The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-02
ICE YACHTING OUTLOOK.
Preparations for n Hammer Season Mt Orange
Lake., Near NewburG.

Lake, Near Newburg.
NEwBURG, N. Y, Dec. 3l.-When jack Frost
first shows himself each year in this section
of country. the chief actors In the chief win
ter sport hero get together and begin to
| compare notes. These consultations always ro-
suit in creating new enthusiasm among the
devotees of Ice yachting and q determination to
Guido all former performances, even to the
building of new boats or the reconstruction of
old ones. 1t takes time and thought to prepare
for the campaign, ASH as the building and
reconstructing of boats have become a science
that but few are up In. Hence 1t is that when
conditions begin to present themselves each
year they find the members of the Orange Lake
leo Yacht Club up and ready to take advantage
OF them and to enjoy their favorite winter sport.
For a quarter Of a century Or ,nge Lake has
been the centre for this celebrating sport. and
the ice yachtsmen have made 1t famous. 1t Is n
beautiful sheet OF water six miles due west of
this city. and Is easy OF access by trolley cars
running right to its shores. AS a rule the ele-
ments favor the sport hero more than anywhere
else whore ice yachting is INDUCED In. 1t is said
that the conditions are better on Orange Lake
for a longer time each winter than they are in
any part OF Canada for from three to five years
combined. In Canada tho snow is a great
stumbling block In the way Of the sport, while
on the Hudson River the average length Of time
when ice il favorable Is very much shorter, and,
indeed, some years there is mono at all. Along
the upper Hudson there are any number of
speedy yachts. and most Of them are of the latest
pattern, but as q rule their owners have but lit
tie chance each winter TO display their qualities
for speed.
1t is therefore reasonable to suppose that
where the probabilities for favorable ice are the
greatest and most continuous there will be
manifested tho most activity and interest in the
sport. 1t Is because OF this that the Orange
Lake ice yHchtsmen represent largely tho
genius of the experts who have brought out the
m n%%Ssr F tSs im nnd sent ol to asS 5eed S craft z e "a
quarter of u century ago. The boats of the club
are all perfect in mechanism. and the speed at,
tanned IN years past Is all the evidence needed
to prove that they are constructed upon lines OF
tho latest pattern and by the best experts In
The Orange Lake Ice Yacht Club was organ.
lied Dec. 8, 1899. or course this was not tho
first racing. for contests between Ice yachts
had preceded that date many years. The organ:
ization OF the club WAS really the outcome OF
several scrub races that had been INDUCED in
before that year. and though the club started
ever since. The frat Commodore OF the club was
the present yIce.Comulodore, DR.. Willett Kidd,
who owns the feet ~,snowdrift, which captured
nearly all the prizes last winter: His interest in
tho sport has never rcceded and he Is to-day az
active in IL rs any member of the club.
The first ice yacht put on tho lake was the
Vivid, owned by the present Commodore OF tho
club, II. G. Higginson. Al the time tho Vivid
was considered "a thing OF beauty and a Joy
day IL would be like placing tho old Hudson
River steamer Aida against the steamer New
York. The boats then were all known AS side-
rail boats, and their owners or some handy ship
carpenters were generally The builders. They
followed their Individual ideas and notions AS
to What would create speed, and the emhcllish.
ments were all chosen from their personal
tastes. But these oId'timers have all vanished
from sight, and in their stead we ind such craft
ms the Wind ward and Snowdritt, costly, speedy,
and beautiful TO look upon. The present fleet OF
the Orange Lake CLUB comprises the following!