By Konrad Broer

White noise          

 "This is counter-culture from the underground.  Eternal revolution, this is our sound..."  ~KMFDM

    I gaze out across the frozen lake, a horizontal world of ice and snow.  Straining to see the far shore through goggles.  Dry snow races across the surface of the lake, creating an eerie, misty reality that exists between the sky above and mother ice underneath.  Exhale.  Breath on the goggles.  I pull them away momentarily to clear the fog.  I turn back and approach my iceboat.  Picking up the front, I waddle it sideways until the sail fills and weathervanes against the port side stay.  Walk to the back of the boat.  Mainsheet in hand, pushing on the side stay now.  Wind in the sail, suddenly it's going!  Hurry, get on.  On my back, neck propped up on the back rest.  Looking through my feet ahead.  Misty horizon in the wind.  Final glance upward at the sail.  Sheeting in...  acceleration.  As if there are invisible angels pushing the boat, it accelerates smooth, clean, and powerfully underneath me.  The rear blades chatter in each ear, each sings it's own song.  No peripheral vision, sailing by sense of sound.  The leeward blade sings it's smooth hum, the windward blade chatters and rattles as it skims inches over the surface of ice.  More acceleration, gaining on that invisible barrier known as terminal velocity.  Rushing white noise of wind over the boat, over the sail, over me.  At 58 feet per second, I am 5 inches off the ice with my eyeballs rattling in their sockets as I am plunged into a flatland two-dimensional vertigo of white snow and black ice.  Snow drift up ahead.  Ooof!  Losing one third of my speed, I pound through it in an explosion of white powder that is carried away laterally by the wind.  Dave's DN upwind and on the same tack.  I see him when I lift my head and pull my head sideways to look.  Two helmeted heads stare at each other for a brief moment.  One simple hand gesture acknowledged by the other, and we tack simultaneously.  Front blade biting, sliding, biting again.  Blades making that magical sound in the turn.  The turn completed, mainsheet let out for only a moment.  The wind envelops me and we are off, side by side.  Formation flying side by side with runners in the air 6 inches.  Hold the course.  Wind pushing harder.  Unable to see Dave, I can feel him just to port and gradually catching me.  The shadows of our masts fly over the surface of the ice in perfect unison.  Exhale too hard, and breath on the goggles again.  Damn!  Clear, come on, clear.  Within seconds the 4 degree wind obliges.  Rough ice up ahead.  Loud crashes as the impact is absorbed by wood and aluminum.   Ice chips bang off my goggles.  More black ice ahead, and then the end of the lake.  Tack again, and try to hold off Dave this time..

    Without a doubt, ice boating is the fastest (and probably the most esoteric) sailing there is.  Before the automobile and airplane of this century, they were also the fastest vehicles man had created.  They date back to the 1500's when the Dutch would fit a runner plank to the bottom of a 'regular' boat in the winter and sail it.  Early in this century there was a strong interest in ice boating, when the ubiquitous DN ice boat was designed.  There was a decline in the sport until the 50's, and has had a slow but steady increase since then.  

    Ice boats, depending on design and class, will reach speeds up to five times the speed of the wind. How? Well, it has something to do with the low friction between the runners and the ice, and the sail shape. The sail acts more like a vertical wing rather than a sail. Volumes could be written as to exactly what makes an ice boat speed along at five times the speed of the wind.  As to how fast they can go, in the right conditions, the smaller DN class achieves speeds of 50 to 60 mph. The  ultra-modern  class A Skeeters (the "Formula One" class of ice boating) reach speeds well over 100 mph.

    When people ask about the safety of ice boating, I usually refer them to the famous quote by Billy Bishop, who once said, "Anything that moves is inherently dangerous".  Any vehicle that can achieve such high speeds certainly has the potential to be dangerous.  However, learning to properly sail an ice boat, sailing by the established right-of-way rules, always using common sense, properly maintaining the equipment, and staying off the lake during unsafe conditions go a long way towards making ice boating a safe sport.  I've heard stories of people going through the ice, but I've yet to see it for myself or worse, experience it myself.

    Ice boats while under sail don't have brakes.  In order to stop an ice boat, a pilot steers it directly in to the wind.  While sailing, it is often possible to slow a boat down by easing the sheet.  Ice boats do have a parking brake attached to the front runner and it is employed after the boat is completely stopped.  The parking brake allows the skipper to walk away from his boat when not sailing.   

    Ice boats can range in cost from a few hundred dollars for an old un-classified ice contraption or perhaps an old uncompetitive DN class boat, to $60,000 for a modern, championship winning class A Skeeter.  Between the $200 beater and the $60,000 championship contender are many fast competitive boats in various classes that can be had from around $2500 to $7500.   I have a friend who owns an Arrow that was about $1,000, and in higher winds, is ridiculously fast.  Personally, I have an affection for the Isabella design, because I can built it myself for under $500 and under the right conditions will achieve 2.5x wind speed.  It's far lighter than the higher end boats, which gives it a great advantage in light winds.  The Arrow doesn't have a chance against an Isabella if it's 10 mph winds.

    We in Nebraska live on the ragged southern edge of the ice boating world.  Our winters are cold enough just long enough to give us a few months out of the year.  Our best year we had 10 weekends in a row.  Our worst year we had 3.  Where we live, it's not cost effective to invest large amounts of time or money into an iceboat that potentially might sit dormant for 50 weeks out of the year.  This has been an exceptionally good year so far.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have blades to sharpen...

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