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Sailing Friday and Saturday!
Hello All- Paul Chamberland is getting a group together to do some scratch racing in Westport, NY this Friday and Saturday.
If you are interested the launch is just south of the Westport Lakeside Motel at 74 Champlain Ave, Westport NY, 12993
Scratch racing will likely commence around 10-11AM and if you know Paul it won’t stop until the sun goes down!
As always use caution and talk to locals and other sailors before letting it rip. The SW side of the bay has thin ice so avoid that; see attached photo!
If the plate is still ok in a week we are hoping to host the DN Eastern Regional Champs! Stay tuned….
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DN NA AND NATIONAL CHAMPS REPORT
Hey Folks! The troops are home and hopefully the dust has settled for everyone. More importantly, hope everyone is thawed out; It was a chilly week in Wisconsin!
The DN North American Champs went off in grand style out in Green Lake, WI. Head Honcho Tim Mower did a great job of managing the weather situation (a delicate balance of snow belts and extreme cold patches) and no doubt lots of opinions to land us at Green Lake. We took a long look at Lake Wawasee in northern Indiana but rough surfaces, a snow dump, and some open spots and other hazards that damaged at least one boat and one person convinced us that continuing to WI was the right call.
That said the hurry-up-and-wait at Wawasee wasn’t all bad. It gave everyone there plenty of time to catch up and talk smack and have some good food as well!
Once the call was made it was a short hop up to Green Lake. The surface was good, the breeze was up (except for one morning), and heat exhaustion was not a risk as temps stayed in the single digits for the whole event. Getting out of the warm van when we arrived to the launch site every morning took some willpower, let’s just say that…. BUT the racing was awesome. Seven races were run in three fleets, boat damage was minimal although Eben Whitcomb’s trusty WHARF RAT drew the short straw and split the hull and deck. Good news is Eben can build and/or fix anything and he had it glued and screwed and ready for action the next day.
At the pointy end of the Gold Fleet racing was tight with six different skippers winning a race (including a horizon job by John Curtis in race 4!) and only 7 points separating 1st from 5th places. Karol Jablonski kept it together to take the top spot followed by Struble, Sherry, Orlebeke and Thieler.
Top Canadian was Nicolas Mabboux in 7th, with Van Rossem, Curtis, Marzenski, and Druiven also making Canada proud! NE represented well also with Thieler and Roseberry doing well in the Gold and Chamberland, Demerest, Whitcomb, Silsby, Treusdell, Valentine making their presence known in the Silver. Bob Haag and Ben Shaevitz gave it their all in the Bronze!
Hats off to the gang that makes these events happen; Deb Whitehorse, Nina Fleming, Pat Heppart, the Foellers, Fred Stritt, Dave Ryan, Paul Hickman, Dan Williams, Maureen Bohleber, Greg Mullett, Dan Hearn, and probably some who I’ve forgotten. Big thanks to DN legend Joe Norton for showing us around his shop and letting us borrow a sweet 4-wheeler with a heated enclosure. If there was a week to have one of these this was it! If you think you know what goes in to running an event like this, trust me, you don’t. These people work their tails off to make these events happen and they take running them as seriously as we take competing in them!
For more details and results see the real report here: 2026 North American Championship – DN North America
Following race 7 the committee sent us right into race 1 of the National Champs but more on that later.
Stay Tuned!! T Thieler, DN US 5224
My apologies for the lack of action shots from on the ice; it was too cold for cameras or bare fingers! Here’s a few random shots though….
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The Rodent Brings Us Luck
Punxsutawney Phil may be calling for six more weeks of winter, but based on what we sailed this weekend and the solid, thick ice holding beneith the snow on our larger lakes, we appear to have considerably more opportunity than the shadow seeing rodent suggests.
Conversations and conjecture ran high on last Thursday’s call. We all acknowledged that many of our colder lakes had too much snow, so attention shifted to smaller waters that may have frozen after with the recent cold snap and missed the snow. Another possibility was snow that had settled, wetted out, and refrozen into white ice. The third option were the brackish coastal bays and estuaries, Red Bank and Oceanport delivered in New Jersey, with Orient Point and other Long Island locations also seeing good sailing.
The prize of the weekend, miles and miles of smooth black ice. Members of the Chickawaukieice boat Club (iceboat.me) have been patiently watching Sebago for a while and the past several days were doing what ever was in their earthly or otherwise powers to ward off a fresh batch of snow. Their patience and many others were rewarded this Sunday with what was described as epic black ice. I will leave further elaboration to those that make it up to Sebabo on Sunday and those that are there as I pen this post.
