Season of 2013-14 January

January 20, 2014

Took in some nice views of the Hudson River (open with smaller ice floes riding the currents) and Tivoli Bay on Sunday from Poet's Walk in Barrytown and from Bard College. There is a great view of the Bay from Blithewood Manor (at Bard)  and a trail that leads you down to roughly the mid-point of the Bay. Right now there is open water. The Sawkill Creek has cut well into the Bay with a wide swath of open water after the rain and warm temps this past week. There was a lot of water visible along the broken up edges and I didn't think of trying to get onto the ice from where the steep trail I was on led to the edge of the bay. But with the coming cold - it looks like we will have four nights of single digit temperatures - the Bay should be in fine shape - ice thickness-wise - for the weekend of the 25th. We will be watching the River as well. There is still hope for this season!





January 11, 2014
I'd hoped today would be the day that I would be setting up my boat on Tivoli Bay. After 3 full days of very cold weather earlier this week, I knew the Bay would be  solid from end to end. Instead we looked at 60 degrees, pouring rain and thunder and lightning. It was a miserable day. North Wind (see previous post) did sail yesterday (Friday), covering the full length of Tivoli Bay. She is currently covered up and waiting out the upcoming 4 days of above freezing temperatures. Next weekend will get back to ice making temperatures. We'll see how the ice holds up.

January 5:   It was a beautiful day to snowshoe across Tivoli Bay today. There was a consistent 4-5 inches of ice, covered with 3-5 inches of compacted drifted snow. Coyote and deer tracks criss-crossed the snow covered expanse. We saw bald eagles - an adult and juvenile - fly off from their perch along the east shore of the Bay near Montgomery Place. It will remain to be seen if the rain on Monday is enough to saturate and melt the snow in advance of the deep freeze that will follow. Locations along the river will be scouted to see if any sailable ice sets up by the weekend. Photos are from Clermont State Park on Jan. 4 and Tivoli South Bay on Jan. 5. January 2, 2014 A new year and we are looking at bitter cold temperatures ahead. The snow storms of mid December have come (an 11 inch dump and a 5-6 inch storm) and gone (a 3 day warm spell, along with rain, melted everything by Christmas). I skated for the first time on New Years Day on a neighbor's pond, just ahead of an impending storm that could bring up to 8 inches or more of snow, along with our first temperatures below zero. I joked with a few people recently that there is no need to look at snow forecasts any longer. Just know that we are due for a good snow storm as soon as we have ice thick enough to consider sailing on! But the extended cold over the next seven days or so could look good for the Hudson River to freeze over. Perhaps a consolation for the fact that the Bay and other possible sailing locations will be covered in a good amount of snow. 

Ice Yacht of the Week

In an effort to document the historic ice yachts of the Hudson River area, the plan will be to feature an ice boat per week (or at least every other week) in this column.  I will focus on boats still sailing and provide any history associated with the boat, as known. What better way to start than to highlight one of the oldest ice yachts still sailing – Whiff.

Whiff, on the Hudson River, circa 1881. (Image from the Roosevelt library archives)

Whiff’s history is well documented.  She was built by Jacob Buckhout of Poughkeepsie in 1875-6, being commissioned by Irving Grinnell, commodore of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club, for display at the Philadelphia centennial of 1876.   Whiff was described as “The Finest Ice Yacht in the  World” according to the headline in a May 1876 article in the Poughkeepsie Eagle: 

“…the frame was built by Jacob Buckhout of Poughkeepsie of clear white pine, the side pieces cased on the outside with black walnut relieved by gold bead.  The deck is floored with very narrow alternate strips of spruce and red cedar.  The bulk head is of black walnut made with a beautiful and graceful sweep.  The mast bench is of two arched pieces of ash, and a walnut truss runs the whole length of the top of the keelson, and runner plank is of white pine cut on a slight arch and fitted with oak chocks to receive skates.  ….Her name is “Whiff” written upon the stern in fancy nickel plated letters, while her figure head is a very handsome flying dragon with open wings, a long tail, a stretched-out neck, and covered with heavy scales, slightly gilded….the whole of it superbly carved out of solid black walnut.”

  

 A New York Times (4/13/1876) article also described Whiff as displayed at the Centennial:  

“It is the most thoroughly equipped and finished ice yacht in the world, and is a beauty in every respect. A beautiful …silk signal of the New Hamburg Ice Yacht Club will be displayed at the peak; while from the maintrack, from a gilded stick and ball, will hang the thirty feet silk Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America…”

It was at the Philadelphia Centennial that many Americans first saw an iceboat.  It has been written that many individuals took home the idea and began building ice boats in many other parts of the country after that event.  Whiff’s  design is that of an earlier “side-railer” design in which the mast is stepped directly over the runner plank.  Heavy wooden side rails were used to provide stability.  This design was heavy and, some say, difficult to sail, tending to spin out as the boats were not properly balanced. 

Working drawings of Whiff from the 1879 Scientific American Supplement.
Note the carved Gryphon on the bowsprit.

Whiff was discovered years ago in a barn at the old Grinnell estate in New Hamburgh and was restored by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club.  Whiff is probably the last surviving example of this original design approach and looks largely as she did when built 147 years ago.  Whiff is one of two  club boats belonging to the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club and is still sailed today by its members. 

Whiff, sailing off Rhinecliff, February 2005.   photo by Chris Kendall

Sailing near Athens, February 2001 (photo by Lee Ferris)

Irving Grinnell, who commissioned and sailed Whiff, was founder and commodore of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club, established 1869. 

Grinnell was an avid ice yachter, who regularly skippered his own yachts in races.  Grinnell also commissioned the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America, a 30’ long silk pennant that signified supremacy in Ice Yacht racing. It was raced for 15 times between 1881-1922. John A. Roosevelt’s Icicle captured the pennant 4 times. Unfortunately no Grinnell boat ever won a Challenge Pennant race.

