iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

..the Icemaker calls from the road. "Good ice in Alex", is the main point of his 59 second, 10 cent call.

The forecast for Easter Sunday is looking very good. 34 degrees, N winds 8-11 mph. Stay tuned....

Adam
US 5366

The lakes up north are still plenty thick, although access may require planks.

Several sailors have indicated interest in sailing perhaps in the Alexandria area on Sat or Sun.

We'll be checking the forecast this afternoon and making a call.

For a grand finale event there's a little short course experiment we'd like to see tested.

it's gonna be great

4695

We sailed lower Minnetonka today, hard fast rumbly ice in the AM softening through out the day. Cleaner ice up toward Big Island and up towards Excelsior, thicker crust down towards Wayzata and Brackett's point. Smoother Ice on Lower Lake than I found in Spring Park on Upper lake on Sun. where I broke my DN plank. That seemed bad until I lost the leeward runner of my Skeeter into a carp hole today and ripped the plank off. Check out the carnage in the broken gear section of images.

From 4695 and KA1....

SPB ice is hard, fast, a bit bumpy.

4 DNs are out ripping now. Lots of power-hikes.

Cloudy so it should remain hard all day.

Winds 13 to 20, forecast to moderate later in the afternoon.

Packing up now...

-Adam

Seven DN's sailed Spring Park Bay yesterday, the remaining snow was a bit sticky but was not a big deal.

Short course, Big gusts, generally just a giggle.

Boats remain set up with some sailing planned this week after work.

4695

Sailed the West side of Waconia today. Aprox 1/2" crust of snow/ice crud on top of hard ice. Temps were around 40 and sailing was surprisingly fast for this type of surface. Still some fishing hole mounds and rough areas around where ice houses were that you need to watch out for but was pretty good overall.

1. walked on spring park bay this afternoon, conditions, about 1" of corn snow/slush on top of hard snow ice... the sun has yet to hit the ice on the open sites. The ice is hard to shore.

Conclusion, if there's breeze we''ll probably be able to sail. Several DN's indicate they plan to set up ast spring park bay and sail tomorrow. Setting up ~10:00

2: I see the ice cops are looking for an iceboater. Check the blogs if your boat is "set up" today, somebody's looking for you. Jeez, the power of the internet! Tip of the helmet to Deputy Piper!

Spring time in Minnesota, tee shirt ice sailing!

Yup, it sure looks like the forecast warm and then cold will have "zambonied" pretty much every lake in Minnesota we should be good to go for a couple weeks now.

it's gonna be great, T shirt DNing

4695

I just spoke with a gentleman who was in Duluth this past Sunday, He said the ice was clear as far as the eye could see. I'm hoping He's not blind, the webcam doesn't look that great.
Can anyone confirm this? Would be great to have another chance to go sailing yet this year, Duluth is only a couple of hours away from Mpls. Are there any other locations that have survived the latest rath of mother natures massive snowfall?

Superior Bay, Duluth MN was sailed sunday by a stern steer, there is a reported 2' of ice in the sailing area...

Lake Superior is frozen fast for a large area out from Duluth, local fishermen report 8" of ice observed several hundred yards from shore.

photo from a slightly higher altitude

Ten Days til the DN World Championship Regatta! Lot's of preparation going on during the recent chilly weather. There's at least onemore new DNer in Minnesota this week. Expect to see at least two KA sails on the line at the biggie.

The weather pattern we've seen for the last couple weeks is now changing, temps will finally start moderating a bit. Minnesota's "second ice season" is about to begin.

Currently 40% of the State has less than 2" of snow depth... The NWS interactive snow map shows an area touching Nimrod, Wolf Lake, Menahga, Park Rapids and Akley with No Snow on the ground.

I grew up in Alexandria and Dad had a gaff rig iceboat with stern tiller back in the 50's which I think we sold to some guys in Mpls in the late 50's.

I now live on Lake Ida about 12 NW of Alexandria, MN. In my 60+ years I have never seen ice this fine for iceboating in this area. No snow (and I mean NO SNOW - the full moon tonight glaring off of the ice could blind one unless you are wearing sunglasses!), extremely smooth surface, and some widely scattered, well defined fizzures on a 4500 acre lake that I estimate has over 18" of ice. Smooth sailing the entire lake with no known danger spots or weak ice.

NEAR PERFECT ICE CONDITIONS, are confirmed in the Alexandria, Minnesota Area. Lakes Ida, Miltona, etc. are completely snow free, have seen little if any snow all season.

Good ice with 1/4" light snow cover is reported on Lake Pepin off of Lake City, MN as observed from a sailing DN.

Of course it's probably too cold to snow this week. Temperatures will probably be under the sailing envelope for the weekend. Should be below zero F for daytime highs most of the weekend.

Today looks to be the best sailing day of the week, no sailing plans for the day are known, no additional updates are planned for the week.

Pepin-Where have you kids been? Has the lake frozen yet? Snow?
We haven't heard a word from the stern steerers all winter.

How about the Iowa guys? Clear Lake, Okoboji, Spirit, Emmetsburgh,
Anyone been there? Sailed there?

Anywhere else in the midwest have ice?

Good or bad or whatever anyone see's post a reply here please....

Great Ice remains for Week 10 We've seen little snow in Central Minnesota... Lakes immediately around Alexandria are believed to be in "pretty darn good" condition. eg. Miltona... it however has not been checked by an ice sailor... yet.

Alex Forecast:
Saturday: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 11. Wind chill values between -4 and -9. Blustery, with a north northwest wind between 17 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.... (forecast 36 mph gusts in Fergus).

Sunday: Partly cloudy, with a high near 8. Northwest wind between 6 and 13 mph. Brrrrr