OK, I know it's a little early for this, but we got 10" of snow yesterday, it's going to be 5 below zero tonite, there's ice forming on the lake and two weeks till the Winter begins. I was amazed at the speeds attained and can understand the liabilties involved in the Ice Flyer. Any one have/built this kit?
Preface:
Ice Flyer ice boat has been around since 1993 (inspired by an article in Wooden boat magazine on the large rear sail ice boats on the US East coast) and the wheel version since about 1997. Both ice and land versions have seen some huge refinement since then. Ice Flyer was a commercial interest until the summer of 2001 and the builder stopped production due to a variety of reasons (none to do with how well the boat works - were still finding this unique design extremely interesting).
Although no longer in production (in the US), these boats are quite unique in how they sail so we've kept up the web site as a free source of information (pardon the sometime "commercial look" that is left over). The boat was originally constructed of wood and fairly detailed plans including templates are available as free down loads on this web site and the intention is to keep these plans up to date with the "evolution" of the boat..
Unfortunately, all that is available are the free plans. No parts are currently available and no fiberglass bodies are available. If you own an Ice Flyer and need some sort of parts support, please contact info1 "at" iceflyer.com (replace "at" with @). If you don't own a boat, we unfortunately just can't supply parts.
We'll still try to answer email but sometimes it gets overwhelming and may not always get answered. However, the questions asked are a lot of times useful in knowing what on the web site or plans is not clear and needs to be upgraded.
What is unique about the way the Ice Flyer sails? It makes a great little ice boat that converts to a dirt boat and is comfortable and has a light air sailing threshold right up there with the best. But the thing that really sets it apart is that it's a screaming little fighter jet in higher winds!!!! Its unique turning balancing is similar to a performance sports car and there is probably not any other design that has either the control or maneuverability in high winds.. This characteristic was also one of the things that made it scary liability wise as a business – people would sail Ice Flyer's in some big insane winds – Liability disclaimer – don't sail in high winds, it can be dangerous (you can get flipped, always make sure the tripod stay "roll bar" is in good shape)!!! The design also had a good safety record despite the sometimes really violent sailing done over the years. The safety of the design probably has something to do with the upright sitting position having good visibility and allowing the effective use of seat belts (and a good quality helmet which tends to be a little heavier). Of course, the seat belts could result in drowning if someone went in the water and wasn't prepared to get out of them so they are also not without risk.
In about 2000, the rear beam started to develop a "ground effect" inverted down force foil shape and this has had a fairly dramatic influence on the boats performance, especially in lighter winds. It's probably also had an influence on the boats peak speed. For quite a few years, the peak speed of the boat seemed to be around 64 mph. However, in the spring of 2002 landsailing down in New Mexico on a day with winds in the mid 30’s to mid 40’s mph, two Ice Flyer’s were recording speeds around 72 mph (possibly up to 75 mph – GPS was used which is always questionable but multiple readings confirmed this). There are probably two reasons for this increase in speed. The first is that both boats had the rear beam inverted foil down force shape. The second possible reason was that both guys had purchased hand cranks for “really” downhauling the sails earlier that year. This is probably the fastest anyone has taken a windsurfing sail and possibly the fastest anyone has taken a round mast?
If you bought one of the glass boats, you should consider building the 9 foot foiled beam shown in the plans section (take a lot of care to align the runners).
One final question that gets asked commonly: Can I use iceboats in snow? In general, if you live in an area that has safe ice and periodically gets cleared of snow, iceboats are going to produce some impressive performance. They will also sail with some snow on the ice but it usually needs to be fairly fresh. Once the snow melts and re-freezes or gets very deep, iceboats don't work very well even with skis. Ice boats work because you get very low forward drag and very high side drag. Blades in deep snow have too much forward drag and skis have both fairly high forward drag and also not enough side drag (or bite).
Please enjoy the site; it is usually always being updated (we quit manufacturing but definitely are still sailing).
Ice Flyer
http:/
It looked cool, but a bit complex.
I dont think you can go much simpler (KISS??) than the Isabella Classic http:/
If you want to get funky, you fair the plank for more 'downforce' and add a lightweight fuselage. There was something on their website about buy a set, where you only need to source the planks and rig+rigging locally.
There are some board solutions, but my a** ache just by looking at them. My partner in this project has never done any windsurfing, so he was less than positive about a board with windsurfer rig. Would be much easier to lug around than a full iceyacht tough..
Altough it's not much ice here (to much snow), we plan to buy materials for a Isabella coming saturday and improvise our way. I am sure we will have fun with such a setup and a 6.5m2 windsurfer rig.
Welcome to the world of iceboating. First of all if you are just starting to build an iceboat for this season, you are already way too late.
What you should do is buy one that is already built. There are several reasons for this. First the hardware to build an iceboat is relatively expensive compared to the cost of a used boat, second it takes quite a while to build a quality iceboat. I would figure on around 100-300 hours of time to build a boat and plank well, get everything aligned, sharpened etc.
Secondly, your best bet is the DN iceboat. Parts are available, used boats are available and there are lots of racing and cruising oportunitys. You can expect the DN North Americans to draw 120+ boats and the worlds in Europe has to be capped at 200 boats. Lots of competition.
As far as building or buying, your first iceboat should be bought used. I would argue that you don’t know what you want yet in an iceboat and you should not build one until you sail a batch of them and decide what you like.
Enough with the gloom and doom. Iceboating is so much fun it is unreal. A good day on the ice is better then any other day of sailing. There is absoulutely nothing like rounding a windward mark at 35 mph and accelerating up to 60 as you peel off downwind. One good ride on a DN and you are hooked.
Sail fast, sail hard water
Eric Anderson
DN US 5193
Ice boating is cool all right except you have about three days all freakin winter that the conditions are right. (and I live on a lake). Too much snow insulates the ice and creates slush, too little wind and you end up pushing the thing around the lake, watch out for the holes the icefisherman have left unmarked.
For those three days it is cool. I also recommend a used DN
John
If all you do is sail on your own lake you are lucky to get any iceboating in at all. If you want to sail iceboats, you have to be willing to travel. This weekend is a great example. I live in Connecticut. Nothing sailable in this state is frozen. However, Plymouth Pond in Maine is frozen and sailable. If it is not getting too much snow, we will sail it tomorrow and sunday. If it does get snowed out today, we will probably go the Thedford Mines which is east of Montreal. If they get snowed out we will drink beer, sharpen runners and hope the next lake freezes quickly. Last year I got in 18 days of iceboating. This does not include 3 days when we set up but there was no wind (bummer). Usualy I get to sail 25+ days per winter.
Last year I sailed in CT,MA,VT,NH,ME,NY,WI, and Quebec.
Buy a good set of snow tires, tie the boat to your roofracks and hit the road!
Think Ice
Eric