Whiff      built, 1876   Length: 40’   sail area:  369 sq ft 

A response from Grinnell to the Scientific American supplement, 1877.  Grinnell was responding to a previous writer who felt That Whiff was a weak boat, based on the drawings in SA the previous year.       ( thanks to Henry Bossett for sending this article on to me)

Sailing??

Rumor has it that there might be late-day sailing on Tivoli Bay tomorrow. Reid Bielenberg is looking to set up North Wind in the afternoon.

North Wind on the Hudson River, off Rhinecliff several years ago. ( Photo by Chris Kendall)

 The rain and warm temperatures of Monday and the current freeze looks to  have readied the previously snow covered ice. I haven't been there since the rain, but will report more as I hear about it.
Speaking of reporting on the ice, this blog will try to keep folks apprised of local ice sailing as I hear about it. You may find though, that reports "after the fact" will be more common here than letting you know in advance. My plan is to focus more on history and stories about ice boating than up-to-the-minute reports.
That said, your best bet for sailing reports and weather trends is to check in regularly with John Sperr's site .(as you probably do already). Of course hriyc.org has been the best source for ice sailing in the Hudson Valley for many years.

Andy Hudson's DN on Orange Lake, New Year's day. 

As it looks to warm up and rain by the weekend at this point, there may be a narrow window for a day or two of sailing this week. That is the nature of the sport. Andy Hudson took advantage of a recent narrow window of opportunity (a window of about 12 hours). Andy sailed Orange Lake in his DN on January 1, just before the Jan. 2nd storm. A great way to start the New Year!

Carthage Ice Yacht Club

 Carthage Ice Yacht Club, Chelsea NY;  1890 book

-Later changed its name to Chelsea Yacht Club. 

I believe this was Irving Grinnell's copy of the 1890 CIYC book.  I got access to this book & more files of Grinnell at the Grinnell Library in Wappingers Falls. Only copy I have come across. 

"....And the skating is "bully." On the Ice - 160 years ago.

I was looking through my piles of articles on ice boating and immediately came across one of the earliest articles I've seen on ice boating on the Hudson.  Following is an excerpt from the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, December 29, 1860.

"The Sport on the River - We took a stroll yesterday to the river partly to enjoy the fine bracing atmosphere and to make a note of anything interesting. On arriving at the dock, foot of Main Street, hundreds of human beings met our gaze darting hither and thither upon those promoters of health - skates." (the article goes on for another paragraph about the ice skaters, then continues...)
"But perhaps the most important feature of winter's enjoyment is the great "penchant" for ice boats. We have collected as near as possible an account of these crafts, and give the result of our labors below:

Name                                Owner
Una                                    D.B. Overton
Vesper                               Edw. Innis
Courier                               E & N Chichester
Arctic                                 J.G. Vassar Jr.
Whisper                             W. Collingwood
----                                    O.H. Booth
----                                    John Davies
Icicle                                  J. Roosevelt
----                                    H.L. Cronk
Old Abe                             D. H. Turner
Express                              J. Buckhout
----                                    J.H. Hawkins
Tip Up                               W. Snyder 

"We challenge any city in this country to produce a fleet of ice boats that will compare in size, beauty and speed with the Poughkeepsie fleet. 
Ice boats are an institution, If that fact was never known before it is now. In them (if Old Borealis ever smiles on their sails) is concentrated the speed of the locomotive, and many an anxious eye is cast upon the occupants as they pass with a Whr-r-r that makes the blood travel through your veins with a quickness before unknown. It is well worth a visit to the river while the ice is good to see with what zeal the different ones enter into this kind of enjoyment. The ice is stout above the ferry track, and the skating is 'bully.'  " 


It is clear that by 1860 there were already  over a dozen ice boats sailing the Hudson off of Poughkeepsie. Several significant names in the sport of ice sailing  - Roosevelt, Buckhout, Booth and Innis were among the earliest reported boat owners. These sailors would be still in competition over the next 25-30 years. The Artic was later reported to be still sailing into the 1900s - as it was originally built.
One of the earliest photos I've found of an ice yacht on the Hudson is of the Vesper:

From the photo archives of the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park 

above:  John A. Roosevelt's Icicle, circa 1875, and, 

below, as it likely looked at the time of the Poughkeepsie Eagle article. This sketch was from an 1861 Scientific American issue.  

 

 (Thanks to Dan Jones for stumbling upon this article some years ago.)         updated 2020

Hudson River Ice Yacht Club Book 1890

The second published club book - from 1890

Pretty much the same officers as in 1888. 
 

Fleet is broken into class size.

Note the sail area of Jack Frost- 911 sq ft! 

This was a short-lived version. Rogers reduced it down to about 750 sq ft within a year or so.

4o yachts and 70 members by 1890. 

Hudson River Ice Yacht Club Book 1888

Club roster of members of HRIYC from 1888. I believe this to be the first
published book of members. The HRIYC formed in March of 1885.

Harry Briggs was long time secretary of the Hyde Park Ice Yacht Club,
though I find no record of his being a member of the HRIYC. He collected
ice boating items and wrote the history of the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club
for the DC Historical Society. I would venture this early club book was part of his
collection at one point.

John A. Roosevelt was first commodore when the club was formed in 1885.
E.P. Roger was the brother of Archibald Rogers.
Charles Van Loan worked at the Rogers estate at Hyde Park.
He built the ice yacht Cyclone, for Archie's son Herman Livingston Rogers. (I currently own and sail Cyclone).
Regatta committee chair Herman Livingston lived on the Hudson River just north of Germantown.
His boats are stored in barns at the estate there today.

Members number one & two: John A. Roosevelt & Archie Rogers....