ICE-YACHTING, the sport of sailing and racing ice-boats, is practised in Great Britain, Norway and Sweden to some extent, and is very popular in Holland and on the Gulf of Finland, but its highest development is in the United States and Canada. The Dutch ice-yacht is a flat-bottomed boat resting crossways upon a planking about 3ft. wide and I oft. long, to which are affixed four steel runners, one each at bow, stern and each end of the planking. The rudder is a fifth runner fixed to a tiller. Heavy mainsails and jibs are generally used and the boat is built more for safety than for speed. The ice-boat of the Gulf of Finland is a V-shaped frame with a heavy plank running from bow to stern, in which the mast is stepped. The stern or steering runner is worked by a tiller or wheel. The sail is a large lug and the boom and gaff are attached to the mast by travellers. The passengers sit upon planks or rope netting.
In 1879 H. Relyea built the "Robert Scott," which had a single backbone and wire guy-ropes, and it became the model for all American river ice-yachts. Masts were now stepped farther forward, jibs were shortened, booms cut down, and the centre of sail-balance was brought more inboard and higher up, causing the centres of effort and resistance to come more in harmony. The shallow steering-box became elliptical. In 1881 occurred the first race for the American Challenge Pennant, which represents the championship of the Hudson river, the clubs competing in cluding the Hudson river, North Shrewsbury, Orange lake, New burgh and Carthage Ice-Yacht Clubs. The races are usually sailed five times round a triangle of which each leg measures one mile, at least two of the legs being to windward. Ice-yachts are divided into four classes, carrying respectively 600 sq.ft. of canvas or more, between 45o and 600, between 30o and 45o, and less than 30o sq.f t. Ice-yachting is very popular on the Great Lakes, both in the United States and Canada, the Kingston (Ontario) Club having a fleet of over 25 sail. Other important centres of the sport are Lakes Minnetonka and White Bear in Minnesota, Lakes Winnebago and Pepin in Wisconsin, Bar Harbor lake in Maine, the St. Lawrence river, Quinte Bay and Lake Champlain.
A modern ice-yacht is made of a single-piece backbone the entire length of the boat, and a runner-plank upon which it rests at right angles, the two forming a kite-shaped frame. The best woods for these pieces are basswood, butternut and pine. They are cut from the log in such a way that the heart of the timber expands, giving the planks a permanent curve, which, in the fin ished boat, is turned upward. The two forward runners, usually made of soft cast iron and about 2ft. 7in. long and 23-in. high, are set into oak frames a little over 5ft. long and 5in high. The runners have a cutting edge of 9o%, though a V-shaped edge is often preferred for racing. The rudder is a runner about 3ft. 7in. long, worked by a tiller, sometimes made very long, 7-ft. not being uncommon. This enables the helmsman to lie in the box at full length and steer with his feet, leaving his hands free to tend the sheet. Masts and spars are generally made hollow for racing yachts and the rigging is pliable steel wire. The sails are of iooz. duck for a boat carrying 40o sq.ft. of canvas. They have very high peaks, short hoists and long booms. The mainsail and jib rig is general, but a double-masted lateen rig has been found ad vantageous.
An ice-yacht about 4oft. in length will carry six or seven passengers or crew, who are distributed in such a manner as to preserve the balance of the boat. In a good breeze the crew lie out on the windward side of the runner-plank to balance the boat and reduce the pressure on the leeward runner. A course of 20m. with many turns has been sailed on the Hudson in less than 48 minutes, the record for a measured mile with flying start being at the rate of about 72m. an hour. In a high wind, however, ice yachts often move at the rate of 85 and even 9om. an hour.
See Ice Sports, in the "Isthmian Library"; Skating, Curling, Tobog ganing, etc., in the "Badminton Library."