iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

Last evening, Sunday there were over 24" of optically clear ice under 4" of snow ice and 4-8 inches of water/slush/snow. The forecast seems to support the following case:

All of the remaining snow on Minnetonka, and other local lakes will melt over the next 48-60 hours, the water will drain, and we'll be left with 18-24 pretty darn good inches of ice, temperatures cold enough to kick anything remaining on Friday night and a Perfect Day of Iceboating Friday/Saturday and Sunday... of course there should be a concern for those pesky drain holes, be careful out there.

Check out the gps track of our two scrub races

2010 Thunder Bay, Lake Superior
Wind about 10kts
28 February 2010
Scrub Racing
us5214
2.2 km (1.36m) course length at 205 degrees
Top Speed 85.48km (53.5mph)

Click on the read more.. to load the google map track of the scrub races on Sunday, and the gpsactionreplay java applet..

Me and JD setup the course and ripped around twice and then did some more cruising..

The second Wayzata WIRC Oval is done, as it's out front of a great yacht club, and we are showing off boats, we named her "Bristol" 1/4 mile around, set perfect for today's winds.

Or for you stock car people, she's a high banked oval(in this case 4' snow banks), short and a little narrow, except the big jybe turn with optional safety run out.

Thunder Bay, Ontario

I just spoke with the Commodore of the Thunder Bay Yacht Club.
http://www.tbyc.on.ca

He is going to alert the local ice boaters to report in.

Evidently he lives right next to the bay and they have been out ice skating on it.

MODIS Yesterday

Thick enough to drive on, very large raw area to work with...

hmmm...

The chatter about ice is slim to none on all sites. What gives? How about hearing form Indiana or the top of the Lower Peninsula in Michigan near Traverse City? What happened to the ice in Ontario last night? If there are no ice reports, at least I know to have a passport and numbers on my sail...

There is a track, almost a half mile oval plowed in Wayzata Bay... winds are forecast to reach 5mph this afternoon,

Launch at the fire lane near Sailing School.

Could be great fun for the WYC Winter Party... note this is a sailing opportunity, may be enough breeze to let rookies sail on the course.

Who's in?

4695

I found a large blue leather Gordini mitten on Lake Phalen late Saturday is in my car waiting for the person who has one just like it in his car to contact me.

For now I will use it as an antenna flag on the ice. I don't really need it.

4695

Cicumnavigated Pepin today, ice is better on the MN. side with the best bet looking like the south end of Lake City.Some stern steerers set up at Pepin Wisc. but it looks pretty rough and the pickle barrel is closed for the winter.

The tracks are fast and it's already blowing 9 in St. Paul, I'm headed over now.

4695

Jeff Solum a rookie DNer from Deephaven MN put on a masterful display in the final event, He had an explosive start, leapt away from a seasoned "finals race" field and never looked back, last year's runner up in the finals Sam Kiefer, driving the Great Clips Racing, #38 boat had a disappointing race. "I had the boat going pretty good in track testing yesterday, I must have knocked a runner out of alignment, and my start pretty much sucked, Jeff was flying away from me before I even got in the boat".

By chance, I was looking at a one meter hi rez satellite image of the Willmar area taken 1/26/2010 and it look like Eagle Lake was snow free as compared to the other lakes in the area. If someone is driving in the area...they should check it out and report back.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/157901/publisher_ID/36/

you know what I do...

4695

I just returned from a one day turn-around drive to the best ice in the Midwest! Green Lake Wi was only a 4.5 hour drive from Wayzata, MN. Sailed 5 hours with at least 10 scrub races twice around on at least a mile course! The ice is slightly pebbley black ice, 5-6 inches thick, with no ridges or holes!

Going to leave work early (2ish) and try to sail in the Bayport area.
Yesterday the River had an inch of snow, musta sogged up and froze.
darn snow today is gonna make it iffy, but it's worth a try; at least till it drifts.
Counting on good wind.

Kent

Local friends of iceboating report 1/2" of existing snow cover, with 1.5" of newly fallen powder snow at sunrise this morning...

Snow bands continue,

We started driving down in heavy traffic and 1/4-1/2" an hour snowfall,

Winds expected to exceed 25 mph

Consensus, the wind will be such a determining factor that no accurate assessment of what Saturday's ice will be this morning. This trip is a fools errand, and while others might disagree, fools we are not. Trip abandoned in progress.