An iceboat (occasionally spelled ice boat or traditionally called an ice yacht) is a recreational or competition sailing craft supported on metal runners for traveling over ice. One of the runners is steerable. Originally, such craft were boats with a support structure, riding on the runners and steered with a rear blade, as with a conventional rudder. As iceboats evolved, the structure became a frame with a seat or cockpit for the iceboat sailor, resting on runners. Steering was shifted to the front. Because of their low resistance to forward motion over ice, iceboats are capable of speeds exceeding . Because of their speed, iceboats are used both for recreation and for racing. Racing craft typically carry one person. A related activity,

land sailing Land sailing, also known as sand yachting, land yachting or dirtboating, is the act of moving across landform, land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail. The term comes from analogy with (water) sailing. Historically, ...

, employs sailing craft similar to iceboats, but riding on wheels instead of runners.

History

Ice yachters on Hudson River near Barrytown, NY

The history of iceboating began in Europe in areas where smooth ice was found in the bays of the Baltic Sea and the canals of the Netherlands. Initially boats were used for commerce, but soon evolved into pleasure craft—"ice yachts". Ice sailing came to North America, where the sailing craft evolved into recreational and racing versions.

Venues

Iceboating began in the 17th century as a documented means of transport on the frozen

Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia ( lv, Rīgas līcis, et, Liivi laht) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main c ...

and the canals of the Netherlands into the 18th century. Ice boats carried cargo on Dutch canals during the 17th century. The first iceboats were introduced on New York State's

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

in the United States in 1790, where the practice flourished as a sport. The first recorded boat, built in 1790 by Oliver Booth of Poughkeepsie, was a square box atop three runners, the two forward runners being nailed to the box and the third acted as a rudder operated by a tiller. This type of craft was accessible to sportsmen of modest means. In the mid-19th century, two "ice yachting" clubs had formed, the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club (1865) and the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (1870), where wealthy boat owners sailed large iceboats with up to seven crew members. Boats were as long as and sailed as fast as , a record exceeding any other conveyance in 1885, set by the ''

Icicle An icicle is a spike of ice formed when water falling from an object freezes. Formation and dynamics Icicles can form during bright, sunny, but subfreezing weather, when ice or snow melted by sunlight or some other heat source (such a ...

''. The first American Challenge Pennant occurred in 1881 on the Hudson river with five ice-yacht clubs competing. Races were sailed five times around a triangular course with one-mile legs, two of which were to windward. Iceboats were divided into four classes with sail areas ranging from less than 300 square feet to over 600 square feet. By the beginning of the 20th century, iceboating had spread to Minnesota (

Lake Minnetonka Lake Minnetonka (Dakota: ''Mní iá Tháŋka'') is a lake located about west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin and Carver counties and is surrounded by 13 i ...

and White Bear Lake), Wisconsin (

Lake Winnebago Lake Winnebago ( mez, Wenepekōw Nepēhsæh, oj, Wiinibiigoo-zaaga'igan, one, kanyataláheleˀ) is a shallow freshwater lake in the north central United States, located in east central Wisconsin. At 137,700 acres it is the largest lake entire ...

and

Lake Pepin Lake Pepin is a naturally occurring lake on the Mississippi River on the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is located in a valley carved by the outflow of an enormous glacial lake at the end of the last Ice Age. The ...

), Michigan ( Lake St. Clair), and venues in Maine and Vermont. In Canada, there were venues on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

(Kingston) and the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. A European ice sailing club formed first in Sweden (1901), followed by the European Ice Yachting Union, which formed in 1928 with member states Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Austria, and Germany.

Evolution of design

17th-century Dutch ice yachts consisted of flat-bottomed sailboats atop a cross-wise plank, resting on outboard metal runners, which carried the bulk of the weight of the craft. At the stern was a steering runner, attached to a rudder-like structure. to which are affixed four steel runners, one each at bow, stern and each end of the planking. These boats used conventional gaff mainsails and jibs, attached to the mast by travellers. A tiller or wheel stern controls the steering runner. In the 19th century iceboats evolved into a box, riding on cross-pieces, supported by runners. These "stern-steerer" iceboats were generally rigged as

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

s, with a jib sail forward of the mast, although the

catboat A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat) is a sailboat with a single sail on a single mast set well forward in the bow of a very beamy and (usually) shallow draft hull. Typically they are gaff rigged, though Bermuda rig is also used. Most are ...

style with a single sail was also used. In 1879 the archetypical Hudson River iceboat began to emerge. The ''Robert Scott'', designed and built by H. Relyea, had a single backbone and wire guy-ropes. The mast on subsequent boats were stepped further forward than in the past with shortened jibs were shortened and the center of effort and resistance brought into balance, aligning both with the main runners. The shallow cockpit box became elliptical. A few "Class A'' stern steerers with at least of sail area survived in to the late 20th century. In the early 1900s some smaller iceboats, called ''scooters'', were designed to traverse both ice and water with a shallow, oval hull on fixed runners. These sailing craft were steered by manipulating the sails, there being no rudder. The traditional stern-steerer boats were largely replaced by front steering boats in the 1930s, following the development of this style by Walter Beauvois of

Williams Bay, Wisconsin Williams Bay is a village in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. It is one of three municipalities on Geneva Lake. The population was 2,564 at the 2010 census. History The village was named for Captain Israel Williams of Massachuset ...

in a boat named the ''Beau Skeeter''. This boat led to the "Skeeter" class, and the ''Skeeter Ice Boat Club'' formed on Geneva Lake, Wisconsin. The Skeeter class adopted the logo of a mosquito on their sail, and has evolved into an aerodynamically clean machine. The Skeeter class is limited to just of sail. In 1937, ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

'' sponsored a new home-buildable ice boat design, which became the

International DN The International DN is a class of iceboat. The name stands for Detroit News, where the first iceboat of this type was designed and built in the winter of 1936–1937. Archie Arrol was a master craftsman working in the Detroit News hobby shop, ...

