DN NA Class

I remind people... espescially those who dont have passports...
A.  This is the World Championships
B.  This is the North American Championships.
So we will be having the competition this year on the "Best Ice in North America"
The officers involved in this difficult if not stressful process must look at the broadest definition of "Best Ice" in order to make their selection.
First and foremost :
* Safe, relatively smoothe ice that can hold a fleet of sailors and equipment.
Then there is a laundry list of requirments or wishes to name a few in no particular order:
* Safe launch area with enough space for the sailors and commitee.
* weather forecasts and history that support safe temperatures and wind ranges.
* Accomodations I.E. Hotel, Restaraunts, Hardware stores, grocery stores, etc.
* Average length of drive for competitors.  (Montana would be a tough venue to pull off, while Michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, Western NY would be more central to all)
* Cooperation of local authorities
* location of Hospitals/trauma centers

Last years selection of Thunder Bay Occured while many sailors were already enroute toward the Traverse City area.  To my knowledge there were no other options at the time. 
PLEASE if you have a potential site, the officials want to hear about it, but remember to be counted as a viable option it must #1 HAVE BEEN SAILED ON EXTENSIVELY well before the date of the regatta.  (nobody is going to call a regatta on  ice that has been "walked") Then any of the other information above considered to make the call before we have over 100 sailors from all around the world take their valuable time and money to get there.
Get your input into your regional Rear Commodore by Wednesday afternoon!!!

Eric, I would like nothing better right now for someone to find good ice in Minnesota, Wisconsin.I would much rather drive 10-12 hrs sail and then come home.As it is right now I am putting about 2 hrs of driving a day to go find good ice sail then come home.If there are other viable options out there I would like to hear about them the I will quite with my annoying posts.Does not sound like Thunder Bay is a real popular choice,which is understandable considering the distance people have to drive and the potential for cold weather.

Madge,
 I had a wonderful time in thunder bay.  Nice town, good sailing, I like the place, and would be willing to return.  We all certainly appreciate anyone, anywhere in the northern hemisphere willing to scout ice and report it.   In years when locations are difficult, you take anything you can get, anywhere. 
Before the season starts I always tell myself that the farthest the worlds(in North America) will be is Montana, and I mentally prepare myself for a 40 hour drive.   That way, no matter where we go I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly we get there.
Sail Fast,
Eric

The other  option here in Thunder Bay is at Mink Mountaian on Superior,I included a link.just got off the phone they are reporting 2" of new black ice covering most of the Bay ( about 1 square mile).I will be driving out this weekend to check and hopefully sail.
Mike

http://www.superiornorth.com/MainMenu.htm

K11 here. I am coming 4000 miles, hope you guys find some ice, not easy for a big event, will be watching the reports.  rgz

Mike keep up your annoying post.  It is good to see the enthusiasm on the board (and ice), as well as the discussions you have evoked.   It even got me to dig a rule book out and look at it, and that is a good thing.

David

ps.... Thunder Bay, Montana, New York..... who cares, lets go sailing and then I'll worry about gas money on the return trip.

Agreed!  Keep em coming!  We need to have people giving reports, and we need people looking at places never checked before.

Thunder bay was completely new to all of us last year, and it was a pleasant surprise.  Incredible scenery, and a site I would love to go back to...  Iceboating or for softwater in the warmer months. 

This Forum needs to be utilized to its fullest to allow us all to work together to find the best ice for the Worlds, or any other time for that matter!

-Kent  5219

Ken I can gurantee water in the Summer.

In fact I can pretty much gurantee ice in the Winter.I have been on the ice every weekend since the middle of November.

A trace of light snow here last night,calling for Very COLD condititions tonight.No signifigant amount of snow forcasted into the middle of next week.Also a warming trend comming.

Just got of the phone from Mink Mountain resort on Superior.Good new Ice has thicked up enough that she saw a moose this morning out on it.

Hey Guys,

I loaded up all of the regatta history (but not the results) into the new site last night..

Maybe this will help with finding some ice..

check out the Regatta map (powered by google)
https://ice.idniyra.org/Yearbook/History/Regatta_Map

Because the ice.idniyra.org site is SSL encrypted, but the connection to google is not, your browser may warn you and you want to allow the browser to go ahead and use the unencrypted data from google.  (you might have to answer yes or no, depending on the browser you are using)

thanks,
jim

Geez Jim ,kind of makes Thunder bay look so isolated.One of you guys got to get your buts up here and sail some of this ice  up here in T.Bay this weekend.It will save you driving to Nova Scotia the following weekend.

Thunder Bay -34 celcius this morning.Pretty sure the complete Bay will be frozen over by the weekend.I will keep up reports.

Report from Mink Mountain this morning is the bay is now locked in with new smooth snowless ice.I will be checking out tommorrow.This would be a great location they have 12 Rental camps (homes ) right on the Water front.each Camp hold 8-10 people,also 15 min down the road is the Nor West Resort.

There is a very good chance (from reports I am getting) that I will find a few locations of great ice here on the Bay in Thunder Bay when I go checking tommorow.To have any credibility at all I am really going to need a ranked sailor to come on up here and verify it.What I need is the contact info. preferably a phone # of any sailors interested in getting this info.Same offer still applies I will put you up for the weekend.I really think we have the ice and weather forcast to pull off having the Worlds here in T.Bay.I will do the leg work and be right up front with you ,If I do not find great ice I will not have you driving up here.

Well after a lengthy drive up and down the North shore of Superior, there is no combination (that I could find) of sailable ice and easy access to the Lake.Although Mink Mountain had a good stretch of sailable ice maybe a 6 in rating ( not what I would consider anything worth driving a great distance for), the access to the Lake is poor.Out at Silver Harbour all these small snowfalls have taken there toll.So what might come as a relief to some Thunder Bay is out of the running to hold any major Ice Boat events.

Mike - this should be of no relief to anyone.  We need  as many potential sailing spots as possible...  right not we have none that I know of that is good for Gold Cup sailing.  Anybody?    Anybody?  Beuhler?   Beuhler? :'(

Mike..
Sorry to see you report today.  Ever since I missed the 2010 North Americans, I've been looking forward to coming to Thunder Bay.

DN 805

Having read the report from Anchore Bay the ice at Mink Mountain out on Superior seems a whole lot better then that.The biggest drifts where mabe 2" and lots of smooth ice underneath.

I'm thinking there's a strong possibility of eating pickeled eggs on Green Bay within a week...  just a hunch.