Original plan. Freezeout Lake, near Choteau, MT, east of Glacier National Park, out on the great plains east of the Divide. Sun, and temps in the forties predicted, but with 30, gusting into the high forties. Too much! So we gaze further east, and a little further south, to Canyon Ferry, which has delivered big fun in the past. With the added bonus of Glenn’s fabulous clubhouse accommodations, and enthusiastic local iceboaters and skaters!
We back down the ramp around 1 pm in glorious sunshine and 8 to 10 kts of breeze, fifteen minutes and we’ve got three mini skeeters rigged, and we launch onto the big lake. Jim’s christening a brand new boat he’s just completed, as well as taking a first bite at skippering his own ice yacht. Ice is a bit rough, diminishing refrozen drifts sapping hard won speed. But we negotiate the obstacles enough to wind them up on the smoother sections, finding sustained speeds in the thirties, bouncing over the bumps. John takes a break to hand off the Kestrel to his brother Scott, who immediately shows that his soft water acumen translates nicely onto the ice.
We pull the new Wingnut V out of the trailer, and begin assembly in the tropical conditions. First time on ice for this machine as well, and when rolling she absorbs the irregularities effortlessly, and powers up quickly, occasionally hiking in this light air. She’s drop dead sexy sitting still, and somehow even more so in motion. But he only gets a half hour of glee before some critical parts land in his lap, and the maiden voyage comes to a close. So he jumps back in the mini skeeter and racks up the miles til sunset shuts off the pressure.
The evening festivities leave us well fed and nicely buzzed. The wind builds thru the night, to boat breaking strengths. With the temps dropping overnight into the twenties, the morning windchill is brutal! We lounge about casually with coffee and conversation, waiting for the predicted moderating. We straggle to the beach after noon, kick the tires, shoot the shit, and eventually rig the small sails. The morning’s squall has further smoothed the surface, leaving a pebbled surface which provides great grip for runners. Which is most appreciated, as maintaining control in the hugely gusty conditions has become a high priority.
This is what we’ve come for! Totally powered up, teeth rattling speeds touching 60 mph, astounding control for boats so small, a welcome confirmation of this terrific design’s high wind capability. The locals stream onto the ice, and the party cranks up! DNs, Nites, and a host of custom machines. Those with high wind sails venture out first, with others following as the breeze eases and settles. Miles are covered. Another big sky sunset drives us ashore, all sporting that iceboat grin!
Sunday morning again dawns clear, and the enthusiasts again assemble at the ice’s edge. Zero breeze, so the drones emerge, the wrenches come out, and skaters set forth. The sunshine and good company is intoxicating, and when the decision to pull the plug finally comes, there are no regrets. We stuff it all back in the trailer, and motor westward, planning the next foray.
Dave and John
February 9th, 2016
I just had a serious case of deja vu all over again. I was flicking around online when I saw a photo of a recently launched boat sailing in Dutch waters. I had to give it a second look because it was a photo of a boat that I knew for 100% certainty had been massively remodeled back in 1981. I was there. I saw these huge blades cut from sheerline to sheerline just aft of the keel and lob 20 feet off the stern. We also removed the mizzen and cut off a hideous coachroof that was designed to protect the crew from the cold Southern Ocean water. Once we were done with the refit the boat that emerged from the shed did not look at all like the the boat that arrived at the yard a few months earlier.
So how was it that I was seeing a recently taken photo of an old boat that no longer existed? Let me explain. In 1981 I did my first Whitbread Round the World Race on an American boat by the name of Alaska Eagle. It was a Sparkman and Stephens design, a 65-foot aluminium sloop built at Huisman Shipyard in Holland. ’81 was at the tail end of S&S’s glory days as the world’s top yacht design company, and ’81 was also the beginning of an amazing few decades where Huisman Shipyard stood atop as the world’s premier boatbuilder. Alaska Eagle was the last “tiny” boat they built; they were soon building some of the most exquisite SuperYachts ever launched.
We had bought Flyer, the boat that won the 1977/78 Whitbread race. Flyer was originally commissioned by the Dutch businessman Cornelis van Riestchoten. Connie wanted a boat modeled on a Swan 65 because four years earlier a Swan 65 had won the Whitbread race. van Riestchoten wanted a souped-up Swan and he got a pretty good boat that allowed him to handily win the ’77/78 Whitbread. Two years later the boat was renamed Flying Wilma and with Gerry Dykstra as skipper went on to win the Spice Race from Jakarta to Rotterdam.
