted the club into the 21st century, if only we could figure out what the numbers mean. Brett Smith was consistently fast all day, and had a runner in the air a lot. Some pictures below.

Rob Evans (10th place) was not the only MN Boy to do well at the North Americans.

John Bushy, Lake Riley Sugar Shack and Ice Yacht Club, won the Bronze fleet. How cool is that? Well done, John!

Enjoy these clips of me desperately trying to get down the race course. We had a great time. I did pretty good. The only Minnesota member in the top ten was Rob Evans - DN4975. He got the coveted final 10th place! Nice job going from unranked to 10th!

Thanks to everybody for the great time!

Now there is no excuse to not attend this regatta. The North American Championships have been called "ON" for Madison, WI. For us MN boys, that's practically in our back yard. Racing begins on Monday Feb. 22, 2016, with 14(!) races scheduled. Go to https://ice.idniyra.org/hotline to access the latest regatta and lodging information. The DN hotline page is the official notification center for the regatta.

To quote an oft used phrase: It's going to be epic.
Think Ice!

There is a good chance the 2016 DN North American Championships, scheduled for Feb 22-26, 2016, will be sailed close to home. A preliminary decision regarding regatta location will be made tonight. Bookmark https://ice.idniyra.org/hotline to access the latest information. The DN hotline page is the official notification center for the regatta.

If you haven’t already committed, think about attending. The NA's is a great regatta and a rare opportunity to see the best of the best strut their stuff. This year’s regatta is scheduled for 14 races.

A very fun regatta. The 4LIYC pulled out all the stops. They host an amazing regatta. Their membership deserves high praise. Side by side courses. Saturday night dinner. And valet parking for getting trailers on and off the ice. Nice touch. Not sure how they will top that one!

Team Tonka did well. The Doctor dominated with 4 bullets. Jim McDonagh was the only other race winner and he did it in style. Jim lead race 2 from start to finish and won the race by a country mile.

Overall results:
1 Doctor
2 Bloom
3 McDonagh

The word out of Pewaukee Wisc. this Super Bowl Sunday is that Scott Brown sailed his beloved Betsy (Nite #559) to his third straight Nite National Championship.

Details are sketchy but all that really matters is that the local boy did good.

Join me in congratulating Scott.

Pewaukee Lake survived this weeks storm with just rain. It's now ice with no reported problems, and Nite Nationals are a go. Looks like the first attempt at a Gold and Silver fleet is going to work. Regatta details at niteracing.org. Looking for a strong Minnesota contingent.

Nite Nationals is called on for Feb. 6 & 7 with a clever plan to overcome an expected snowfall.

"They" say a fairly hefty storm will dump a narrow path of snow across Wisconsin from the southwest to the northeast. If the storm track slips east, the regatta will be at Maiden Rock on Lake Pepin. If the track slips west, the regatta will be on Pewaukee. And if the storm gets fat and hits both lakes, then Fox Lake is the cards.

There will be a contingent of Minnesota sailors attending. This regatta features split fleets so there will be good racing for everyone.

I'd delete this if I could, but I can't.

The ISA committee thought they had this one nailed with two lakes with awesome black ice a thousand miles apart. Both got snow, and the regatta is postponed.

It may take a few weeks for Green Lake (WI) or Geneva to ice up, or for a Zamboni to clean up Madison or Pewaukee.

With two reportedly fantastic sheets of ice in play, the International Skeeter Association has called on their championship for this coming weekend, January 29-31. Both Lake Monona in Madison and Moosehead Lake near Greenville, ME are in contention. According to organizers, small weather systems are being watched before making the final call Wednesday morning.

The ISA includes A, B and C Skeeters, Renegades and Nites sailed in rotation.

So close. A couple of workable icesheets, but the forecast is for calm winds for much of Saturday, and it's been determined that waiting for better conditions is a better bet than attempting a regatta on stiff, frozen snow. So, Nite Nationals are postponed once again.

perfect ice, temp and wind. who's in? meyer, browner and evans so far. how about Madison and green lake sailors? meyer