The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-01-11
ICE BOAT HAS
MOST THRILLS
OF ANY SPORT
Laurence Perry Clues
Hir* of What It Is
Like.
BIZ LAWRENCE PERRY.
Copyright, 1922. by The Argus.

> =
Red Bank, n. j.. Jan. 11.-Pre-
liminary tryouts of two or three OF
the first class ice boats entered in
the famous Shrewsbury river win
ter class. the regatta for the con-
modore's cup, set for today, prom
Use some good sport since Old Bor-
cas- has sharpened his teeth once
again and is roaring over this south
Jersey country in a manner COM
mensurate with his January repu-
tation, although the ice may be a
bit soft Traditions of the commo-
dore'S race call for d blue Steel sur
face and for winds that send boats
over the course like phantoms.
Given a 20-hnot wind blowing
over an eXpanse of hard. f1awless
ice and you get conditions that
make ice boating comparable, so
far as emotions and impressions go,
to nothing that man has created to
the end that he may be hurtled ex-
peGitiously through space. An air
plane is disappointing in respect to
those sensations that one expects
from a flight through the air. A
trip in a racing motor car is a
thrilling experience but in this the
element Of dependence upon a
beaten road or a circular track is
recognized. But the ice boat has
its habitat upon broad fields Of
cleaning white background and
foreground made up of snow COW
cred hills and fields and stark trees
whose tops are swimming in that
amethyst glow that rises from the
eastward skies in late afternoons
at this season of the year.
There is no place in which the
process Of Harvesting the winds
may be so graphically and thrilling
ly demonstrated than in the cock
pit Of powerful ice boat. Here
yesterday in an early morning test
of conditions the writer found him
self There were boats on all sides,
their masts devoid of sails There
was no more inspiration to be de-
rived from anyone of them than one
would obtain from a heap of saw
horses in a lumber yard. No beauty
of hull, no grace of spar. Archi-
tecturally they consisted mainly of
a long beam ard a cross beam with
runners upon the four ends. They
were spidery things that gave no
pleasure to the eye. But with the
sail raised, what a transformation
From a simple combination of
beams and planks and spars, the
boat became an entity, a creature
with moods, whims-in brief with a
bounding personality.
Hold on"-the great mainsail
was swung off to catch the wind
and then-the place where the boat
had been was so yards astern. So
smoothly, so roiselessly, with So
little effort had the craft taken
heels that for moment there hai
been no sensation of movement. But
now there was-every sensation.
Beneath ones face the ice surface
flowed deep and green and smooth
like the Niagara torrent before the
rapids are reached. You raise your
head and see the countryside
whirling like huge movable
cyclorama. The skipper was wear
ing ship on a huge arc. Suddenly
as he squared away there came a
puff of increased wind pressure
upon the face. Immediately fol-
lowed a feeling that the boat had
decided to leave the ice and soar.
Without the slightest warning one
of the runners went up in the air.
just as though the boat were at
tempting, and achieving. an alti-
tudinous hign kick. And so with
that runner high above. the rearing
boat tore across the ice at breath
taking speed, shortly TO subside as