Fun When It Freezes
 

Today's New York Times has a section called Living Here that appears weekly, I believe. Anyway, the subtitle this week is Housing Near Ice Boating and features seven homes that are for sale across the nothern states. One of the homes is located on our Rattlesnake Island and is available for $ 795,000. The blurb mentions the Winnipesaukee Frolic and other ice boating events.

I am curious. In my 30 years on the lake, I have never seen anyone iceboating. Am I at the wrong end of the lake or has there been too much snow on the ice so as to limit ice boating in the recent past?

Iceboating does exist
 

In the video "Over New England" which was put out in the late-90's, there is an aerial shot of several iceboats on the lake. I've seen a couple of iceboats (from Black Cat, usually heading into the Broads, wind-driven at a high rate of speed) but you are right - they are rare. My guess is just what you say: The ice needs to be smooth. For years a pilot friend of the family wanted to come up and land on the ice in front of the house but he had to wait several years before we were able to promise him a smooth expanse for landing - snowdrifts on the ice mess with landing gear (maybe even rip it off) when you're at 80 knots - I would imagine it's similar for the runners of an iceboat.

Maybe you are on the wrong side of the island. I've have seen them on several occassions, usually in pairs or groups, to the north west of the island.

The other hazard out there to ice boats is the ice rifs which can get very large. Not the kind of thing you want to hit "by accident". I've seen them out ripping around on smaller lakes, sure looks like a blast.

They are on Meredith Bay
 

After lamenting that I had never seen ice boats on Winnipesaukee, yesterday afternoon we drove into Meredith and what did we see but about six or seven ice boats. One was scooting along nicely but the others were parked by the boat ramp. It was about 3pm and I wasn't sure if they were starting or leaving.

The rigs were small and it looked as though the mast was about the length of a windsurfer mast. It looked as though it was a lot of fun.