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Iceflyers |
Five years ago Bonnie Billings and I built two Iceflyers using the free online plans provide by Wally Hall. Wally has a great website, downloadable fullsize templates and lots of construction photos. He has spent many hours tweaking and perfecting the Iceflyer on dirt and ice. These boats were not complicated to build but did require the use of windsurf sails, masts, and booms. The hull materials were spruce boards and plywood. The 8' wide rear beams were made from Poplar and pine. The runners were made from hot rolled flat steel with aluminum stiffeners. Chocks and steering pedals were fabricated by Bonnie in his welding shop. We used old sails that came from a dumpster and went through many old fiberglass masts before getting some old epoxy masts that didn't break. The epoxy masts were like noodles even after we added some internal stiffeners. We had hours of fun in these boats and beat the daylights out of them. These boats are tough and will sail in any wind quite comfortably. We did purchase better sails on Ebay but found that without a good mast we were limited in performance. We did get the boats over 40mph quite often using the old sails and masts.Looking back we both feel that we were not getting full performance out of these boats because of poor runner alignment and sharpening methods at the time we sailed them as well as lack of descent mast and sails. Bonnie and I still have our Iceflyers tucked away and will have another ride on them I'm sure. It was just a matter of time before the experimenting started with our Iceflyers. This Iceflyer was rigged with a main and a jib using an aluminum mast. It actually worked ok in light winds but proved to be a handfull in the occasional gust. We used the boat in heavier wind with just the main. Several of us used the boat and felt this rig was comparable to the windsurf rig. I now look back and laugh at this sail. It is a wonder it sailed at all. It was all in the name of experimentation. This photo is a good example of what not to do to a good Iceflyer but it was a great way for me to learn about sails, mast rake and a lesson in why windsurf masts should flex. Travis Eaton sailing an Iceflyer on Walker Pond. This IceFlyer is limping in with a broken mast. |