. In 1968 Dick Slates of

Pewaukee, Wisconsin Pewaukee is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. The population was 13,195 at the 2010 census. The Village of Pewaukee, which was incorporated out of the town before it incorporated as a city, is surrounded by the city. The name of the city ...

designed and built the ''Nite'' with two wooden prototypes. The design was refined and fiberglass production began in 1970.

Speed

Ice boat apparent wind on different points of sail

Iceboats designs dating from the mid 20th century onwards typically consist of a triangular or cross-shaped frame, supported by three skate blades called "runners", with the steering runner in front. Runners are made of iron or steel with sharpened edges, which hold onto the ice, preventing slippage sideways from the lateral force of the wind developed by the sails, as they develop propulsive lift. Given their low forward resistance, iceboats can sail up to five times the speed of the true wind. Because the velocity of the iceboat (V_B) is so much greater than the true wind velocity (V_T), the

apparent wind Apparent wind is the wind experienced by a moving object. Definition of apparent wind The ''apparent wind'' is the wind experienced by an observer in motion and is the relative velocity of the wind in relation to the observer. The ''velocity ...

(V_A) is only a few degrees from the direction of travel on most

points of sail A point of sail is a sailing craft's direction of travel under sail in relation to the true wind direction over the surface. The principal points of sail roughly correspond to 45° segments of a circle, starting with 0° directly into the wind. ...

and the sail is close-hauled in each. V_A is generated by the combination of iceboat velocity (V_B) and true wind velocity (V_T).

Attainable speeds

Different classes of iceboat can achieve speeds, as follow. * International DN: . * Skeeter: . * Classic iceboats: While claimed speeds for such craft have been as high as in the early 20th century, other sources cast doubt on both the technology for achieving and for measuring such speeds at those times.

Race courses

Because of the high boat speeds, iceboat race courses are established around fixed marks which are to be rounded in a one-way route, enhancing boat-to-boat traffic safety. The courses are a straight line

upwind Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

and

downwind Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

, which necessitates tacking upwind and

jibing A jibe (US) or gybe (Britain) is a sailing maneuver whereby a sailing vessel reaching downwind turns its stern through the wind, which then exerts its force from the opposite side of the vessel. Because the mainsail boom can swing acros ...

downwind.

Classes

Among the classes of iceboat are sailing craft that have associations in Europe and North America: IceOptimist, International DN, and Monotype XV. Others are regional in North America: Nite, Renegade, and Skeeter. File:JWC-JEC 2019 IceOptimists.jpg, IceOptimists File:Regaty bojerowe w klasie DN na Jeziorze Dużym w Żninie.jpg, International DN class iceboats at the start of a race in Znin,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

File:SIK-N157 14.jpg, Monotype XV

IceOptimist

The IceOptimist is a youth iceboat class that uses the sails and the rig of the International Optimist dinghy. The first design was built in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

in 1978, with scaled-down elements of a DN. In 2002, the class was registered under the guardianship of IDNIYRA Europe with the permission of

IODA The Orchard is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution, marketing, and sales. It is a subsidiary of Sony Music, based in New York City. In 2019, the company sold off its film and television division, whi ...

. World and European Championships are sailed each winter with a fleet of approximately 40 racers.

International DN

The

class is the most popular class in both North America and Europe. It is a one-person wood boat twelve feet long with a cross-plank eight feet long that carries a mast high. Modern competitive DNs use flexible masts commonly made of composite materials. The DN 60 derives its name from the 1937 request of ''The Detroit News'' for a high-performance, inexpensive, home-built iceboat design. Modern DNs share many one-design features with the original boat, including the basic aerodynamic fuselage design, runner configurations and of high-performance sail.

Monotype XV

The Monotype XV is a class of stern-steering iceboat based on a 1932 design by an Estonian, Erik von Holst. It may be single or double-handed. The One-Design class is built according to close specifications, little changed since the 1930s. It is the largest one-design iceboat class in Europe and the only double-handed iceboat class for which there are international championships. The is in length and width with a high mast.

Nite

Nite is a class of iceboat that has a two-seat side-by-side fiberglass fuselage and a sail. It is constructed according to tight specifications.

Renegade

The Renegade is a class of home-built iceboat whose prototype appeared in 1947 in Wisconsin, designed by Elmer Millenbach to be carried atop an automobile. Plans were published in 1950. It has a sail on a flexible aerodynamic spar.

Skeeter

The Skeeter class is divided into sub-classes (A, B and C) all of which are limited to of sail area. ''A-class'' boats may be single or two-place tandem with a mast that does not exceed . They may incorporate carbon fiber construction. ''B-class'' boats have seats for two (side by side). ''C-class'' skeeters may be single or two-place tandem with a mast that does not exceed .

References

External links

DN Class World PortalVideo overview of DN iceboating
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Boat Human-powered watercraft Ice yachting Racing vehicles Sailboat types de:Eissegeln