2. They may loosen over time just from rough sailing. This works just fine with one less part. The Boat The DN name originates from Detroit News, where the DN was first designed and built in the winter of 1936-1937. We tried a Vang arrangement as often used on racing Sunfish utilizing the free end of the halyard. They were designed through a collaboration of many of the top DN builders at the time. Rusty runners don’t work. 1 X 6s might split from torsion stress. The sail and spars of the Sunfish are used as issued with one exception. Perhaps we lucked out. I think I might have to try. On page 16 of the plans, you show the running bolt hoe to be 1 inch from the bottom of the chocks, and also 1 3/8 inches from the bottom. If you use loops of line between an eye in the cable and a shackle in the ends of forward steering arms, check the line for fraying. Although a full-rigged, delicately balanced ice-yacht looks like a very complicated piece of mechanism, when it is carefully examined the framework will be found to consist of two pieces crossing each other at right angles. This works and the sail looks better so does lashing the tack grommet around the small screw eyes that connect the boom and gaff together. 1/8 plywood probably isn’t strong enough, 1/4 might be. Figure 2 shows the rudder post. We use a ratchet block for the sheet (often found on the front edge of the Sunfish cockpit) on the top of the steering post for the sheet. Attached to the prop, the boat pushes itself along on the skis. cut Sitka pieces to fit inside of mast step box – two in middle 11/16″ and one at each end to glue plywood too these should be 3/8″ and glued to bulkheads. We hope their enthusiasm is shared by future builders of Cheapskates. $$$ Ice Boat Plans Dn Ice Boat Plans Dn Do not just depend on the blueprints through the entire building process. Then we went to shackles, not very expensive, but the possibility of a shackle pin unscrewing or losing it in snow was unsettling. He also spent $50 to buy plans. Exceptional boat, lots of fun, just downsizing our boat collection. The chocks were not varnished on the inside. We immodestly suggest reading Think Ice by Lloyd Roberts available from Chickawaukee Iceboaters www.iceboat.me or International DN Ice Yacht Racing Association IDNIYRA. We have at his shop, “iceboat central,” a Grizzly long bed sander for sharpening runners. Lloyd Roberts The answer was “Go ahead if YOU want to, but the steel wasn’t really straight and had to be tweaked for each bolt.” I had a vision of pulling the carriage bolts out and the runner blade going all wiggly on me. A plastic, brass, formica, or aluminum washer is used (perhaps cutting board material) to resist the upward lift of the steering column. The Plans consist of over 60 pages of pictures, cut sheets, drawings and a liability release for the designer. long. This fits in the square hole, Fig. This keeps the mast from punching down through the deck and floor due to lots of downward stress here. At worst maybe the chopped up tankers and battleships are just melted down and stirred by coolies fresh out of the rice paddies, rolled to angle stock, and sold around the world of global commerce. Try doing the math as well, measuring parts and comparing them to attachments prior to really starting to cut, attach or build. I had one years ago.. loved it This is not trivial. The rest of us might find it easier to glue together two 3/4 inch boards to get the 1 1/2inch plank, gluing in a bend of perhaps 1 1/2 inch crown while the glue sets. This hauls down on the gooseneck fitting bending the boom down and flattening the sail for supposedly improved performance. Bill Bunting, Maine and maritime historical author, is the head instigator of the Cheapskate project and provided the name. Which is correct? These skates must be exactly parallel or there will be trouble the first time the craft is used. Moving the forward bulkhead forward will compromise foot room, already narrow. The plans show a wood mast, although sailors racing in top competition use a composite mast today. 3/16 could be used for all the above for simplicity. Besides the bed frame stock turns out to have a reputation for being hard to saw, drill, tap, etc. Nor have we indulged in the “Jens” rig of tying the gaff to the mast because the gaff is hauled all the way up the mast and does not flop around on starboard tack which is what the Jens is for. Then the whole dial indicator arrangement is slid back and forth along the runners by the assistant and measurer simultaneously. Make your runners as long as possible, and if a blacksmith will make an iron or steel runner for you, so much the better will be your boat. Bill Buchholz is a professional boatbuilder, repairer, restorer, and avid ice sailor with a track record of building lovely iceboats from scratch or pieces of derelicts. well worth it. The tiller steering column can be moved back, leaving the mast step where it is please. We can align the second runner with its own