MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The deep freeze that recently gripped much of the country created some of the best conditions in decades for a sport you will not see at the Winter Olympics - iceboating. Thanks to the frigid temperatures, a club in Red Bank, New Jersey, was able to hold a regatta for 30-foot-plus ice yachts for the first time since 2003. Well, meanwhile, on Maryland's eastern shore, iceboaters offered free rides to spectators. NPR's Frank Langfitt jumped aboard.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND BLOWING)
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: I'm standing on a cove just off the Chesapeake Bay. It's about eight inches thick of ice, and there are these boats. They look like little wooden drag racers with sails, and they run on metal blades, and they are just zipping across the ice.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOATS SAILING ON ICE)
MICHAEL KEENE: My name is Michael Keene, and we're here on what we call Claiborne Cove.
LANGFITT: Keene restores wooden boats. He's been iceboating for more than two decades. These are the best conditions he's ever seen.
KEENE: We've had a good, large area of smooth ice. The longest stretch of time we've had, actually. This is our 13th day on the ice, which is fantastic. Usually, we get two, three days, and we're happy (laughter).
LANGFITT: Keene invites me for a ride, but the boat's cockpit - it's only big enough for one. So I perch outside on a wooden plank that helps support the mast.
KEENE: With your right hand, you're going to grab hold of the side of the fuselage.
LANGFITT: Mike is now pushing us along almost like a toboggan, bearing down, trying to get the boat going, getting a little bit of speed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
LANGFITT: You hear him pulling in the sail.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAIL SQUEAKING)
LANGFITT: Keene jumps on.
KEENE: You're hearing the blades of the ice boat digging into the ice.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
LANGFITT: I'm basically hanging out on a piece of wood. If I let go, I would just go sliding across the ice very fast.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
LANGFITT: The boat's 12 feet long. Blades are so narrow, the ice so flat, there's almost no friction. It's such a smooth ride.
KEENE: It really is.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
KEENE: Even at 50 miles an hour, which these things can go with just a little bit of wind, they can really get going.
LANGFITT: Today, there's just a modest breeze. Still, we're going 25, maybe 30 miles an hour, more than three times faster than a traditional sailboat in these conditions. As we approach the shore, Keene uses a wooden tiller to turn the front blade and whips us through a hairpin turn.
KEENE: ...Really fast now. I can really feel the wind against my face.
LANGFITT: Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
LANGFITT: It's like an incredible turn.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT SAILING ON ICE)
LANGFITT: I'm hanging on for dear life.
KEENE: Frank now is very cold.
LANGFITT: People have iceboated on the bay for more than a century, but the brackish water rarely freezes. So polished wooden vessels with white triangular sails gliding across this glass-like surface are a spectacle. Hundreds have come here to watch over the past two weeks.
RAHUL WANKHEDE: I go by Rahul So Cool.
LANGFITT: Rahul Wankhede is from central India. He works as a bartender at a hotel south of here.
WANKHEDE: I've never seen this in my life. So I FaceTime my parents and showed them, and they were, like, quite amazed. And I was telling them, these are the sailboats, and they were on the water without any paddle. And they were astonished.
LANGFITT: Iceboating can be dangerous. Jim Richardson lives in a house overlooking the cove. His final run last week ended badly.
JIM RICHARDSON: I probably was going 35, 40 miles per hour and came around. I had to make a turn. I didn't have enough ice in front of me. All I could see were the rocks on shore.
LANGFITT: He put his foot out to slow down. Richardson is now on a walker with a broken ankle. He says he still has some teenager in him. Richardson is 78. I asked how his last run was going before the crash.
RICHARDSON: It was absolutely wonderful. I mean, that's why we do this. Once you get your first taste of it, it's hard to forget.
LANGFITT: Richardson's right. I've sailed on water since I was a kid, but iceboating was a thrilling new way to ride the wind.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Claiborne Cove, Maryland.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUPE FIASCO SONG, "I'M BEAMIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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