New-York tribune., 1895-12-22
ICEBOATING NOT so EASY.
WATER YACHTSMEN NEED SPECIAL
TRAINING FOR IT
ANYBODY WHO TRIES IT WITHOUT RUNS INTO

ANYBODY WHO TRIES 1T WITHOUT RUNS INTO
DANGER-soME EXCITING EXPERIENCES.
With the season for relocating the usual
peculiar remarks regarding the sport People say it
easiest thing in the world. and everybody is
advised get iceboat and just go sailing But
the experienced ice boaters have different opinion
At Orange Lake last Monday the owner Of one Of
the largest boats discussing the attention paid
TO those sports which the lakedwellers OF the
Orange region enthusiastic. AS he spoke he
drew from his pocket copy OF a Mondays paper
and began to read aloud to those who were sitting
on his iceboat Overhead the big sail Stating
in the wind, and the platform sailing machine was
creaking and trembling he held the paper down
his knee and read
Any who can sail an ordinary boat can sail
ice yacht If he will only remember one thing
that the latter craft cannot sail dead before the
A DANGEROUS IDEA TO HOLD.
ANY fellow who can swing scow in stays
thinks Ike this l thought myself at one time.
II all seemed 50 easy. The of the icebOat
board when made my first attempt, and, as he
had sailing yachts and boats for num-
Der of years. he Of course. thought knew my busi
iceboa,. He never told me that must
avoid giving her too much helm, and | did not
know how little icebOats tller ought to be
moved in controlling her direction.
80 the first thing did after starting to haul
my helm up to pay her off, just az would a yacht.
fibre of her wood was splitting. She took skate
and a drive, and saw the sail bellying down close
to the ice before it occurred to me that were
caps,Zing But there help for ii then. Our
windward skate probably fifteen feet in the
air at that time. and l never tell you how |
got out the ice. for | felt shock. When I
stopped sliding my corners went to extricate
the others. They had been thrown into the sail,
and Jim Beatty (afterward passenger agent of the
Union Pacific broke his leg
"Now, | was just the ordinary kind of idiot who
thinks he can sail an ceboat because he can sail
yacht. ! tell you. he can't do It without lot OF
further teaching And don't forget my second at
tempt The first one cost Beatty three months in
the hospital, and my second came near being worse
A CLOSE CALL
1T was on a large bay. The ice was new and
literally as smooth glass from end to end. No
ground swells had worked In under II TO make
cracks, and the feel OF the boat was more like
flying tnan anything | have known since. All you
could hear the creak Of the mast and the yard
the puffs harder, and as the lee skate
its line in the green crystal it chiselled out
squirt Of brittle fragments that could be heard tink
ling on the ice like broken glass.
We gong exactly nfVeight miles an hour.
timed between TWO harDOr buOys tnat were froz-
en- ln-they being lad one ana nan nlGs apart
and there were d few peopie crossing the bay, here
and there, foot We had the wind little for
ward of abeam, and were heading on the port tack
for the clubhouse. But ahead of u.s. and to wind
a
was only a speck on the distant ice Then you
could see that the speck walked and that it had
nearing nm. when two other lceDoats Were seen
approaching with almost the speed OF lightning. |
thought could cross ahead OF them, ana still pass
behind the pedestrian but the other boats being
the starbOard tack had the right OF way We were
and as | dared not at that time try to bear away.
plnened up to clear them; This Just succeeded
tll | was flying straight Tor Tor the foot PASSENGER;
He was then only short distance ahead and mad
taken to run-Of course in the wrong d!rection-and
then fell down in the course hoped TO be able
TO take. - -
MY iceboat was going about mile minute,
clearing space at about twenty mine yards second.
say. eighty-seven feet a second. and felt myself
scken as | saw him fail. | dared not try to bear
away for fear the craft could not do so in time,
! jammed The tller down and the boat took fright
fully sharp curve that sent two of the crew spn-
skate that is shaped Ike the blade OF the guillo-
tine tilt up as flew past something black on
the ice, and then. as the boat had reached into the
wind. | looked back along the CLASSY green. The
figure still stretched out at fun length upon the
ice and two feet ahead OF him lay something round
and black that belonged TO him. but was now sep
arate from him; and cried aloud. My God, have
'It was a dreadful feeling. couldn't stir. or
what further use was 70 nm: =,
along the ice. And In the distance ! saw an arm
reach forward and seize the detached head and put
iceboat had tilted on. When he had fallen this
had been thrown ahead OF him couple or feet.
and m phty glad to give him the price OF
new one and call IL square. We measured the dis
tance TO find out how far the two fellows
thrown who went out over the side at the time OF
the sharp curve. We paced 1t off from the line cut
by the lee skate and found that they had been
spun along the smooth surface SO feet-almost
a hundred yards.
That's a fault" continued the speaker, which
a beginner s almost sure to make. He always
gives an iceboat too muca helm You can't safely
turn anything suddenly that Is going sixty miles
an hour or even thirty. I've been thrown of three
or four times, when / forgot prop myself, and
It's no fun when the Ice is rough. have seen n