New-York tribune., 1912-01-21
This Fascinating Winter Sport Has Attracted
Vastly Increasing Throng of Devotees Who
Vie with One Another in Devisng Type
of Sail Capable of Greatest Speed
and Easiest Manipulation.

through a tiny pulley set in the far end
of the spar and is then fastened to a
cleat screwed TO the spar.
Another excellent sail is rectangular in
shape. In some respects this is the best
Of all patterns for it is easier TO keep
fiat and will l-Gatch more wind. But ii
| has the dis Vantage of giving no op-
portunity for seeing anywhere but in the
| direction in which the skate sailor is go
! ing. Another skate sailor, travelling at
right angles, might crash into one and
! a bad fall result. Some of the most elab-
orate skate sails of this pattern used in
the vicinity of Boston are even equipped
/ with q circle of clear celluloid, which is
set into the sail at about the height of
/ the owners head, as is done in the front
of hoods used in buggies and automo-
biles. This sail can be used by two per-
sons, if made large enough, and when so
used the forward skater, of course, can
see in every direction. The general di-
mensions of this sail should be six feet
thigh by nine feet long, and 1t requires
three fiat spars, which, if made of spruce
or ash, should be at least three by one
| inch stuff When this sail is being used
the tail is allowed to rest on the ice, and
this is true usually of the ''T' pattern
sail, also. There is so little friction
caused by a small rounded end of spar
! touching the ice that the skate sailor
wastes his strength keeping it off the
ice.
Boston seems to be the general head
quarters for this new sport.~ due. no
doubt, to the fact that there sare so
many places where such sport can be
practised. Then, again, Boston is,coider!
than New York, .climatically if not so
cially. The greatest expert on rskate.
sailing in the world, Arthur Hensen,
lives in Arlington, a suburb of Boston,
although, strangely enough he was born
in balmy Honolulu and has lived in the
United States less than ten years He is
a special devotee OF winter sports and
| has experimental with skate sails for
many years. He has dozen different
models and rigs, but is especially fond of
| the 1T" shape. which he has rigged with
q good many original features of his
own. He has participated in winter car
nivals in the East and in Canada, al
! though he is strictly an amateur and
makes his occasional little outings for
! pure love of the sport.
The speed possible to the skate sailor
! is remarkable. 1t is a fact, known TO all
handlers of ice craft, that an ice yacht
can travel only as fast as the wind when
| going before the wind-in fact she will
never travel even as fast as the wind,
owing to friction and other retarding in
fuences known to scientific investiga
tors. But when an ice yacht is trav
ellinG across the wind. or with the wind
! on the beam, as the sailors say, no mat
ter how fast she travels the wind con
tinues to exert pressure on her sails and
urges her forward. For this reason an
ice yacht can. and frequently does, go
faster than the wind. One hundred
miles an hour is the recorded speed of
ice yachts on the Hudson River.
The skate sailor ought TO make half as
good speed as this with fayOring condi-
tons Of rig and wind. Mr.. Hensen has
been timed at a speed of more than
thirty miles an hour, and is OF the opin-
ion that he has frequently made fifty
miles an hour. untimed. Those who
have seen the big skimming birds glide
over the frozen lakes will not doubt al
most any claim for the speed which they
make. The fastest method OF calling is