By Tom and Jerry Caraccioli
Yacht sailing usually calls to mind warm, leisurely afternoons and summer winds blowing in from across the sea. And then there’s ice yachting.
“You have to make a commitment to be out in the cold, like to go fast, and like to sail boats,” said Brian Reid of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club (HRIYC), while traversing the Stockbridge Bowl early this year. “We all got involved in different ways. Friends were doing it, we stumbled onto it, and we found it fascinating.”
In search of a clean, icy sheet to enjoy their sport, many ice yachters are willing to trek to New Hampshire’s Lake Wentworth and Lake Winnipesaukee, or up toward Maine. Nowadays, it’s about finding a place with ice. This past winter, many members of the HRIYC set their sights on one spot in the Berkshires for the first time. “We usually sail on different spots on the Hudson and lakes in the area,” Reid said. “One of our members came here and told us about the Stockbridge Bowl. We found out this is pretty good ice.”
For as long as there has been ice, people have found ways to move on it, be it on skates or crudely built vessels with iron blades. In the 1860s, iceboats—specially built yachts fitted with runners to glide over ice—were becoming more refined. Wealthy landowners in the Hudson Valley, including the Roosevelts in Hyde Park, started building bigger and faster models.
“We’re talking about 40- to 50-foot-long yachts that were gaff-rigged, stern-steer,” Reid explained. “And they loved to race for bragging rights and sometimes for money, sometimes for a silk pennant.”
Ice boats “parked” on the frozen Hudson River, with a woman and child in a horse cart nearby. Circa 1887.
The ice yacht Vixen was built in 1886 and was one of several owned by John A. Roosevelt (FDR’s uncle).
In a pre-car and pre-airplane era, iceboats were celebrated as “the fastest vehicles on earth,” even winning races against the railroad trains of the day. At the time, Poughkeepsie, New York, was the cradle of iceboat-building and racing, with the Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club forming in 1860, followed by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club in 1885. John A. Roosevelt—uncle to future President Franklin D. Roosevelt—was an avid iceboater and the first commodore of the latter club. Roosevelt’s yacht, The Icicle, was 50 feet long, had at least 750 square feet of sail, and could reach speeds of 60 miles per hour. Built in 1883, it lives on at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston. (A young FDR was given his own ice yacht, The Hawk, as a Christmas gift from his mother years later.)
As the sport evolved, different types of yachts emerged, including stern steerers, yachts controlled from a tiller at the back so the sailor can lie in a cockpit. Bow steerers, controlled with a tiller in the front, are less “tippy” and more balanced, and can go slightly faster than some of the older stern steerers.
The antique boats—some meticulously restored and still in use—have been known to travel at speeds of more than a mile a minute, though typically they are not going that fast. “You have to be careful because if you break something, you can’t go to the store and get a new part,” Reid said. “They’re pretty safe and acceleration is incredible. You can just be creeping along and then, the next thing you know, it’s like an airplane taking off.”
And while the Berkshires aren’t known for ice yachting, Reid and his fellow sailors have warmed up to the area’s frozen waters. “This is the best ice we’ve had so far within an hour of where we are,” he said.
Sidebar: The Lure of Ice Fishing
A brief guide for beginners or anyone curious
By Tom and Jerry Caraccioli
Mike Kennedy from Copake, New York, is an artist who paints murals and portraits for, as he puts it, “the rich and famous.” But in the winter months, he pursues his other passion: ice fishing. Once or twice a week, whenever Mother Nature allows, Kennedy heads across the New York border to the Stockbridge Bowl.
Ice fishing inspires enthusiasm, yes, but it also calls for pragmatism—a necessity when spending entire days in the cold, donned in winter gear, trying to catch fish. Here are some practices Kennedy swears by, and good basics to know.
- The ice must be right. Rule No. 1 is making sure the ice is thick enough to support you. “I won’t go out on anything less than six inches,” Kennedy said. “If you’ve never done it before, you want to double-check to make sure the ice is safe.” Four inches is considered the minimum safe level.
- You need an ice drill. This makes a hole big enough to fish. Each fisher is allowed five lines in the water. Usually that includes four tip-up lines and one jigging rod. The tip-up line features live bait and is set with a flag that pops up when a fish bites.
- Learn your lakes. “The best way to ice fish is to look at a chart beforehand,” Kennedy advised. Good spots are usually near weed beds or sandbars. For trout, fishers at the Stockbridge Bowl camp out just off the boat launch and fish one to two feet below the ice. Pickerel are usually caught near the cove in weed beds.
- Get the right bait. Local bait and tackle shops usually know what’s best. Kennedy likes to use a mix of big shiners and rain bait, a type of minnow—“like candy to trout.”
Editor’s note: Always gauge the thickness and sturdiness of the ice before venturing out, and don’t forget a fishing license in Massachusetts. Visit Mass Wildlife online for safety advice.
