An iceboat (occasionally spelled ice boat or traditionally called an ice yacht) is a recreational or competition

sailing craft A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships car ...

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 A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

. 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, entails overland travel with a sail-powered vehicle, similar to sailing on water. Originally, a form of transportation or recreation, it has evolved primarily into a racin ...

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

History

The history of iceboating began in Europe in areas where smooth ice was found in the bays of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

and the canals of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

during the

little ice age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Mat ...

. 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 (, , ) 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 connection between the gulf and t ...

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, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

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 Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

, 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 as a poor ...

''. 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 language, 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 County, Minnesota, Hennepin and ...

and White Bear Lake), Wisconsin (

Lake Winnebago Lake Winnebago (, , ) is a shallow freshwater lake in the north central United States, located in east central Wisconsin. At , it is the largest lake entirely within the state, covering an area of about by with of shoreline, an average depth ...

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. ...

), Michigan (

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair () is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day they first saw the lake. ...

), 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 (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

(Kingston) and the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

. 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 sloops, with a

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its forward corner (tack) is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main ty ...

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 f ...

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 2,953 at the 2020 census. On June 22, 2024 the town was hit by an EF-1 tornado, there were no injuri ...

in a boat named the ''Beau Skeeter''. This boat led to the "Skeeter" class, and the ''Skeeter Ice Boat Club'' formed on

Geneva Lake Geneva Lake (Potawatomi: ''Kishwauketoe'' 'Clear Water') is a body of freshwater in Walworth County in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. On its shores are the city of Lake Geneva and the villages of Fontana-on-Geneva-La ...

, 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 Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

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

International DN The International DN is a class of iceboat. History 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 ...

. In 1968 Dick Slates of

Pewaukee, Wisconsin Pewaukee is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 15,914 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The name of the city of Pewaukee comes from that of the name of the village, the ori ...

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 Course (navigation), 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° dir ...

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 In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to 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 o ...

and

downwind In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to 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 o ...

, which necessitates tacking upwind and

jibing A jibe (US) or gybe (Britain) is a sailing maneuver whereby a sailing craft points of sail#Reaching, reaching downwind turns its stern through the wind, which then exerts its force from the opposite side of the vessel. It stands in contras ...

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 extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

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, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

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

IODA The Orchard Enterprises NY, Inc., doing business as The Orchard (''also known as'' The Orchard Music), is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution. It is a division of Sony Music Entertainment, based in N ...

. 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, Europe and Asia. 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 One-design racing is a racing method which may be adopted in sports using complex equipment, whereby all vehicles have identical or very similar designs or models, avoiding the need for a Handicapping, handicap system. Motorsport One-make racing ...

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 Portal

DN North America

DN Europe

International XV Monotype Association

International Skeeter AssociationVideos on DN iceboating
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ice Boat Human-powered watercraft Ice yachting Racing vehicles Sailboat types de:Eissegeln