Before the start of a One Of A Kind race in Stockholm in moderate winds. Each sailor being national top class in his class.  They finished in this order: The wing skate sail. The DN iceboat, some 300 m thereafter. The traditional skate sail, some 900 m after the winner.

Reprint from Yachting Magazine USA: Ansar stupefied ice sailors in the New York-New Jersey area when he raced a fleet of DN-class boats at Peach Lake, N.Y., in moderate winds and easily beat them. This was quite a feat, since Ice-Wing has less than half the sail area of a DN. Says George Blair, of Red Bank, N.J., who is the first buyer in the U.S.: "I am absolutely enthralled at the beauty and simplicity of this thing. We should ask ourself why we didn't think of this before Ansar did. It's very forward, basic and simple."

On this occasion, after I beat the DN, it was suggested I should race the present Skeeter ice boats. I did, and beat them too. The sailor of the fastest Skeeter then wanted a two lap race because he felt he needed some time to get his heavy boat going. We sailed a two lap race and I won again.

The Skeeter is a quite large ice boat: length 9 m, (30 ft), width 6 m (20 ft) and height 7 m (23 ft). The wing skate sail is a dwarf in comparison.

The sail I used on this occasion is much slower than today's best wing sails, which are made with a larger stiff forward part.

The best tactical compass for sail boats? You see the wind shifts directly on the compass! No figures to read, write or compare. Can it get simpler?

The position of the white pointer directly shows where the direction of the wind is between best lift and worst header, in oscillating wind shifts. Picture on to the right is an animation.

Next in Skate sailing index is: Wing skate sails for speed sailing, 150 km/h (95 mph).

Back to Skate sailing index.

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Modified July 2009. Counter: .