My choices for Saturday were pretty much between Long Island and the Jersey Shore. Since I had to be Nassau County Saturday morning traveling out to the end of the North Fork was an easy choice. There were a good twenty or so boats on the ice. Some DNs, J14s and smaller skeeters as well as a number of Lockley Skimmers and one infamous South Bay Scooter. The bays of Long Island are there home and most every ice boater I know has some odd attraction to a craft that doesn’t have active steering capabilities. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t come in all that strong so there was more catching up with Long Island friends then sailing but that’s iceboating sometimes.
The NEIYA DN North American Regatta contingent are all safe back east and ready do for the next regatta. Congratulations to T on winning the newly minted national Championship and very strong showing in the NAs with a fifth a mere seven points out of first. Jeff Roseberry finished with a 10th place in the NA Gold Fleet. In the NA Silvers Paul Chamberland took a third place. Eben Whitcomb clawed his way to 12th after sitting out race 2 and 3 with some boat damage and taking a fourth in the Nationals. In Bronze Bob Haag pulled off a tenth place with consistent finishes throughout the regatta. Stay tuned we may get some first hand accounts from those who competed on Green Lake. NA Results / Nationals Results
Looking ahead we have a growing number of opportunities across the region. We are running right into a feast from our state of white famine just a week or so ago. To name a few Sebago, NJ shore, Long Pond in Harwich MA, Some of the bays on eastern Long Island including a high likelihood of sailing the Great South Bay a prize notch in any iceboaters belt. Also in the line up is Lake Champlain again and the prospect of Hudson ice.
Plenty of activities await us including some vast cruising and we will be looking to get the Don “Doc” Fellows race completed soon. The Doc Fellows is the NEIYA’s longest running regatta originating in 1975. Keep your eyes open and report in any findings you have. Did you drive by a body of water that needs further checking? Let us know.
Think Ice and encourage the winds to scrub our ice clean,
John
DN5023
John@neiya.org
Post Storm Options
We have been left with a bit of a White Mess out there. If anyone needed a reminder, look out the window and if that’s not convincing the lingering shoveling pains will. The cold has definitely settled in, and with it some current and other opportunities coming into focus.
The bitter temperatures have locked up some areas we have not seen frozen in quite a while, including sections of the Hudson River and parts of the New Jersey shore.
People are out scouting a handful of potential opportunities, With more information expected later today or tomorrow. These include Ninigret Pond in Rhode Island and Long Pond in Harwich, Massachusetts. This is just what I know but take a look around the current cold may have helped in other locations. Please these areas are being looked at and conditions are not confirmed and should be considered not sailable till scouting is complete.
At the moment, confirmed options include Red Bank, New Jersey, and Hallock’s Bay on the North Fork of eastern Long Island. Sabago will be attempted by people in Maine check out iceboat.me for details.
Don’t forget to check in on the DN NA activities that will be wrapping up today and rolling into the newly minted US Nationals regatta. https://www.idniyra.org/2026-north-american-championship/
Hang on there is a lot of winter and a great deal of ice beneath the snow waiting to poke free. More updates as reports come in.
Think Ice,
John
DN5023
John@neiya.org
DN North American Championship: Day 1 Report – DN North America
https://www.idniyra.org/dn-north-american-championship-day-1-report/
So far so good out here! Some broken boats and gear yesterday but everybody all grins at the end of the day….
And They’re (finally) Off…
WHOOP WHOOP! The bullhorn has sounded, the first day skippers meeting is in the books, and it is time to race.
NEIYA is well represented with nine racers on the line. For those who keep an eye on the numbers, that is 16 percent of the 56 boats listed on the scratch sheet. A strong showing.
It has not been an easy path for our intrepid nine. They battled the same conditions many of us just endured. Snow, snow, snow, and low, low, low temperatures. When conditions deteriorated at Lake Wawasee in Syracuse, Indiana, the entire event regrouped and reconvened roughly 500 miles north and west at Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Clang your cowbells and cheer loudly for James Thieler, Eben Whitcomb, Paul Chamberland, Jeff Roseberry, David Silsby, Edward Demarest, Robert Haag, and our Long Island friends and members Peter Truesdel and Scott Valentine as racing continues over the next few days.
For the latest reports straight from the ice, look for updates from Deb Whitehorse on the idniyra.org website.
Side note. Deb Whitehorse and I were recently interviewed by Francesca Krempa for an Afar.com travel article aimed at helping cold region travelers find a way to experience iceboating. Click for the article What is iceboating and where to try it. As we all know too well, it is not that simple. Conditions dictate everything. My best advice to would be iceboaters is captured perfectly in the final sentence of Francesca Krempa’s Afar article.