Then along we came and hired S&S to help us modify the boat, to update it for the ’81/82 Whitbread race. The design team at S&S, led by the late Bill Langan, were adamant that the pinched in IOR stern had to go as did the ketch rig so we took the boat back to Holland and into the original shed where it was built at Huisman Shipyard. Flyer underwent a fairly substantial refit and emerged as Alaska Eagle, but unfortunately the name given to it by the rest of the fleet, Alaska Beagle, was more appropriate. We turned a great boat into a dog. The wetted surface went up, the sail area went down, the rating went up and the boat speed went down. It really was a dog and we thrashed it 27,000 miles around the world trying to keep up with the other boats. The refit had been a disaster.
After the Whitbread was over Alaska Eagle was donated to Orange Coast College in California where it was used as a crew training boat. Fast forward three decades and enter Diedreick Nolten and Gerard Schoostra, two sailors from the Netherlands. Nolten is a successful Volvo truck dealer and Schoostra the skipper of the old Swan 65 King’s Legend. They got to wondering what ever happened to Flyer and coincidentally found that it was up for sale.
The two Dutchmen flew to California and immediately bought the boat. I had heard that they were taking it back to Holland but never gave it another thought. That was until I saw a photo of it sailing again as Flyer.
Nolten and Schoostra had taken Alaska Eagle back to the same shipyard where it was originally built and refit, only by this time the shipyard had received a royal designation and was now the Royal Huisman Shipyard. Over the course of the following year Huisman returned Alaska Eagle back into an identical replica of the original Flyer. Once again a saw was taken to the stern and the piece we had added was lobbed off to be replaced by the pinched up IOR stern that was the original design.
The mast was chucked away and a new mainmast and new mizzen were installed. Below decks the boat was refitted to the identical interior of the original design right down to the finer details like some of the older navigation instrumentation. They even added the hideous aluminium dodger back aft. The boat that emerged from the shed was identical in almost every way to the boat that was originally launched four decades earlier.
I am not really sure how I feel about this. Granted Alaska Eagle was a total dog of a race boat but Orange Coast College put roughly 10,000 miles on the boat each year for over 30 years and hundreds sailed aboard her. Many people had great affection for Alaska Eagle with many memories tied up in the name. I was in my early 20’s when I raced around the world on Alaska Eagle and it’s strange to think that the boat no longer exists. Alaska Eagle was a large part of my life and I have my own fond memories, some of them not printable, all tied up with that name. Well life goes on I guess. I just hope that I get an invite to go for a sail on Flyer.
February 9th, 2016
Big Pimpin’
Nice to see a fleet of the brand new, McConaghy-built MC 31‘s out already! They look pretty bad-ass and we already have a name for ours – Sucker MC!
February 9th, 2016
We’re afraid Bedford’s problem hits near and dear to many of us who either have suffered from, or know someone who has fallen to the sweet siren call of sailing…
Hi, my name is Bedford. I guess it started back when I was in my teens. I started experimenting with sailing, a race here a cruise there. My friends all did it. I’ll never forget the time my mom found my Dubarrys. She was so pissed. It seemed harmless enough at the time. My Dad sailed and his father sailed too. They didn’t seem to have a problem.
My friends and family really started to notice that things were going to leeward when I got into my thirties. Sometimes I’d go off to a regatta and miss a whole week of work without calling in. I missed squash games, fund raisers and gallery openings. I’d show up at work a week later, tanned with a bunch of selfies. I was sailing four nights a week and all weekend.
That’s when the traveling started. I’d find myself flying all over North America and the Caribbean, staying in luxury hotels and eating at the best restaurants on the owner’s tab. All the other sailing bums lived that way back then. I was becoming a fixture on the yacht club scene. People were starting to talk. I had so much sportswear that I had to hide it from my wife. I kept telling myself that I could quit at any time. I just needed one more regatta. It got to the point where I couldn’t hold on to a day job anymore and my wife left me for an unemployed stereo salesman.
I realized that the only people I felt comfortable around were hardcore sailors. Back then, if we weren’t racing, we were looking for our next big race. All I could think about was the next race, plane tickets, hotels, fine dining, more sportswear. Even if I was traveling on business, I’d invariably end up down at the local yacht club trying to score a ride. I owned three blue blazers and no socks. I hung out with people with names like Chip, Buffy and Sparky.
I have to accept that I will always be a sailor. I’m trying to change but I will never stop thinking about the ocean. I even tried golf. That was a complete waste of time. Even the slightest breeze can send me running for the nearest marina. And, before long, I’ll find myself waking up in a quaint B&B in Newport or Marblehead with monogrammed sportswear everywhere.
