Mighty Fine Day on the Ice! Sunday Feb. 6 Athens, NY

A mighty fine day for sailing on the frozen Hudson Sunday!  Sunshine, a stiff & steady wind, and a steady crowd of onlookers.  New Club boats showed up, including Boreas & Galatea.   Also several bow steerers:  Dns, An Arrow, Lockley Skimmers, Mike's home built bow steerer,  and skaters, and kite skiers.            Many first time iceboat rides were had. 

Had a chance to skipper Bob Will's Orion for a few sails, taking a couple that had been waiting since 2014 to catch a ride.  They were quite happy.  Reid gave many rides, non stop all day on Vixen. Bob took many guests on Orion and Greyhound, Mary Ellen and just rigged Galatea got friends out for rides.  A glorious day.  

Meanwhile sailing continues on Orange Lake, including A boat races between the Hudson River fleet and ice boats from the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club. The Lake has similar surface conditions as the Hudson. Rumor has it Ice Queen swept the 2 races Sunday. 

Winds may be a bit too light the next few days to get through the thin layer of sticky crust.  But you never know - wind could be better than forecast. Will have to watch how the stretch of 40 degree days this week will impact thickness. Stay tuned...   

And, Sailing happening on Orange Lake also  - follow link

  HRIYC at Orange Lake 2-5-22 

Galatea Arrives (above). .... (below) Using an A frame style gin pole to step the mast.

A short bit of history/info on Galatea, including the infamous 'wreck of the Galatea'.

Boreas was built in New Hampshire in 1927 and sailed lakes in that region until it came to the Hudson Valley in the early 2000s.  Boreas is 24’ long with 198 sq ft of sail. It is marconi rigged.  

 

 Following photos, copyright & courtesy of Robert Near.  

Robert takes beautiful pictures & is generous in giving his permission to share them on this blog. 

my first sail this winter, on Orion, with my wife Lisa.  

Orion was built at the Malden Brick factory at Malden-on-Hudson in 1906. It eventually relocated to Long Island where the McInerney family sailed her on Lake Ronkokoma. The boat was nameless when she was obtained by Bob Wills, who christened her Orion on Tivoli Bay in 2010.  Length: 25’                 sail area:  230 sq ft

note tug & barge to the north; it just came around Middle Ground Flats after following channel up east side of river, off the city of Hudson.

 

Commodore Wills at the helm...
 

Lots of work goes into setting up the big yachts. Many hands helped out this weekend.