Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-03-12
THE FASTEST EARTHLY GOING.
How the Ice-boats OF the Hudson are
Built And How to Sail them.
New York World.

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| Hudson River steamboats, arc being re-
fitted and prepared for business, while
the ice-boats are preparing to withdraw.
Many are the accounts given in the
daily papers of the ice-boat races every
winter, and yet many people nave TO
idea what an ice-boat looks like or what
rate of speed it can attain, or how it is
sailed. ''Well, it doesn't make much diff
ference" said an q priori thinker on the
subject Of ice-boats the other day; eff
you do break through the ice. Of course
you can stay quietly in the boat till
some one helps you out" Imagine sit
ting quietly on a triangular platform
which, while going at the rate of sixty
miles an hour, has been suddenly
brought to a standstill
POughkeepsie on the Hudson is the
headquarters of ice-boating, and of
winters day can be seen Hundreds of
the queer looking crafts either skim
ming over the CLASSY surface ofthe river
or lying with sails carefully furled with
in a stones throw Of the docks. The
interest people take in the boats is evil
dent on the trains On the New York
Central and Hudson RIVER Railroad If
a boat is sailing about in sight, an utter
stranger will call his neighbours atten-
ton to it, and in moment every one
has left the opposite side Of the car and
is gazing in wonder through the windows
on the river side. Elderly gentlemen
put down their papers and say "Humph!
dangerous amusement, very" ladies
lean forward with ordinations of ad-
miratiOn at the ease with which the
boats are apparently managed and at
the graceful turns and circles they make.
Then some one says aloud. II wonder
what time they can make under most
favorable circumstances" This is quite
enough, if there is an ice-boatman on
| board to loosen his tongue, and he will
give every particular concerning the
boats, from the time they are built to
the time they are wrecked. He gener-
ally begins in this way:
My Dear sir, they are as unlike any
other kind Of a boat as possible The
only thing in common is the sales; and
as for sailing in one, I'd rather do that
for half an hour than-than-than do
anything else for six months"
For all ice-boatmen are enthusiasts.
And an ice-boat is unlike any other
boat. 1t is simply a triangle of hickory
or spruce plank, say thirteen feet long
and two and half inches thick. The
base is the bow, and under each angle
is runner or skate of wood, shod with
steel and coming down to a sharp edge
like knife. The skate is fastened be-
tween two small chocks of wood, in
orJor tbot IF ,,,ou ,,1,u 1itt1o IN opI
down and glide over rough ice with
greater ease. This is called the runner
plank. Another, somewhat shorter. is
above the runner-plank, and through
this runs the mast, which is stepped in
the lower. From the runner-plank a
light though strong beam known as the
"stringer" extends aft and corresponds
to the keel in a sail-boat. Two other
beams Of about the same size as the
''stringer" and bent at one end SO that
when joined they form the prettily
rounded stern, also run aft from the
runner-plank, the end resting on the
plank and supporting the upper or
mast plank, thus making the sides Or
taffrail of the boat. At the extreme
stern or apex of the triangle is the rud-
der. which is skate like the two others
but smaller, being only about eighteen
inches or two feet long. This skate is
attached to the rudder-post. About
half the space inclosed by the side
beams or rails is decked over at the
stern, afording room for the helmsman
and two others to lie down (for that is
the only position practicable aft Of the
mast, or in what is called the cabin. }
Rubber washers" the size of mans
fist, are very often placed under the
ends of the side beams, where they rest
on the plank, and also on the
rudder-post under the cabin, the object
being to make the boat ride smoothly
over rough ice.
The boat being built, the enthusiastic
| boatman goes on to explain to by this
time) little knot of listeners in the
palace car, how it is sailed. In this re-
spect ice-boats do not differ M aterially
from other craft, except in one respect
they are never sailed Free" that is,
before the wind, for this reason: they
will go much faster ION the wind" be-
cause, "going free they will only run
as fast as the wind blows; SO that if the
wind is blowing at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour that is the speed they
will attain, but with the same wind on
the "quarter" they will do forty or fifty
miles in the same time with ease. This
is a most simple thing to understand,
yet few but practical sailors compre-
bend it. Sailing on the wind the same
pressure is on the sail all the time, and
the boat keeps gathering Roadway, while
in the other case, after reaching a GER
tain point there is no pressure on the
sail at all. In one other thing an ice
boat is unlike its sister of the water-it
makes no leeway," its sharp runners
having such hold upon the ice that it
will sail almost into the "eye of the
wind" Care must always be taken Ill
"going about" never to "gibe," as, al
though the boom has not very much
play, what it has it takes advantage of
and swings over to 'looard" like a
thunderbolt, and tears the mast out
At Poughkeepsie the boats are seen in
perfection. made of different colored
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