chocks, drill holes through the plank, apply glue, reclamp, check final alignment, tighten bolts, recheck alignment, adjust as necessary, retighten again, check again, and only then leave overnight. This spud needs to have maybe 1/2inch travel. In light and failing air it gets you home when others are walking. He builds fast and well. It describes a fair curve which is more or less centered on the bolt hole for attaching the runner to the chocks and in fact the “curve” under the bolt hole may be more flat than curve and is referred to as a “flat”. Testing and developing the Cheapskate has been great fun. How parallel do they have to be? (1) Traditional and (1) Banjo. Manufacturer of fiberglass ice boats. I will for sure return to this page for ideas during my build. The Sunfish Racing book suggests replacing the last couple of shower curtain rings at the outer ends of the gaff and boom with 1/8 cord ties to improve sail set. The horn should be 5-1/2 ft. long, 2 by 3 in. It is really tacky to see a nice ice boat resting on bits of rotten trees or scraps of wood, let alone old lobster traps that someone left for the summer at our beach. Finally one of them managed to bend the spring-loaded snap lever so it could be neither opened or shut. beautiful job. (The forestay Carabiner is restrained by the top plate it goes through and the underlying wood frame so it does not flop around, it works just fine). Selling Skeeter Ice Boat and Trailer. Located in Howell, New Jersey. The screw eye for the sheet in middle of the stern may not be the best place for the sheet. Stone Boat Sled . We include these features and build each Ice Boat as a custom package. The answer is shortening the step pin to only 5/8 inch. 2 X 6s would add a lot of weight and likely produce a rougher ride, like a DN with its rigid box structure. ). Some care and scheming are required. The front runner parking brake is NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT, it is an absolute necessity. Similarly a low power rifle scope, with mounting blocks, can be grooved to accomplish the same thing when aimed at a vertical line on the wall (the further away the better). No worry about this 1/4inch cold rolled steel breaking or bending. Carrying 60 square feet of sail, it offers spirited performance and a lot of very competitive sailing. 2 X 4s are big enough. The setup works really great, both on the slalom track and when it comes to pure speed.During the season 2012/2013 we used the small slalom board most of the time which is good for speeds of +42 knots. The dial indicator, fixed to the stick, measures the movement of the moveable spud. They all seem to love it, many of them want one, we are encouraged. This edge may be better seen by pointing the runner at the edge of a window so that one side looks bright and the other side of the edge looks dark. We have sailed Cheapskate hard on some very rough ice with no problems. Get it right. Now that you have runners and chock sides finished, pivot holes drilled in runners and chocks, 3/8 chock bolt holes drilled in the chocks (using a drill press we hope) but not in the plank, you are finally ready to mount the chocks with proper parallel runner alignment. We have no ice boating experience but I am a professional carpenter and mildly experienced sailor. I have a permanent smile on my face since then . The original forestay attach point was a 10 x 3/4 x 1/8 inch cold rolled strap wrapped around the bow and throughbolted it worked. 2 Older DN ice boats in good condition. CLASSIC ICE BOAT. But, an angle in the hand is worth two in the store and the price was right. So what is mattress frame angle? Here I am circa 1982 “piking” the Scooter across the ice of Great South Bay off East Islip – that’s the Captree Bridge in the background. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; If you can then slide the laser back and forth without the dot moving sideways on the wall the runner edge is reasonably straight. Squint carefully at the drawing, see the lower edge or bottom of the runner steel. Take two pieces of wood 2 by 6 in., one 6 ft. and the other 8 ft. long. amzn_assoc_default_category = "All"; So we have a deck top mast plate and locating pin, all backed up by the 2X4 central keel under the deck. I chided him a bit for having the bolts and lock washers hanging down to possibly catch on bumps or drag in very soft ice and I wondered about putting flat head “stove bolts” up from the bottom for a smooth under surface. He got two 27inch side runner pieces and one 18 inch steering runner from one piece of bed frame rail. Could this be easily modified for 2 people? Do not use el cheapo Home Depot bolts that are threaded all the way from nut to head. in front of the rudder block, and to this cross piece and the 6-ft. plank nail 8-in. Nothing here needs to be bent, laminated, or tortured. They do look better that way. Plan of Ice Boat Modern DN planks often have an ash top half and lower half of spruce or more complex hollow