How fast did you go today?

[Chris Hughes]

I have been working on the "world's fastest Festool".  Today I took the opportunity to drive a friend's iceboat.  It was the last thing I expected to do today.

For those not familiar with the "sport", you lay down in a very shallow, wedge shaped hull, attached to a board that runs perpendicular to the hull.  The hull and plank have "skates" mounted under them and a decent sized sail above.  Lots of people have sailed, this is not very much like that.

Iceboats travel at speeds between 30 and 70 mph on a good day.  Today was a thirty to fifty mile an hour day.  Conditions were not ideal due to the ice.  We have had rain and snow mix which usually ends with "sticky" ice.  Here is a video of run I made.  I was doing between thirty and forty on this run.

 

[Chris Hughes]

I tried to upload a video from my ipod but it did not go through so I am trying to get it by another means.  Please pardon this technical difficulty.

Alright, now I'm annoyed.  Here are some still photos of the ice today.

 

[DavidCBaker]

Chris, if you want, email me the video (david@recourses.com) and I'll host/post it for you.

 

[DavidCBaker]

Here you go:

http://brow.se.com/iceboating

 

[Chris Hughes]

You rock David!!!

 

[Ken Nagrod]

David,

I just clicked on the link and it brought up a window with every ASCII character known to man, nothing more.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I also got the symbols, probably because I really don't like quicktime and refuse to install it. But I could still see the video  by downloading it (right click - save as) and renaming the file extension from mov to mpg.

Chris, that iceboating seems like a unique experience, thanks for sharing the video.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I have Quick Time.  Got it with itunes.  Still doesn't work.  I also tried to save it and it doesn't respond.  The link is messed up.

 

[Chris Hughes]

It is a gas Frank.  Some of the best drivers i the world aren't that far from you.  The Poles kick arss and build very nice boats.  My friends kid drove his "Opti" which is a small DN class boat that was made in Poland this last weekend for the first time on big ice.  The kid is five years old and the youngest in our yacht club.

I wish I had decent photos of my boat but the pictures I took in the shop are pretty blurry.  I need to finish labeling it up with Festool logos and paint the boom green, after all it is a moving part.

 

[Frank-Jan]

Here's an alternative download-option: rapidshare link

 

[AlexThePalex]

The link is messed up.

Works fine for me.

 

[Michael_MA]

That link works fine for me as well..

But Chris, besides the sail, how do you control the direction, is there someting like a rudder ?

kind regards, Mike

 

[jmbfestool]

Video link works fine for me!

JMB

 

[Mavrik]

Hey cool !!
For someone from South Africa who has never even seen ice, this is quite an insight !!

 

[Wonderwino]

When I was "growing up" in NY's Hudson valley, there were a few ice boats around.  I never got to ride on one, but they sure looked like fun.  Further up river, some of the old estates had large ones that could hold several people.  They are in museums now.

I guess I'll have to head for Michigan next winter... [big grin]

 

[redbird]

Hey Chris
I live in your area. What lake was that done on? I thought the local lakes were open water.