I helped my dad build 2 DN-60's in the late 60's when I was an adolescent and I learned how to sail on them. We sailed when the conditions were right through the mid-70's in NE Ohio until I went away to college, then to work overseas. In the 90's, my dad came out to SoCal to help me build a very fast 31' trimaran (not near as fast as iceboats). I still sail at least once a week but on soft, warm water. We still have one of the iceboats back home and I'd like to sail it again but I rarely go there in the winter. I guess I'm a weather wimp but I do remember how cold it was doing 50 kts on a lake in zero degrees. The performance of iceboats is astounding.
I grew up in Point Place, OH, a hotbed of ice boating for more than a century! I recognized some sail numbers, 1 that stood out was US 807, J. R. Francis who grew up about 1/3 of a mile from me! He's been working in Florida in the boating industry, he still chases hard water a handful of times a year!
I helped my dad build 2 DN-60's in the late 60's when I was an adolescent and I learned how to sail on them. We sailed when the conditions were right through the mid-70's in NE Ohio until I went away to college, then to work overseas.
In the 90's, my dad came out to SoCal to help me build a very fast 31' trimaran (not near as fast as iceboats). I still sail at least once a week but on soft, warm water.
We still have one of the iceboats back home and I'd like to sail it again but I rarely go there in the winter. I guess I'm a weather wimp but I do remember how cold it was doing 50 kts on a lake in zero degrees. The performance of iceboats is astounding.
I grew up in Point Place, OH, a hotbed of ice boating for more than a century!
I recognized some sail numbers, 1 that stood out was US 807, J. R. Francis who grew up about 1/3 of a mile from me!
He's been working in Florida in the boating industry, he still chases hard water a handful of times a year!
Nice video!