Ice Boat planning.....

[narfiwillem]

Got the mast up and rigged and all the finishing touches done (I hope) this weekend.
Last couple hours yesterday Landon was hovering behind my every move wearing his helmet ready to go. By the time I was happy with it the sun had set and dusk was turning to dark so to both of our disappointment I decided it would be wiser and safer to wait and do it in the light..... Hopefully we get some wind and I'll leave work early, we will see



Didn't realize how much extra stick we have sticking up there, I think we had the boom higher on the trimaran.... Lots of room to grow a bigger sail if we build a longer main hull for the trimaran next summer

[Dusty Yevsky]

I would go out in light conditions on your first forays. I hate to be a wet blanket but the combo of the sail position and the springboard will likely result in very sketchy steering. You will need to get some downward pressure on the front runner for this to have any steering authority. Definitely try this where there are no hard immovable objects.

[Soggy Bottoms]

Reading Not my place to say anything excuse please

[JOBBER]

The Ice Flyer link in reply #26 was foot paddle "steered", with rod linkages to the front runner blade.
Is this an acceptable practice? Pros / Cons?

[Todd Bradshaw]

My first iceboat, a Lockley Skimmer 45 had foot rod steering and though it worked, it had two rather serious potential problems. The "pedals" were basically just a horizontal outboard-pointing 90 degree bend at the aft end of the rod, supported by being run through an eyebolt on the outside of the frame. There was nothing under your heel but the ice below. Once in a while you would hit a bump, causing your foot to slip off of the pedal. This would instantly floor the opposite pedal and cause a pretty violent spin-out. The cure for this would be to make sure there is something below the pedals so that your foot can't slide off and lose contact with the pedal.

The second problem was that the faster the boat went, the more touchy the foot steering became - to the point where it wasn't fun and was getting a bit scary. The tiller steering on our Arrow iceboat was drastically more comfortable and controllable at high speeds. The strut below the tiller visible here just holds the tiller up when you aren't sailing.

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Notice the carpet chunks on the runner plank to give solid footing and keep your creepers from chewing up the plank. Worth doing. Also, you want to be sure that you have something solid to push against when doing a running start. I'm not sure the plywood seat back on the new boat above would do that very well without some reinforcement.

[narfiwillem]

The stars finally alligned!!!!

After months of too much snow or not enough wind or too much wind and most of Feb out for vacation, we finally got out Monday night.

Was pretty easy to control speed, but had plenty of power.
We had about a 2 mile run across the lake before turning around just before a big heaved up pressure crack.
We were on our fourth lap so about 14 miles in when we started skidding skipping sideways, straightening out of a jibe and broke off one of the main runners.

Tons of fun and we were still gaining confidence and speed each 'lap' no measurements but felt like we were going 30+ not scary yet but definitely focusing on the turns..... Will hopefully get some repairs done and go again soon. Need to up the ratio on the sheets as well, took some strength to hold, probably more than Landon can do yet.

Friend saw us out so messaged my wife a picture,


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Ride was super smooth, the springs are probably too soft at least the front one, it twists quite a bit as well so probably need to reinforce it somehow. Blasting through drifts was super smooth just slows you down a little bit no feeling of going up and down at all.

[Breakaway]

Very cool!

[narfiwillem]

We went out again last night, there was 1.5-2 inches of snow crust on the ice, but we had enough wind to overpower it.
The repaired skate attachments worked well, and we stayed out until Landon was too cold for more, we had decided on one more pass across the lake then call it a night....
We got confident enough that I let him manage everything while I dug my phone out and got our speed to display, set it on the bench between us... we were averaging around 25mph and got up as high as 29(which makes me think we were easily doing 35+ the first night when we were on clean ice). I kept glancing down at the phone display and up to where we were going and adjusting the steering etc... and caught something odd out of the corner of my eye.... I just happened to be on the leeward side and the shroud cable was just hanging down swinging from the mast beside me, NOT attached to the cross-beam. Landon took over controls again, and I was able to lean out and get it re-attached and keep pressure on the cable so it wouldn't come off again, and we slid into our parking spot, pulled the sail down and put blocks under the skates. A good evening and no walking back this time

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We were using something like this to attach the cable to the eye bolt on the plank, and it had stretched and allowed the latch to extend outside, then when the cable slacked leeward it was now just a 'hook' and easily fell off the eye bolt.

Lots of fun though, and still learning

[Dan McCosh]

Might note that the loads on an iceboat can be substantial. The compression load on the mast is enormous, along with the bending load it can exert on the hull. There often is a compression support underneath--something like a spreader on a sailing rig. I once broke a fairly substantial spruce mast by compression, which was crushed in mid-section. The compression load mid-hull also can push the hull down to where it drags on the ice. FWIW, the Arrow was an enlarged DN designed by Howard Boston, who also designed the original DN. I once built a boat quite similar to a DN with the aft end wider, which allows two to sail it, squashed in.

[narfiwillem]

Saturday took some of his buddies and father's out, but conditions were pretty bad, lots of crust slush and not much wind. The boys spent more time pushing each other than sailing, but had a great time anyways. They did get a couple good passes in, and Landon lost his phone, we searched our tracks, we searched the road and trails we took to get there, he walked the route to the ice and around where we park the boat again on Sunday but no luck. He was pretty bummed.

Yesterday ice was good, wind was a bit strong, and so we talked momma into going with us. Of course when she is there to watch is the one time I forget to put my helmet on and left it on the Honda, I realized about half way across the lake and told Landon we had to get it before going again. We finished the run and turned to come back and the wind picked up, we were really going and I was starting to wonder if I should angle upwind or downwind to loose a little power when we started skidding and skipping sideways, I yelled at Landon to hold on we were going to crash. His response? "My phone!!! I saw my phone!!!!" Then we skidded around facing into the wind to an anti-climatic stop and he jumps out and runs back to pick up his phone, obviously with none of the addrenaline I had pumping through me.

Turns out we had folded the leeward skate under and without it the windward skate didn't have enough bite to keep us from sliding, which provided for the wild ride I felt.

We drug it back and I built a new skate block last night so we are ready to go again when wind is good and homework is done. (Ok.... Maybe I don't ask about the homework when wind is good)

So momma(my wife) still hasn't gone and is even more hesitant now I still want to get her out there this winter.


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