Green Lake, WI

[Geoff Sobering]

I just got off the phone with John Hayashi when he stopped sailing his Nite for a few moments.
Today there are a few inches of snow on top of nice ice. This week's weather should clear that off completely, and temperatures are forecast to drop Friday night into Saturday so there is a good chance of a really nice surface for next weekend.

Many thanks to Deb Whitehorse of Iceboat.org for the "heads up" on Green Lake.

Check in at the Green Lake Ice Yacht Club website for more details as the week progresses.

[Geoff Sobering]

Today was a great day weather wise, especially after all the brutal cold the last few weeks. So I called up Todd Morgan he hitched up the ATV and brought his kids and we loaded up the dog and went to the lake to scout ice. Well we went to the middle and starting drilling and drilling holes. We drilled a couple of extras just to appease the critics in case. The ice thickness was generally 12 inches thick with a couple of 14's and just one 9 incher. We drilled all the way across the center of the lake.


As we rode the ATV and also walked across the lake we were also looking at the snow cover. Again about 60% of the middle of the lake was covered in 1/2" to an inch of snow. There were patches of drifts as we moved out from shore and also some spots in the middle but these were under four inches in height. We gauged this by the stiffener height off the ice on a Nite runner. Also in places there were a significant amount of bare spots starting to poke through. As the day wore on the surface area became more gray, we also started to see just a few puddles.


Overall it was exciting to know that we are on the verge of having just awesome conditions for next weekend. The plan for tomorrow is to go out and sail again with a few more boats and see what the west end looks like and what is on the east end. Though where we sailed and scouted today, was more then enough room for just about everyone. For those that were here two years ago it was the exact site of where we sailed the Renegades and Nites.


So stay tuned for another update tomorrow. Mimi took pictures and video today so that everyone could see it for themselves what is going on out on the lake. Video will be up later maybe tonight.


As we all know a quality report involves sailing the sheet. Well it was still surfacing and a little bumpy, but sailing in a sweatshirt and a helmet is just way to fun for this time of year. After tonight high wind scrubbing the surface 20-40 mph and the ice should look even better.

[Geoff Sobering]

John Hayashi reports:

Today we went out at lunch and did a quick power run down the middle of the lake. The ice was very hard and the snow patches when you found them were under one inch. Since it was blowing almost a crazy 25 mph plus I apologize for the camera work. However you will get a good idea of what is going on here. The center part of the lake is the best right now, hopefully the ends clean up with the approaching warm weather. The sheet size is more then enough for a great course and a bunch of ice boating friends to come join us this weekend. Hint.

There's a quick video of John sailing his Nite in the 25mlh gusting winds at the GLIYC site.

[Geoff Sobering]

The Green Lake folks are reporting good conditions today.

They suggest launching at the "west end of the lake down at county park".