Oldest videos of ice yachting
by Magnus Smith 21 Jan 04:00 PST
Ice yachting thrill photo by Peter Guttman © SW
Our video archive is fully searchable, and linked to all the clubs and classes in our database. It is updated weekly with the latest videos of sailing, but here we delve into the past, and round-up everything that shows sailing on the ice.
Most of these videos are from the USA and Canada, but Europe does feature briefly. These are all black & white footage, but silence gives way to sound as you read on through this article.
The 1920s
We start in Toronto, with our oldest footage, Ice yachting in Canada 1924. 100 mph must have seemed madness in an age where cars were only just starting to be commonplace, and certainly not capable of breaking any speed limits.
Also in Canada we have found Ice yachting in Toronto, 1927. The second half of this video has some amazing close-ups.
Red Bank, New Jersey, USA features next, with Ice yacht racing in 1927. The sails are now white, unlike the tanned ones above, that looked very heavy.
The 1930s
This video of Ice yachting in New Jersey claims to be from the year 1930, although the title screen displays "1971" as well. The design of craft suggests that the older year is correct.
Next, Ice yachts in 1933 shows that capsizing is still an option - ouch!
Here a Chevrolet car is pitted against an ice yacht, and the car design helps us date this to the 1930s sometime...
Moving away from North America for a moment, we have a very different style in Austria in 1935 including hand-held sails for solo skaters!!!
Back to the USA with Ice yachting in Michigan, 1937. This video includes the quickest 360 degree turn any sail-driven craft can complete - very useful after a rule infringement, perhaps?
The 1940s
This video of rudderless ice yachts at Long Island in 1940 shows a design very different to the conventional ice yachts. These 'Scooters' have no skates, but rest on four bilge keels. There is a hull, not just a framework, so weak ice and water gaps are (apparently) not a problem. We assume steering is via the mainsail/jib balance, since heel angle will not help!
From 1948 we have Ice sailing competition in Hamilton, Lake Ontario, featuring a capsize that looks like it leads to total destruction.
A year later the footage from Ice yachting in Illinois, 1949 features the same class of ice yacht as seen above, with a bird on the sail. Can you identify this class? Fully-battened mainsails have also made an appearance.
The 1950s
We only have one video from this decade, Dramatic ice yachts in USA, 1955, which illustrates the trick of distributing the mainsheet blocks along the boom, presumably to spread the load, reduce boom bend, and act like a vang/kicker.
What of the other decades?
Do you know the location of any ice yachting videos from the 1960s to the 1990s? We would love to share these with other sailors. You can submit video links to us for immediate review.
More links to videos: