Orange Lake Sailing.... Jan 27, 2018

A fleet of over a dozen boats have congregated on Orange Lake. Plenty of ice, surface fairly good. Winds gusty, then calm. Winds were up, then died and came up again over the afternoon Saturday.

A beautiful day of sailing on Orange Lake. I got there about noon and discovered that the ice had healed fairly well after the recent snow storm, warmth and rain. Boats had just started sailing over the last few days. Warm temperatures over next few days will likely prevent the boats from raising sails. Plenty of thickness and cold later this week will help firm up the surface.
Next weekend may be shaping up nicely....

John Allen's Nite class bow steerer, Capt. Steve on his 1927 marconi-rigger Boreus, and Rick Lawrence skippering George Buckhout built Ice Queen (circa 1910)  (l-r). Pine Point behind the Nite.

Hal with Puff.   50 years ago Puff was winning many of the races on Orange Lake.
1968 was a good year for racing between boats of the Orange Lake Ice Yacht Club and the HRIYC.
Puff was built 1871 (give or take a year or 2) by Irving Grinnell commodore of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club.
After years in a barn, Puff was acquired by a group of sailors in 1964 and restored.
Lots more on Puff shortly....


Ice Station Glasco report:

An Arrow and DN try the ice at Glasco a week ago, before the rain.
(all photos by the admiral)

 Jr. Keeper Cricket sheets in on Ice Yacht Canargo.

Crazy kite skier chases after the Atlantic Salvor.  Said Kite Skier snapped an iconic photo of same tug 24 years ago... 

Warming temps Saturday began to open up holes and cracks in the ice. Boats were removed late afternoon. River ice may likely not hold out through these next few days. We would again need extended cold night to build sufficient thickness. 

Icicle circa 1881

Came across this photo in my archives and felt like posting it again.
John A. Roosevelt's Icicle.  The big one - side railer; 68+ ft; 1070 sq ft of sail.  circa 1881.
This photo was pasted on the inside front cover of one of his scrapbooks. here's the cover page

The scrapbook is in the FDR Library in Hyde Park. Great iceboat materials in the library. 

very little of the iceboat material has been digitized yet, understandably...

Murderer's Creek

Vixen on a dwindling piece of ice. Note open water - that's Murderer's Creek - flowing into the Hudson.

Murderer's Creek lived up to its name today.... This state boat launch is a great access point to the Hudson River, just north of the village of Athens, NY (Greene County).  The heavy rains and warm temperatures from Friday's storm led to heavy runoff for any tributary into the Hudson. This Creek certainly murdered the ice where Vixen and Boreus had recently set up. The heavy flow ate away at  the solid ice  quickly and in the course of a few hours the ice flow where the 2 yachts were parked was open water.  
Vixen had set up earlier in the week and got in a short sail on Wednesday.  Boreus set up Thursday, planning on riding out the storm and being ready to sail once the upcoming freeze repaired any damage from the storm.   

Port runner and plank were about 2 feet under water as the ice eroded at that spot.
We delicately maneuvered the plank up an onto firmer ice.

Instead, we spent today in extraction mode. The pit crew of the HRIYC worked carefully and quickly to get Vixen out of the creek; we then dismantled, and hauled the boat, piece by piece back onto shore and then onto the transport truck. Boreus followed.  

Boreus, This ice chunk was all but gone 45 m later...

Agonizingly we looked at a beautiful field of ice 50 yards beyond the launch site. Miles of river ice has been smoothed out from the rain. We just need a safe place to get on and off the ice. The upcoming cold nights should lock up the river again. Will need to see where the best launch site will be now.
Boats are still on Tivoli Bay, though reports say that the Bay is a mess - open water from the Sawkill Creek and muddy sediment deposited on the surface from the run off. Waiting to hear how Orange Lake fared...      Good News is that there is a lot of ice on the river and frigid temps ahead!

Murderer's Creek flows freely into a field of ice of the Hudson. That's Middle Ground Flats - an island between Athens and the city of Hudson to the east.

Vixen, Athens, 2009. Robert Near, photographer.  

Hope to see you out on the ice this winter.
Here is a nice audio piece from 2009 when we were last on the ice at Athens. And here is a nice video story short featuring Vixen. 

Boreus, with Capt. Steve, sailing Tivoli Bay , 2007. Chris Kendall, photographer.

Zamboni Coming??

Athens, Greene County, February, 2009 

Sailing has been on hold since last week's storm (we got about 5 inches in Red Hook - northern Dutchess County - on 1/4/18). All local sailing surfaces have too much snow to sail.

But we have a classic weather pattern coming up - warm up (50s), rain (a good soaking Friday), followed by a return of very cold temps (early Sunday morn, near single digits). This should work to get rid of snow and polish the surface. Should be a start of a great week of sailing (for those that can get away from work...). 

Question is where on the River will boats set up? There is talk of good ice in Athens, where we sailed in 2001 and again in 2009.  Will have more info by the weekend.   There are still boats ready at Tivoli Bay & Orange Lake, both of which should have great ice by (perhaps)  Sunday.   stay tuned. 


Athens, Greene County, February 7, 2009

Ariel & Ice Queen

Hound with a reef on a gusty day.

Genevieve, with Capt. Brett

Now Then, historic stern steerer from Red Bank NJ.  2-8-09

Cyclone

New Years Day 2018

Puff, Galatea, Cyclone....waiting for the wind to come up.
It did eventually blow late in the afternoon, and Puff & Galatea got in some fine sailing.




Meanwhile, looks like plenty of wind for the Orange Lake fleet!

Delicate job of righting Ice Queen

Ariel,  Whirlwind,  Ice Queen... 3 Buckhout boats, all 350 sq ft of sail and 28-30 feet in length. 
The quickest boats in the Hudson River fleet. 

Orange Lake photos courtesy of Kevin Lawrence.