Ice Boat - Classes

Classes

The International DN class is the most popular class in both North America and Europe. It is a one-person wood boat twelve feet long with a cross "plank" eight feet long and carries a mast 16 feet (4.9 m) high. Modern competitive DNs use flexible masts commonly made of composite materials. See idniyra.org or icesailing.org. As noted above, the DN 60 name came as a result of a request published in the late 1930s by the Detroit News newspaper for a design to build a relatively inexpensive one-person iceboat that showed excellent performance, yet could be quickly built and sailed easily. The high-performance, modern DN is a far cry in materials and construction from the original design selected by the Detroit News. Yet, many of its one-design features are exactly the same as the original boat, including the basic aerodynamic fuselage design, runner configurations and 60 square feet (5.6 m2) of high-performance sail.

The Skeeter class is divided into sub-classes (A, B and C) all of which are limited to 75 square feet (7.0 m2) of sail area. A class boats are single seat, have mast heights in excess of 26 ft and include bubble boats and rumble seaters. These boats are the fastest skeeters around and are on the cutting edge of technology using carbon fiber in their construction. B class skeeters are two seat boats (side by side seating) with 23 to 25 ft masts, examples of B skeeters are the eastern Yankee and western Boe-Craft skeeters (www.boecraft.com). C class skeeters are single seat and are limited to a mast height of 20 ft 3in or less. Some one-design classes have evolved within the C Skeeter class as well. These include the Nite, Renegade and J14 (C class), which have a wide and enthusiastic following, and several locally popular classes at iceboating locations. The International Skeeter Association holds an annual regatta to bring all the classes together to race. The skeeters have a limited number of rules, including a requirement for a cloth sail, and some restrictions on mast profile. Modern "A" skeeters are the fastest boats on ice. Some have fully enclosed cockpits and mast heights up to 30 feet (9.1 m). The "A" class sail is measured at 72 square feet (6.7 m2), which is the area of the triangle between the ends of the boom and the top of the mast. The actual sail area is much larger, as the "roach" of the sail outside this triangle is unmeasured. Also, the wing-mast and large aerodynamic boom is also unmeasured.