DN NA Class

To anyone with knowledge:

I am a 53 year-old New Englander who recently moved to Concord NH from Virginia. I am interested in getting back into winter sports and find ice "hard water" sailing attractive. I was a decent dinghy sailor in high school and am reasonable handy with tools etc. I like the DIY angle, the amateur quality, and what looks to be an ethic driven more by a share loved for the sport than income or social status.

I hope to watch some races, talk to some sailors, find whatever local groups/clubs/gangs/websites and formal/informal suppliers/shops/dealers there are, and just learn some more this season.

What I'd like to do is find some ice sailing venues in New Hampshire within say an hour from the intersection of I-89/93. From my review of the internet, I think Lake Sunapee is the closest site, but I'm entirely open to smaller places.

Bottom Line: I'm more interested in an active scene than anything else, and from the internet I get a sense that the sport's ranks are thinning here in one of its historic centers. That seems to be a shame and well, wrong.

Thanks

Marc Dean Millot

Welcome, Mark. You are very near one of the bigcenters of hard water sailing. Bob Shumacker in Burlington.   The ranks are thin thisyear which I attribute to a few poor sailing winters and the economy. The ranks are aging, on average.

Ken

Thanks for the quick reply.

Burlington is a bit farther than I can see going regularly.

It is close enough to check out the sport, so can you give me the address of where folks put in?

But if I have to commute that far, I think I'd start looking at the possibility and precautions of sailing alone on a body of water closer to home.

Just FYI its MarC, but anyway I go by Dean.

Again. thanks.

Dean

Dean,
Welcome.  My name is Eric.  You are well located for iceboating and iceboat racing.  Below is  the race notice for this weekends festivitys.  We will be racing saturday and possabley sunday. If this is a sport you are interested come check it out.  Dress warm.   
 A good day of iceboating is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.  It is also a stupid sport.  It is the only sport in the world where you can call a race and not tell people what state it is going to be in untill the day before.  Iceboating requires many things.  ice of minimum thickness with minimum hazards, wind, little to no snow,not too cold, and someone who has found the ice and checked it.


 Notice follows:

 New England Ice Yacht Association will be holding The New England championships on  Jan 30 at Sunapee Lake in NH. We will be sailing in
the main part of the lake and launching from Dewey beach on the Northwest side
of the lake. You will have to google directions to Dewey or check the NEIYA
hotline at508.481.1011
Skippers Meeting is scheduled for 10:45 with a first start at 11AM. The start
time may be postponed if the weather is still in the single digits early.
Sunapee received ¾" snow Thursday afternoon but is expected to blow clear in the
high winds Thursday night and Friday. Weather forecast for Saturday is temps
peaking at 18 deg in the afternoon with wind speeds 12 mph in the morning
decreasing to 9-10 by 4 pm. Sunday is High of 23 with wind speeds of 8 mph.
Don't forget your nutwarmers.

Eric Anderson  860.367.7806 (cell)
US 5193

Lakes near you for sailing within an hour or so :
sunapee, little sunapee, otter pond, winnipasake, wentworth, mirror, squam, winnesquam, ossipee, massebesic.  That is just off the top of my head. 

I would not advise sailing alone though.  It can be fun, it can also  kill you.  Besides if there is good ice near you, there will be iceboaters there.

Cheers,
Eric US 5193

Eric

Thanks

I'm tied up this weekend, but please keep me on your email list of notices.

I understand you on sailing alone.

Dean

Marc check out the Yahoo Iceboating group. There is a lot of discussion amongst iceboaters from your area and you will have a much better idea where to find sailing activity on a weekly basis-

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/IceBoating/

thank you, i will