I thought it would be OK if I stuck to distance races on custom stuff. I looked for rides on all carbon seventy or eighty footers if I could find them. That’s the fish everyone’s looking for. But, if I was desperate, I’d sail anything. Eventually, I found myself racing production boats, Beneteau’s, C&C’s…hell I’d go out on a Hunter if that’s all I could score.
So, where do we go from here? Time will tell. If my story can help just one person, one Chip, one Buffy, then it was all worth while. Day by day, I’ll learn a new life on land.
Please lend your support here….
February 9th, 2016
Like Punxsutawney Phil here in the USA, Monaco’s Primo Cup is the beginning of the end of another shitty Northern winter. And like that famous groundhog, Carlo Borlenghi popped out of his home to shoot the Stars in some big Mediterranean waves. Results, videos, photos here.
February 9th, 2016
CEO Knut Frostad signed off from his tenure at the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday, and call us crazy, but shouldn’t you have a new CEO before the old one leaves? Knut’s right hand man and VOR Chief Operating Officer Tom Touber is off for greener pastures as well, and while there’s plenty of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes, the clock she is a’ tickin’ and at least publicly, the VOR looks to be a rudderless ship.
Love him or hate him, Knut’s work ethic, commitment, and love for the sport is impossible to deny. Respect. Here’s a little excerpt from Knut’s piece.
So tell us about why you came to make this decision to leave the job at this time?
KF: It was quite similar to the day I decided to stop offshore racing. It was two things – I have a family, and the kids are growing, and that’s following your heart again. For me it’s very difficult to reduce the time and energy I invest in anything, for me to say that I should step back from my role and start going home at 5pm rather than 8pm, that’s not an alternative. I can’t deliver something that I am proud or satisfied with if I do that.
I got to a place where the ends didn’t meet. I’ve pushed with my heart for so long and eight years has been non-stop. I also felt that it was time for someone else but me. Not because I have run out of ideas, I have a few for the next race, but because it needs a fresh perspective in some areas.
- Tags: knut frostad, tom touber, volvo ocean race
February 9th, 2016
Quite possibly the best weather-related audio track in the history of weather-related audio tracks, it’s legendary Shakespearean actor Sir Ian McKellan making the Beaufort Scale sound like a concerto. Nice find from ‘blackjenner’.
- Tags: beaufort scale, ian mckellan, weather
February 9th, 2016
Kiwi A-Cat sailor and past Olympian Murray Philpott died in a glider crash in central Otago, NZ yesterday. SA’er ‘TornadoALIVE’ posted this obit from IACA Technical head Graeme Harbour.
The International A Class Association is deeply saddened by the death of New Zealand A Class sailor Murray Philpott in a tragic gliding accident on the 6th February.
Murray was an active long time A Class sailor for over 25 years and a regular competitor at World, European, New Zealand and Australian Championships. He was a fierce competitor who excelled in heavier weather and five top ten results at World Championships and ten National titles in New Zealand over his A Class sailing career pay testament to his ability.
He was an innovator and always looking for improvements. His latest boat in which Murray played a big part in design and construction attracted a lot of attention at the Punta Ala Worlds.
Murray was known, respected and admired by sailors from all parts of the world. His deep knowledge of the sport was guidance to all levels of sailors, from club racers to Olympic sailors and Americas Cup contenders. He gave his knowledge happily and openly to all that sought his council.
As an active long time IACA and Technical Committee member Murray was instrumental in framing the guidelines we operate under today and could always be relied on to offer sound advise on the many issues faced by the class.
A devoted husband to one of the worlds best trolley dollies, Christine, and loving father to son Daniel and his two beautiful daughters Gabriel & Georgia.
In recent years one of Murray’s greatest pleasures was racing Daniel in the A Class fleet, he was secretly becoming more and more concerned that Daniel was increasingly at the finish before him.
Murray, you will be sadly missed by all and you can take comfort in knowing that the whole A Class fraternity is here to care and look after your family.
- Tags: A-Class, lost, Murray Philpott, new zealand
February 9th, 2016
Jesus, here we thought we bought the baddest 32′ on the planet and this MoFo comes along…
For Sale: Melges 32. Need to sell to make room for a more bad ass 32′…
February 9th, 2016
Big Pimpin’
Wow, in this new video by OffCenterHarbor.com, a great moment in time has been captured again. This time it’s a place where you can sail, surf, climb, fly fish, and drink beer — all before noon.
Click here to watch this new video and transport yourself to the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania. Note to self — add this to bucket list!
After watching the first video from OffCenterHarbor.com, you can sign up to get 10 more of their best videos for free while you check them out.
February 8th, 2016
