Cheryl Buffum, age 12, of Billings, Montana, for her question:
HAVE PEOPLE BEEN ICEBOATING FOR LONG?
Drawings made by the Dutch in about 1780 show sailboats with ice runners on them. These may have been the first iceboats, although the Finns, Laps and others living near the Baltic Sea probably made iceboats of some kind much earlier.
The first real iceboat in the United States was built by Oliver Booth in 3790. Early iceboats were merely square boxes with an ordinary ice skate on each side. Another skate at the stern served as a rudder.
Iceboats of the 1800s were much larger than those now in use. Some carried as much as 650 square feet of sail.
The Hudson River was the center of iceboating in the late 1800s, but the sport soon spread to other areas. The basic principles of iceboating have changed little since these early days. However, iceboats are now pore streamlined and easier to handle.
Today, iceboating is found on lakes and rivers throughout the northern half of the United States and in many places in Canada. Lakes Geneva and Winnebago in Wisconsin and Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota are three of the chief iceboating centers.
The Hudson River is also a popular area for the sport.
Today's small iceboats are speedy. They have reached speeds of 163 miles an hour. With a wind 40 miles an hour, an iceboat can maintain an average speed of 100 miles an hour. However, most iceboats do not travel this fast.
An iceboat has a long body similar to that of an airplane. Most boats are supported by three runners. One runner is attached to the body of the boat and the other two are at the ends of an outrigger, or crosspiece, that runs across the boat.
Because lightness is important, the runners of an iceboat usually have aluminum tops and stainless steel inserts that actually touch the ice.
Iceboat sails generally resemble those used on sailboats. Masts and spars are usually hollow and steel wire serves as the rigging.
Some modern iceboats are less than 10 feet long, although in the 1800s many were 69 feet long.
Today iceboats are grouped into classes by the area of their sails. The largest boats have 350 square feet of sail while the smallest boats have up to 75 square feet.
There are three main types of iceboats: those steered by the runner at the rear (called stern steerers), those with front steering devices (called front steerers) and the type of iceboat that has four runers.
One of the most popular iceboats is the skeeter. It is small in size and low in cost. The skeeter is steered from the front by the skiper who sits straight up in the cockpit. On other types of iceboats, the skipper usually lies down in the cockpit while his boat is moving.