Members of the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club wait inside their 1880 clubhouse for the wind to die down to safe levels for racing. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Navesink River ice boat races, including a rivalry matchup for a 130-year old challenge cup, were scratched for two frustrating days over the weekend due to an ironic problem: too much wind.
Members of the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club and rival Hudson River Ice Yacht Club had hoped to run several races this weekend, including the Van Nostrand Cup, a contest between larger class A boats that hasn’t been held since 2003.
Early in the day, members of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club headed out for a practice run on one of the three boats they had brought to race this weekend in their bid to claim the cup from their Jersey rivals. But the boat wound up slightly damaged by the high winds and limped back to the dock for repairs.
The start times for the races were delayed by an hour, then another hour, while sailors huddled in the 146-year-old clubhouse and waited for a forecasted drop in wind speeds.
It never came.
And so, they’ll wake up Monday morning and see if they can pull it off, NSIBYC Fleet Commander Robert Sodon tells us. They’ll try to race for the Commodore Weaver Trophy, at 9 am and hopefully the Nostrand Cup after that, he said.
As usual, Mother Nature will be in charge of the schedule and there are no guarantees. We’ve been deluged with calls and emails the past few days with folks asking us for race times and locations. The best we can recommend is to watch the Monmouth Boat Club webcam. If you see the sails on the big older boats going up and heading out, then it might be happening.
While the larger boats could not go out Sunday, the high winds created a dramatic sight as the smaller boats that did get out flew by spectators at startling speeds in winds that gusted up to 40 mph.
Photographer David Surks provided us some stellar photos of the action.
Photos by David Surks.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
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