November 23, 2005
Solid ice and stiff breezes
Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club members prepare boats for winter sailing season
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Some local adrenaline junkies gathered at the Grand Traverse Yacht Club last Saturday anticipating frigid winter days when the lakes freeze over and they can once again ride with the wind.
These ice boaters, members of the Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club, were getting ready for the upcoming season of high-speed, hard water sailing. Setting up their boats in the Yacht Club's parking lot, 16 club members checked out each other's set up, looked at plans for home built craft, discussed building projects and noshed some of the club's trademark chili.
Ostensibly the season's inaugural event was a swap meet, but more enthusiasm and stories changed hands than equipment.
"This is a dedicated and eclectic group of people," said John Russell, the new commodore of the club and an ice boater for 40 years.
Russell, like most ice boaters hooked after his first ride, said hard water sailors are a nomadic bunch: going where ever the ice is good whenever they can during cold months. Elk Lake, Torch Lake, Lake Leelanau, the Bay: cell phones are crucial for members as the club operates a hot line and members post the best places as they find them.
"Ice is a moving, living thing, it's fascinating," noted Russell. "Outside of Eskimos, ice boaters know as much about ice as anybody. We have a little bit of gypsy in us and we go where the ice is."
For now, when the ice isn't, Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club members gather and talk, reliving races and rides while waiting for the hard freezes to hit. The membership rolls include about 50 people, half of that active with a core group of 6-8 whenever-they-can racers.
"The thing is, it's something to do in the winter," said Don Williams, an ice boater for 20 plus years. "It gets you outside, it's an exhilarating sport."
Skip Stauber and his two sons, Josh, 15, and Gus, 13, are devoted to the sport and spend "hours and hours" out on the ice during the winter. The trio turned out Saturday morning to set up their boats and check out what other members brought.
Ice boating since he was four, Gus last year bought his own Detroit News boat, a class named after a design contest winner sponsored by the newspaper during the 1930s. Created specifically to be easy to build by laymen out of available parts - initially items such as tie rods came from old Fords - this remarkably simple yet durable design is built, ridden and raced worldwide.
"I like the speed and being out on the ice," said Gus of ice boating. "This is my second boat, before I had an aluminum boat, just aluminum pipes welded together."
One of a few women involved in the sport, where speeds can reach 60-100 mph on good ice in a stiff wind, Julie Richards has been ice boating for 12 years. For her, too, it was love at first ride.
"They pushed me out and I had a ride, then I was, 'I have to have one!'ˇ" she recalled.
Sharing the thrills with her fiancé Dick Wallum, the club's cook and another ice boating devotee, Richards also races. They have no problem with being winter couch potatoes, though she noted that ice boating has crowded out a number of other sports she used to do, such as skiing.
"There's not too many women doing this - there's more that do it recreationally, but not many racing," said Richards, noting that the world competition last year had four women out of 150 racers.
For more information on the Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club, see the organization's website at http:/gtiyc.com/.