“Find us,” says Stanton. “We’ll take you out. And if it doesn’t hook you, you still get to check ice sailing off your bucket list.”
Reach out to us by email, ask to join our weekly call, and come on out and play.
We know we are surrounded by lakes covered with snow but there is pre-thaw hope. To the North Bill Buchholz and the Maine crew have been closely monitoring conditions on Sebago. Focus your attention to iceboat.me for updates. Maybe, just maybe, we will see sailing on the second largest and famously elusive lake in Maine this season.
Think Ice and Sail Fast,
John
DN5023
John@neiya.org
DN Racing VT – 1/18/26 – Google Photos
Thanks to Danny Burger for these great photos from last weekend!
2026 New England Championship Results
Long before the New England Regatta concluded yesterday, and well before the first skipper’s meeting, weeks of scouting, sailing, and securing local access were already underway. Race Committee Chairman Paul Chamberland and Jeff Roseberry put in the groundwork that made this regatta possible.
With the DN North Americans approaching, it was important to grab this opportunity. As most of you know, an ice opportunity not taken is often a missed regatta or days cruise. Paul was clear in his recommendation. Sandbar State Park had the best ice, and with his extensive scouting behind it, the decision was easy. And as we now know most of the rest of New England was covered in white this weekend.
The ice delivered. Conditions were generally smooth, though there was a light snow layer from early Saturday’s snows. It was not deep and inserts ruled the day. Winds cooperated generally out of the south up and down and always enough to move.
Special thanks again to Paul Chamberland, who pulled off an excellent regatta. In his own words:
“At times I was overwhelmed by all the details needed to pull off a successful regatta. There were no on-ice incidents other than a broken headstay tang. A fantastic time was had by all.”
Racing was competitive and clean. Congratulations to our friends to the north, with John Curtis taking commanding first and Jacek Marzenski second. Jeff Roseberry finished third, followed by Paul Chamberland in fourth. Ed Demerest rounded out the top five, holding on despite the only incident of the regatta, a broken headstay tang that resulted in a dropped rig. On a personal note I was able to sort out a number of issues and test them (on ice) in real time.
As always, no regatta happens without volunteers. Thanks to the Race Committee team, and to Nina Fleming, who transformed handwritten results into the official standings. Whether on wheels or blades Nina is our go to RC person.
Sandbar was not exclusively about DNs. Steve Lamb and Peter Coward arrived with their boats to take advantage of the expansive ice. Given the snow that covered much of New England, they made the right call and enjoyed big ice and miles of speed while the DNs turned laps. Next time we call big ice consider spending an extra hour or so of travel time. It is well worth the drive time.
Side note and a testament to the NEIYA’s history, we have outgrown NEIYA’s Grand New England Championship trophy. We have run out of room on the Trophy. To continue the 56-year tradition, Jeff Roseberry has volunteered to craft additional panels to carry future winners.
Think Ice,
John
DN5023
John@neiya.org
Racers
Good luck this weekend in Vermont. May the ice and winds be ever in your favor.
Lake Wentworth
Resurfaced nicely but have not checked thoroughly yet. Safe sail but I’d like to check out Wolfeboro bay. Final weather check needed.
Long Weekend’s Fun Has Just Begun (1-16-26)
We had a record number of people on our call last night, and we know some participants experienced difficulties. I’d like to blame Verizon, but regardless, we’re looking into what went wrong.
Ice reports poured in from Northern Lake Champlain, Sunapee, and Quaboag, all of which are being sailed right now. Lake Wentworth will be surveyed, with more details coming in a separate post. Ice-in was declared on January 15 on one of New England’s biggest iceboating prizes, Lake Winnipesaukee, and scouting is already underway.
Farther north, sailors are out today on Great Pond in Belgrade, Maine. Check the Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club website, iceboat.me, for details.
There’s also word that Bantam Lake in Connecticut may be ready, with people checking it out today.
As previously reported, the New England Championships will be held on Lake Champlain out of Sandbar State Park in Vermont. Racing is open to everyone, from seasoned ranked racers to more casual sailors and those just getting started. There will be a special award for the best boat in the Vintage class. Separate starts will be given to any class that gets three boats to the line. Any takers from the Whiz class?
We could also use some race committee help. No experience is required, just a desire to have the best view of the racing. Reach out to me if you’re interested.
There is plenty of ice for both racers and cruisers, so come on up and sail.
Think Ice,
John
DN 5023
john@neiya.org
New England Ice Yacht Association 