The Times

IS ICE-BOATING DANGEROUS? You can go 100 miles an hour, and you have only a sail for brakes

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROY PINNEY No co-pilot for the Skeeter, but plenty of company. When the lakes freeze over, thousands of ice yachtsmen get out for the thrills and chills. The Scooter (below) goes over water and ice. Cost, $2,100—or you can build your own. CHARLES R. MEYER TO ANYBODY who likes to hibernate in winter, ice-boating looks like a spine-chilling sport. Tiny wooden frames with billowing sails on top and thin metal runners underneath reach speeds up to 146 miles an hour (the record). And they have no brakes. Ice yachtsmen must dodge skaters, eel fishermen, and other iceboats. An invisible crevice in the ice can send a boat "pitch poling" end over end. You can always run into thin ice or even open water. Bulletins will discreetly suggest that "backboard and splints are in the boathouse." If the vision of freezing water and broken bones doesn't daunt you, the weather might. You must brave 20-below temperatures, chilly blasts of wind, and flying ice particles which, reportedly, "can make facial razor cuts look mild." You must wear a costume resembling that of an Eskimo or an astronaut: thermal underwear, field boots, goggles, woolen or plastic face mask. Confirmed iceboatmen—from New Jersey's Shrewsbury River to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and White Bear, Minnesota—will defend the sport with their lives and insist that it is not necessarily dangerous. Iceboats can indeed go more than 100 miles an hour, but these speeds are reserved for the racing classes. Normal speed is 20 to 60 miles an hour. There has been only one fatality in recent years, and broken bones are rare. Iceboats have no brakes, but they can be stopped dead by heading into the wind. And you can steer them precisely. Still, ice-boating is not a sport for the reckless amateur thrill seeker. The experts have words of warning: Let a seasoned skipper teach you the rules and the ropes. Never boat alone. Choose your weather well—a steady wind at a maximum of 20 miles an hour is perfect. A boat may go 3-4 times as fast as the wind pushing it. And survey the ice carefully before boating. It should be free of snow, glassy-smooth, thick, and hard. If you are a sensible sportsman and have a taste for speed, you are a good candidate for ice-boating. The fast-growing fraternity of ice yachtsmen will welcome you aboard. "There is nothing on earth," says one enthusiast, "like the thrill of running before the wind on good, green ice." 6 Suburbia Today, January 1961