DN NA Class

Dick Wollam and Bill Cutting, commodore of the Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club, plan to search for ice throughout Northern Michigan Wednesday and Thursday.

There goal: find a suitable venue for the Fun Regatta and Central Lakes Championship.

They plan to visit Lake Skegmog, Elk Lake, and the largest inland lake in Michigan, Houghton Lake.

Stand by for ice reports, weather forecasts, and the commodores’ regatta decisions.

1)  Please be careful.
2)  Several Wisconsin, Illinois,and Minnesota sailors planning to attend Centrals and would appreciate being kept advised of the conditions and a decision  made on Thursday, if at all possible.

Spring here in southern Wisconsin, nice ice early in the day, but no wind.  Snow melting in the back yard and grass starting to turn green.

...sneaky scribe

   Just about all the lakes from Traverse City,MI north have good ice and the shore lines are still intact. Our problem is 2-3 inches of old stiff snow covering all the lakes. This week we are forecast to have temps in the upper 40's during the day and just above freezing at night. We  also are forecast to have about 1/4-1/2 inch of rain thursday thru friday AM. We hope that between the rain and warm temps the lakes resurface and set up friday night when the temps go below freezing again. Right now we are keeping our eyes on two lakes for a possibility for the Centrals or our local sailing, they are Houghton Lake (located 55 mi. SSE of Traverse City) and Skegamog Lake just outside of town. These lakes are still being driven on with a report of over 2 ft. of very hard ice and good shore lines. Due to the WX it will be hard to make much of a call before friday AM.
                                                                Bob, US 65

Just passing along a message from Bob Gray.

Thanks to David for checking the ice for us. He stopped by earlier today to pick up my ice bike so he might check the lakes out better (I stayed home since I have a sick pet). We discussed all the lakes and considered safety ( Burt had possible safety hazards), accessibility  and location and decided that Paradise/Carp lake is the best choice. So the grand plan is to sail Paradise this weekend. The  lake is located about 3 miles north of Levering on Rt 31. This is just a few miles south of where 31 joins I-75  and isn't very far from Mackinaw City. By the way to access it from I-75 you have to go north almost to Mackinaw city, exit and reenter southbound.  Hope to see a bunch of you Saturday.

unless you are comming from the North, in which case you simply exit on to US-31 South ;-)

Do you have directions to the launch site?

Thanks.

Ayes

    On  Rt.31 when you get to the town of Carp Lake you will see the lake. There is a road by the lake called Paradise Trail that parallels 31 and is about 50 yards from 31. The launch is very near a bar called Clydes  Place and the post office. You really can't miss it, it's a pretty small town.
                                                                          Bob

We sailed Carp/Paradise Lake this afternoon and there was a working seam that substantially shrunk the lake.  We then found a small one in the middle of the remaining sailing area so we packed it up.  We will be setting up at the State Park in Indian River on Burt Lake.  See the Bootleg Central thread for more detail.