| At this time of the year, most sailors have stowed away their gear and can be found inside the clubhouse making friends with a hot toddy next to a fireplace. That’s not the case for Randy Beaton and the rest of the members of the Calgary Ice Sailing Club.
It’s solid ice, not the open sea, that gives Beaton and a group of 40 to 50 likeminded enthusiasts who make up the Calgary club a thrill. They can’t wait for the water to freeze on Ghost Lake and the Chinook winds to kick up so they can get another season of ice sailing under way.
"We don’t understand why more people don’t get involved," says Beaton. "It’s a blast."
Beaton, a computer engineer, got involved in the sport a dozen years ago when he moved to Calgary for work in the late 1980s. That’s when he first discovered the active ice sailing scene at Ghost Lake. A favourite location for local ice sailors for more than 50 years, Ghost Lake was created when the Bow River was dammed in 1929. Located just 10 kilometres past Cochrane, the lake is now considered one of the best ice sailing locations in the world because of its typically snow-free conditions, thick ice coverage and generous supply of wind that lasts from December until April.
Ghost Lake has gained such a stellar reputation in the sport of ice sailing that a team from England called Windjet assembled there last year with their sleek vessel in an attempt to shatter the speed record for ice sailing, which was set on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin by John Buckstaff in 1938 when he reportedly reached 230 kilometres per hour. The Windjet team failed to break Buckstaff’s world record, but they are rumoured to be returning to Alberta to take another crack at it this year.
Whether it’s an international team pursuing speed records or a local ice sailor out on a small iceboat, the allure of the sport is ultimately about flying over ice in a shell that rests on three runners (or skates) at moderate to high speeds. It sounds dangerous, but Beaton says that local racers aren’t focused on thrill-seeking – they are more interested in having fun.
"We don’t usually sail if the wind is gusting at more than 50 kilometres," says Beaton. "Beyond that it’s getting pretty extreme."
Last season Beaton ignored his own guideline and suffered the consequences of being out on the lake in winds that were too severe – even for this experienced sailor.
"It was the first time I ever tipped the boat," he says. "I broke my thumb."
Mildly embarrassed by the experience, Beaton reiterates that ice sailing on Ghost Lake is less about thrills and more about the beauty of the experience.
"Last year I was out there as the sun was setting at about four in the afternoon." he says. "There was a soft orange glow to the sky and the conditions were perfect – gorgeous."
Although the history of ice sailing in Alberta can be traced back at least five decades, its origins date back all the way to northern Europe more than 4,000 years ago. More recently, about 300 years ago, the Dutch used large iceboats to move cargo to the villages that are located next to the canals there. In the late 1800s, ice sailing became a sport to well-heeled Americans who showed off their three-masted ice yachts on such rivers as the Hudson in New York City.
In more recent times, the sport has opened up to a whole new generation of enthusiasts due to advancements in construction methods that make components cheaper and more readily available.
Although there are still large and expensive iceboats being sailed around the world – mainly in the effort to break speed records – the most common (and smallest) class of vessels are the DNs, named after the Blue Streak 60, an iceboat that was built on the premises of a U.S. newspaper, the Detroit News.
And again this year hundreds of DNs will be sailed on frozen lakes across Europe and North America, including Ghost Lake, where Beaton will be found skimming over the frozen body of water in his boat, Ice Scream.
"You’re six inches from the surface of the lake and ice chips are spraying your face," says Beaton. "That’s what it’s all about." |
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