arrangements, sometimes all ash. Get help, you need two people, one unskilled is OK. This is the most difficult part of building and maintaining your iceboat and it takes quite while to get it right, maybe hours. The thickness also makes for a good, solid braze joint to the ½ inch steering posts fore and aft. I do not if a neutral helm was part of the design? The expert author of the book (National and World Champion) dodges the issue saying “you can not compare the Marconi rig of say a Laser with the unorthodox rig of the Sunfish”. In moderate air you can just sort of drive it around wherever you want without paying a whole lot of attention. This is where they were when the rig came off the Sunfish. The machinists suggested that older steel from the U. S. industrial golden years might be better than current Asian production. is 40-50 years old. From the plans: "Four winters of hard use around International Falls, Minn., and also in neighboring Canada have proved the Merrymaker snowmobile to be a practical, rugged vehicle ideal for cold climates. 45-year-old Filius went “All in!” as they say in Texas Hold ‘Em poker. We have not tried the flat plank ourselves. We could have simply used a ring bolt, 5/16 would likely suffice. The worst is a hand held belt sander or grinder with no jig. The plywood top of the front chock bears directly against the underside of the heavy aluminum bow plate with a bearing of a disk of formica, nylon, or Delrin. Check your lumber yard for a bent 2 X 12 plank. Figure 4 gives the shape and dimensions of the mainsail which can be made of muslin. More bend is tolerable until the rear drags on the ice (rough ride). It also serves as a towing hitch for dragging a damaged or becalmed boat home, as it will steer the boat as you pull, and tow easily. They are intended to tear out of the 2 X 4 sides if the plank hits something so the plank might not break or the side of the fuselage get torn off. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; If you don’t glue the runner chocks to the plank they will move around and the runners will lose their parallel alignment, guaranteed. Replace the sail with an engine, be creative. instead of the fancy piano hinge we used, which leaks. Oh, pleasant surprise, we have a built in 45 degree arrangement for one edge! Besides, Cheapskate already goes thrillingly fast at times. A reasonable profile for Cheapskate’s side runner is defined as 7 inches each side of the pivot bolt hole with the runner held down onto the flat surface by your hand over the pivot hole. We hoist the sail all the way up so we can sit up in comfort and see under the boom. The best, easiest , and fastest way is with a dial indicator (cheapo Chinese about $20) on the end of a stick with a fixed soft aluminum spud at one end struck on the runner edge with a hammer to notch it so it will ride on the sharpened edge of the glued runner. Removed from ice fishing package as I already have a Helix 7 in my boat to use on the ice. Some thought is needed if the builder wishes a longer or shorter cockpit. It does need a bearing of some kind as noted in the plans so it doesn’t loosen over time and so it won’t bind if water seeps in and swells the wood of the central keel. One of the plusses of Cheapskate is that it is so easy to set up, just pull up the sail and gaff with the halyard. 2 1/2 hours later we had 3 sharp profiled runners. The nut at the top of the steering shaft prevents vertical play of the shaft (which is why we have no vertical spring) so that this large flat bearing can help resist sideways torsional loads. ICE BOAT PLANS New. Visibility is a high priority too. NEW Eyoyo Underwater Fishing Camera Video Fish Finder 7 Inch LCD Monitor HD 1000 TVL Waterproof Camera for Ice Lake Sea Boat Kayak Fishing 30m(98ft) Cable: Manual Ice auger: ICE FISHING ROD & REEL WITH ICE SCOOP: VINTAGE FENWICK WOODSTREAM ICE FISHING STOOL: NEW 3 Ice Fishing Light Weight Rods with 3 new reels: BIG FISHING TACKLE BOX WITH PLENTY OF FISHING TACKLE(EXTRA … So i went back on the lake last thursday with winds of 18-20 knots and bursts to 28-30 .It was absolutely exhilarating even a bit scary at times , i sail my Dufour during summer and my record speed was 13,2 knots on the Delaware bay . over a foot or so of runner edge is possible and realistic. mine was cheaply made without the finish you have but tremendous fun.. thank you for the beautiful plans and pictures. Leaning forward looks awful. The apparent cure for all this nonsense is to gouge some wood out of the plank and half bury the eye of the eyebolt into the wood. His wife Jennifer is a retired publisher, she polished the text. The lateen rig with its equilateral triangle sail must be responsible for the above. 