by Deb Whitehorse | May 28, 2026 | 2025-2026, Home Page
NOT ICE!
Some people just can’t get enough of what iceboating brings.
The waiting for weather to cooperate. The endless discussions about runners (tires in this case), alignment, wood, ice (dirt), and speed. The camaraderie that comes from chasing conditions with friends who understand why any of this matters in the first place.
Several ice sailors, including 4liyc Renegader Damien Luyet, 4liyc sails-one-of-everything Daniel Hearn, DN Champ Ron Sherry, DN and Skeeter sailor Leon Lebeau, DNers Pete Johns, Ken Smith, Tim Ballard, and long time Montana dirt and ice sailors John and Scott Eisenlohr, and likely others I’ve missed, arrived near Winnemucca, Nevada yesterday for land sailing at the Jungo Yacht Club playa.
But Mother Nature had other ideas.
Rain turned the playa into an actual lake and served as a reminder that a dry lake bed is still a lake when enough water shows up. Photos from the scene looked more like an iceboat regatta venue than a land sailing site.
The good news is that desert conditions usually work fast. If the weather cooperates, the standing water should dry quickly and could leave behind the dirt equivalent of Hollywood ice. Maybe “Hollywood dirt.”
Sailors spent the lay day camped out in motorhomes, swapping stories and waiting for the playa to come back to life. Reports this morning suggest they’ve now found a way into camp and may be racing soon.
Hopefully we’ll be getting more reports from the gang out west as the playa dries and the wheels finally start turning.
First Rule: Find breakfast
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by Deb Whitehorse | Apr 2, 2024 | 2023-2024, Home Page
NALSA RESULTS
Iceboat.org has been covered in dust while visiting the spring training grounds of Ivanpah, Nevada, where ice sailors have traded their runners for wheels. Last week, I spent a few days as a tourist at the North American Land Sailing Championship. It was an opportunity to hang out with 4LIYC Commodore Daniel Hearn, Pat Heppert, SIBC’s Bob Cave, Ken Smith, John Eisenlohr, Bill Dale, brothers Jim and Dave Gluek, and Pete Johns, to name a few. There was a high concentration of ice sailors in the Mini-Skeeter class, developed by John Eisenlohr, several years ago. The sight of Pat Heppert’s green C Skeeter, DRIFTER, on the dirt, created a surreal juxtaposition, as I’m accustomed to seeing it on ice.
Racing highlights included watching competitors cross the finish line, the speed battles between John Eisenlohr and the Gluek brothers, and Daniel Hearn dialing in the Mini-Skeeter he borrowed from Pete Johns. (Why he had to borrow a boat in the first place is a story for Daniel.) The race committee’s longstanding familiarity with each other translated into effortlessly managing races and enjoying the task.
Social events on the playa were unique. I learned about the tradition of mixing margaritas in a repurposed cement mixer (thankfully, I missed the “gritty” years.), ate freshly prepared fish tacos seconds out of the fryer, and enjoyed the chili cook-off.
Competitors remarked that the playa was in the best condition they had seen in many years, comparable to our black ice – smooth and hard with very few humps or cupping.
Later this week, I’ll be back on the playa for another exciting event, the 2024 Blokart World Championship. Competitors from 11 countries include several 4LIYC members, Jim Nordhaus, Geoff Sobering, Brett Husley, Lars Barber, and Brad Wagner.
Recent rains on the playa have left the Blokart regatta organizers in an eerily familiar position, reminiscent of the same uncertainties often faced by ice sailors. The Federal Bureau of Land Management, responsible for overseeing the playa, has enforced gate closures during rainy periods to safeguard the integrity of the dry lake bed. Unlike snow on a lake, the arid conditions of the high desert typically facilitate the rapid evaporation of moisture. With a sunny forecast ahead, regatta organizers are hoping that the playa will soon be accessible once again for the Blokart regatta. Racing is scheduled from Saturday, April 6, through Friday, April 12. You will be able to see Blokart results here.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Feb 13, 2021 | 2020-2021, Home Page
It’s -5F/-21C in Madison, WI this morning. Oh, and it’s snowing, thus proving that it’s never too cold to snow. Many of us are spending another weekend off the ice. Why not get your ice-science geek on and read DN sailor Ken Smith’s article about ice’s magical properties and learn about peel-outs.
WHY ICE WORKS
Push your boat over ice, and it slides almost friction-free. Why is there no friction? Because ice is magic. Ice floats on water.
Professor, explain why runners are almost frictionless on ice? Well, pilot, most materials live by phase diagrams that display what pressure and temperature does to the material “phases,” liquid, solid and gas. Take a gas, put it under pressure and it becomes a liquid. Take a liquid and put it under pressure and it becomes a solid. Works for lava. Works for steel, works for most anything that has a liquid state. It works for water, too. The magic stuff, ice will become water (or slush) if it gets above 32 degrees F, 0 degrees C. But there is a special condition found in ice where the phase transitions are a little wacky. This wackiness means the solid is less densethan the liquid. Ice floats. Stay with me here.
Continue reading in the February 2021 edition of the DN class newsletter, Runner Tracks, page 8.
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