We had a great week displaying a few boats at our local county fair in Rhinebeck. We had hundreds of fair-goers stop by to share stories or to discover these boats for the first time. It was a chance to talk about the Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust, the 501C3 recently established, and goals to eventually have a space to store, work on, and display the old ice yachts. More on HRIYPT here. Looking at old club minutes it appears the last time we displayed a boat at the DC Fair was 1974 with the Jack Frost.
a few photos, and some of the info we shared at our display:
Orion is a beautiful example of the antique, stern-steering, gaff-rigged ice yachts that raced up and down the Hudson in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Orion’s early sailing took place off Malden-On-Hudson, in Ulster County. She was built around 1906, by the owners of the Malden Brick Yards. She was sold to the McInerny family on Long Island, and was transported by barge, down the Hudson, eventually arriving at its new home on Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island. Commodore Robert Wills of the HRIYC acquired her in 2004 and brought the ice yacht back to the Hudson River, where she now sails, as conditions allow. Length: 25’ 8” Plank width: 13’ 3” Sail Area: 175 sq ft
DN ice boat Length: 12 ‘ plank width: 8’ sail area: 60 sq ft.
HRIYC member Andy Hudson’s DN was built at Weeks Boat Yard on Long Island in 1993.
The DN is the largest iceboat class in the world. It was the winner of a contest sponsored by the Detroit News in 1937, to design a car-toppable, inexpensive ice boat. Since then tens of thousands DNs have been built in basements and garages by DN sailors around the world. It is a one-design class iceboat that carries one sailor, and steered with a bow-runner. International competitions take place each year in the US or in Europe. Dn speeds can get up to 60 mph.
Mead Tandem Skeeter Zip Length: 22’ Plank: 15’-2.25” Sail area: 75 sq ft
Zip is a somewhat rare Mead Tandem skeeter. It was built by The Mead Glider Co. of Chicago, likely in the early 1940s. The Skeeter class has a 75 sq ft sail area requirement, with other aspects of construction up to the builder. Zip sailed for many years on Greenwood Lake, on the NY/NJ border. It was donated to the HRIYC by Rusty Welchman & restored by Robert Wills.