1. Epoxy is slippery until it cures. Over the middle of the 6-ft. piece and at right angles to it, bolt the 8-ft. plank, leaving 1 ft. projecting as in Fig. 3, should be of hardwood, and about 8 in. Be sure there is adequate thread engagement at both ends. Split DN sides are not unusual. Older DNs typically had stiff, solid wood, then hollow aluminum masts, still quite stiff, and often the bendier planks were faster and fastest just before they failed. Details of Ice Boat Construction. Welcome to the fleet. DN planks tend to break right at the fuselage edge, and in the case of all spruce planks this is due to compression failure of the wood fibers. Have a blacksmith bore holes through the top of the skates and screw one of them to each of the pieces of hardwood. The mast step is critical. ( Log Out /  We are now sailing with a Sunfish style 3/16 Dacron“bridle” strung between the hatch latch screw eyes. By T. S. ASGAARD. The steering shaft post is made of smooth 1/2 inch steel rod, ordinary cold rolled is OK. It has no vices, it doesn’t even hike unless really forced to. When scrounging for steel you might take a hacksaw to make sure you can cut what you find and that it isn’t really soft. They all come back smiling and some want to build one. The story goes something like this - A British inventor Geoffrey Pyke came up with an idea of making a huge floating platforms made from ice. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. We had a Saturday series, a Sunday series and an Overall series that the Nite sailors were competing for. Or setup in Ice fishing mode as a flasher/chirp sonar view (just need the transducer). Is there an industry standard grade you might order off the shelf? Jim Nordhaus is one of the more prolific ice boat builders around. Excerpt from the book: Now there is not much of the eye above the surface of the plank for the shackle to interact with. So far, he has spent $8,000: half on components, boat building materials, and supplies, and half on a trailer to haul it. Oh, we didn’t put the 90 degree “V” shaped edge on the runner yet. Al Heath, club member, is the owner of our vintage prototype iceboat built by Al Bryan and Cortland Henniger (“ALCORT” founders) in the 50s which was the progenitor of the Sunfish. This works well. Fasten the plank upside down. The profile of the runner is measured by placing the runner, sharp side down, on a flat surface, such as the steel table of a table saw or the surface of a good quality carpenter’s level. The traveler is 3/16 line rigged between the 3/16 X 3 inch screw eyes (short 1 ¼ inch ones came loose) that hold the rear lunch compartment lid shut. The bow bearing and steering shaft get some punishment from side loads on the runner underneath, which get converted to torsional loads at the bearing. When you lose your steering the outcome is often bad, sometimes disastrous. S/V My Passion We have sailed them at dozen times now and they are still sharp enough, good steel indeed. It soon became dished like an ashtray. boards to make the platform. Cheapskate is made of lumberyard/hardware store materials with a little help from the local dump and scrap piles. Lots of sparks from the sander suggest a high carbon steel. We are not breaking new ground. 1/8 hard aluminum has held up well. Don’t “improve” what already works very well. Probably the Titebond III would do as well, but Titebond gets sticky quickly, perhaps while the screw is being driven. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "ency123-20"; All of this functions as a unit, smoothly and without noticeable slop, so that the boat goes where you want it to go without requiring thought as to what you have to do to get it there. If you lose the brake, or if it is very windy, tip the boat over. Seatbacks get fallen on and break, cockpit floors get punctured by boot spikes and delaminate from water. We then go to 80 grit and 120 grit to finish, perhaps followed with 220 grit for polish and show. They work easily and quickly as hoped. If the running bolt hole was in front of the steering bolt, the boat would carry a weather helm. Too much crown, higher than level, is very slow sailing, something to do with runner edge/ice geometry. Our initial “tuning” of the rig is to attach the halyard 72 inches from the gaff peak and the gooseneck 21 inches from the tack end of the boom. At best it is likely tuned in the melt by burning off excess carbon or adding trace compounds to get something strong enough at the thin 1/8inch gauge used for mattress support to withstand wrestling 300 pounders. We glued most joints with Titebond III which is waterproof and economical. It turns out that nothing is needed, just slide the runner body on the table as usual. amzn_assoc_title = "Shop Related Products"; Build your runners as drawn in “More Runner Stuff, Horses”. The idea received the “green signal” fro… The plans are a combination of drawings with dimensions taken off our prototype, photographs which we hope will reduce head scratching, and timeless prose which may cause head scratching. The carpet hinges are freebe unused scraps from flooring shops. amzn_assoc_search_bar_position = "bottom"; This article not only explains this seemingly strange concept but also tells how to build an ice boat?