Faithful Friends on Monotypes


For your listening pleasure, a 1983 Russian music video with Monotype Stern-Steerers and DNs. This video has grown on me since first seeing it on Facebook yesterday. The innocence and goofiness of it seem appropriate now.

The song is VIA ′′ Faithful Friends ′′ – Blue Song (Blue Inay)” and the translation describing it reads, “In the 80s, there is a boom of Sailing in the USSR, the mass construction of sailing yachts, monotype buers, DN, sports clubs at factories buy match, yacht clubs open, popularization is huge.”

While We Wait: Here’s a Russian Stern-Steerer With Interesting Runners

Photo from “konstantin_k_n” Instagram account

November is the toughest month, when ice sailors patiently conceal their impatience for that first ice report. While we wait, here’s a photo of a  lovely gaff-rigged Russian stern-steerer that I ran across on Instagram. The unusual runners are what attracted my attention. Wonder how they worked in snow?

 

The Power of Wind

Google Translate sometimes misses the mark: “All You Need to Know About Sailing Cars Gliding On Ice”  though it does seem fitting considering the guy in the Skeeter, Paul Krueger’s other speed passion is open-wheel racing.

Ran across this in-depth article via Facebook about iceboating from “The Power of Wind” a Russian sailing website. The MARY B even gets a mention! Google’s translation could be better but if you are interested in the history of the sport around the world and in Russia, it’s worth taking a few minutes to read.

In the minds of most people who first heard the word “iceboat”, there is absolutely no association. Yes, and the description that it is a boat, put on skates, also does not particularly clarify the already confusing picture. Paradoxical in this situation is that the iceboat is not a newfangled entertainment and not the pampering of amateur designers, but a real sport with all the attendant attributes: international competitions, division into classes, clearly stipulated regulations and, most importantly, its long history.

Continue reading. (Links to Google’s English translation.)

1968 USSR Championship

Via WSSA Secretary/Treasurer Andy Gratton alerts us to this really interesting Youtube video: “Matt Critchley found this video. Wing-sails on stern steerers, all they need is a bubble canopy. I don’t even see any wires on these boats. Everyone should see these boats.”