I had an interesting phone call yesterday. Over the years I thought I'd heard every basic sail trim question a sailor could ask. - nope. This sailors asked me to help him with the sail trim on his ICE BOAT!! I told him that years ago I watched folks sail small craft that looked like a ice boat with wheels at the El Toro Marine Base and Los Alamitos. He told me they were called BLOKARTS and he has one of those also. Watching them scoot around looked like fun but I never got to try one. Those little crafts with wheels went faster than the wind speed.
Anyway, turned out he was pulling my leg. He knew how to sail his ice boat, which had about 60 sq feet of sail. His son sails a smaller version. I learned a lot about ice boats from him and while sailing a ice boat sounder similar to sailing a boat on water, ice boat and sand boats do require good"eye to hand "coordination and good reflexes - things happen much faster. As for trimming the sails, you pretty much "set it and forget it". You only deal with angle of attack as they have a traveler of sorts. I don't think you deal with draft position, draft depth or twist - there's probably no time for that anyway. The thought crossed my mind that these craft operate a lot like America Cup Boats up on their wings.
The Sail Trim Forum is always in the doldrums during this time of the year so ice boat sailing might be an interesting topic. Do any of you that have sailed these craft care to share your experience?
Anyway, turned out he was pulling my leg. He knew how to sail his ice boat, which had about 60 sq feet of sail. His son sails a smaller version. I learned a lot about ice boats from him and while sailing a ice boat sounder similar to sailing a boat on water, ice boat and sand boats do require good"eye to hand "coordination and good reflexes - things happen much faster. As for trimming the sails, you pretty much "set it and forget it". You only deal with angle of attack as they have a traveler of sorts. I don't think you deal with draft position, draft depth or twist - there's probably no time for that anyway. The thought crossed my mind that these craft operate a lot like America Cup Boats up on their wings.
The Sail Trim Forum is always in the doldrums during this time of the year so ice boat sailing might be an interesting topic. Do any of you that have sailed these craft care to share your experience?