Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-12-08
ICE-BOATING.
CRAFT WHICH ATTAlNS A SPEED OF
FIFTY MILES AN HOUR.
How Ice-Boats Arc Made-The 1885 So
del-snow-Sailors to Garry Malls
Kites rs Biotive-Power
for skaters.
rWrittou for tho DIspatch.I


The annual advent of Jack Frost ia NJ
hand. and with the spreading OF his white
mantle over the earth and his hard. gIist-
ening crust upon the watsr. the bob sleds,
skates, and toboggans are brought out once
more.
For those who are fond of novelties there
is the Danish skate sail, which consists of n
small light sail, measuring about SIX feet
long 10y two feet wide. whichis spread upon
light rods crossed az the back of the skater
and fastened 10 n belt round his body. An
enthusiast recently adapted this principle
TO pair OF large rOller-skates, specially de-
signed 10 run on q railroad track. and with
fair wind skatcd or sailed from Milwaukee
TO Chicago in less than four hours.
PBoGRTss n IcE-BoAT ARcHITEcTUkE.
The ice-yacht is another device which
has become almost "A national institution.
and one that other countries do not seem
to understand, unless they nre shown one
in the act of sailing. The design of an ice
boat. known as the 1886 model. was deemed
the very height of perfection. and when itS
speed was found to reach fifty miles an
hour under extraordinarily favorable en-
cumstaucrs II seemed as II the utmost pos
sible excellence had been reached at SIN
gle stride. This was not so, however:
such hieh speed could only be obtained
in very strong winds, and as the amount
of resistance required n corresponding
amount of hcayincss IN structure. when
tended to make these record brcaking boats
very slow i'm an ordinary breeze. the brains
OF our builders and inventors were de-
voted 10 the task of getting the highest
rate of speed ont Of a ten-knot breeze
rather than breaking the record obtained
IN n favorable gale.
The difference between these is like tho
record of n skater on circular track and
one with the wind behind him. The latter
breaks the record but the former WINS tho
racc and that IS the aim OF the ice yacht
man.
Several ideas have been tried with more
or less success: the skate blades have been
ground on different patterns from the old
straight-edgcd blade, and instead OF the
under surface which runs on the ice being
perfectly fat il has been hollow ground"
that is to say. the centre of the blade has
been more or less cut away, leaving the
outer edges sharper and harder 50 Is TO di:
minish the lee-way IN reaching, which, OF
course, increases the speed by just 50
much.
Hitherto the sloop rig has been the popu-
lar style, and II u yet believed by experts
to be the fastest and most satisfactory rig
known. This year new rig VIII be tired,
which will be productive Of considerable
interest in ice-yacht circles. II IL modi-
fcatiou of the latteen rig of the Medlter-
ranean feluccas, and the great advantages
claimed for it are that it gives great
spread of unbroken canvass, is easier ma
nipulated than the three or four sails Of
the sloop, and better still, brings the bulk
of the sail area and consequent resistance
to the wind right down to tho very point
which modern sailing science proves to DO
most productive Of high speed.
TIE LATTEES RIG.
The latteen rig consists of a stout mast
stepped in the ordinary way, and the sail IL
spread upon huge gaf, or boom, which