Ice Yachting. 
The ice yachtsmen have been enjoying great- 
sport lately on the smooth, thick ice resulting 
from the prolonged cold snap at Orange Lake, 
N. J., on the Shrewsbury River, on the Great 
South Bay and on Manhasset Bay. 
At Orange Lake a novel contest between an 
ice yacht and a South Bay scooter resulted in' 
three straight races for the scooter, and the Long 
Islanders are richer by five hundred dollars— 
the amount they wagered on the race, minus 
what it costs to celebrate their victory. 
Down on the Shrewsbury River a number of 
events have been sailed. On Feb. 22 all the 
talent congregated at Long Branch to see Capt. 
James O’Brien’s 250 sq. ft. Jack Frost, built by 
George Buckhout, of Poughkeepsie, make good 
against the local boats. 
Though not coming in first, she demonstrated 
her ability to give a boat her size a run for her 
money. The boats sailing against the Jack 
Frost' were all of the 350ft. class, sailing with 
weights strapped on their runners. 
The salt water ice was new sport to some of 
the up-state men, but so pleased Capt. O'Brien 
that he not only joined the Shrewsbury Club, 
but placed an order with Buckhout for a 350ft. 
boat for next winter. 
The fresh-water visitors were: James 
O’Brien, R. F. Wilson, H. Percy Ashley, George 
E. Buckhout, W. C. Fuller, D. A. Wood and J. 
S. Campbell. 
Some idea of the sport can be gleaned from 
the fact that in one race eleven ice yachts started 
on Feb. 12. Capt. Charles P. Irwin’s Georgie 
Second won the big race of the day. 
On Great South Bay the scooters are hard at 
it, and on Manhasset Bay nin. ice has given 
sport to several new boats built for this year’s 
racing. 
Skate sailing is another form of winter 
amusement that is quite popular in some lo¬ 
calities. The accompanying photographs give a 
clear idea of shape and size of the sail used and 
the manner of handling it. 
The sail shown contains 45 sq. ft. and weighs 
7/4 pounds, is sparred with bamboo and has two 
port holes covered with the same material that 
is used in automobile curtains. 
The skates should be well turned up in front 
and have a slight rocker, the first to prevent 
catching in cracks and the latter to enable the 
skater to “go about” quickly. This last in the 
only real difficult feature of the sport, especially 
when the wind is blowing hard, the leg just 
gained to windward can easily be lost during 
the operation of moving from the late front, to 
the new front position of the sail, the effect be¬ 
ing that of sailing “free” which is very fast 
going. Of course, you will gather from the 
foregoing that the skater is always on the 
sheltered side of the sail away from the wind. 
This fact does away with having to face the 
cold wind at any time and the skater is always 
comfortable in the coldest weather. 
In light airs a sail nearly twice this size can 
be carried; heavy puffs are met by luffing, and 
this is accomplished by moving well forward on 
the sail, sometimes within a foot of the forward 
spar, the sheet rope (in use sailing close hauled) 
is used for this purpose, with which the sail 
is pulled back. The sheet rope is always in use 
when going to windward to keep the back wind 
out of the forward foot of the sail. 
The photographs are deceptive, in that they 
convey no idea of the extreme speed attained by 
this mode of sailing, which is about equal to a 
small ice boat. 
The scooter Eagle won the third and final race 
at Orange Lake on Saturday, Feb. 29. though the 
Windward, sailed by Capt. Jimmie O’Brien, who 
sailed this last race, made a better showing than 
the others by sailing 16 miles against the 
scooter’s to; but as he had to do 20 miles to 
win, the scooter scooped the money. 
Ice Boats at Manhasset Bay. 
About seven ice yachts on Manhasset Bay 
have taken advantage of the excellent ice which 
has frozen over the entire bay to have races 
around a triangular course staked off with bar¬ 
rels on the ice. 
On Saturday, Feb. 22, two races of eight miles 
each were sailed. Bertida, owned by Bert. 
Hults, won the first event, covering the course 
in 22m. 27s., with Ice Baby, R. E. Dusinberre, 
second, time 23m. 30s. and Manhasset, W. B. 
Duncan. Jr., third, time 28m. 43s. 
Dell Emma, owned by A. Van Wicklen, won the 
second event in 21m. 26s. with Bertida, second, 
time 22m. 35s. 
There were a number of prominent yachtsmen 
on the ice. Designer Mower went so forcibly 
on its glassy surface he all but cracked the ice 
and nearly cracked his head. Another man got 
thrown from a yacht and went about 200 feet 
over the glassy surface with not the slightest 
injury. 
On Sunday another race resulted in a victory 
for Bertida over Ice Baby; time, 39m. 53s. 
against 40m. 37s. 
On Saturday, Feb. 29, the most interesting ice 
yacht race of the season was sailed at Manhas¬ 
set Bay, over a 6-mile course. Tugs had cut 
their way through the ice, and so necessitated 
a short course. For this reason the race was 
sailed in a series of short heats. 
In the first heat Knickerbocker, the new hol- 
Before the u/iticf.{rurtninq) 
low-backboned flyer, designed by Mr. Ashley for 
members of the Knickerbocker Y. C., and sailed 
by Harry Stephenson, defeated the Manhasset, 
W. B. Duncan, Jr.’s, boat, by 21s. 
Ice Baby, owned by Dusinberre Bros., beat 
Dell Emma, owned by A. Van Wicklen, im. in 
the second heat; the Bertida H. did not finish. 
In the third and final heat Knickerbocker 
defeated Ice Baby by im. 14s., and so was de¬ 
clared winner. 
GEORGE Hr. Mice CHARLEY CAMPBELL DANNIE KHlEI 
THE UP-RIVER EXPERTS AT LONG BRANCH. 
