BRICK – It’s been years since ice boaters have been able to enjoy their sport on Barnegat Bay, but with recent frigid conditions, dozens of the hearty sailors could be found racing across the ice by Bayside Park, just opposite from Brick Beach 3 recently.
The parking lot was filled to capacity by spectator vehicles and sailors, who were unloading their boats that are powered by the wind to glide across the ice on metal runners.
Jeff Miller of Toms River said that he and a friend first checked the ice thickness by drilling holes next to the shoreline and continued checking the ice thickness out about 200 yards.
“It needs to be 4” thick, but this is 6” to 8” thick,” said Miller, who co-owns an ice boat with two friends. “It could be frozen all the way across, but I didn’t go out that far – this was far enough.”
As the group was waiting for the wind to pick up, Miller talked about the history of ice sailing and how it became popular.
“There are several different styles of ice boats, but many of them have ‘DN’ on their sails, which stands for ‘Detroit News,’ which was a newspaper that put out plans on how to build them in the 1950s,” he said.
“I store the boat in my basement, and then we bring them out here and assemble them, which is exhausting, but sailing them is exhilarating,” Miller said.
Some of the ice boats reached speeds of 50 mph that day, he said.
“Everyone helps everyone here with loading and unloading the boats, putting them together and lending tools,” he said.
Most boats are built for one person, but Miller said that for safety reasons, you don’t want to go ice boating alone.
Brick resident Philip Angelo said he was “hitchhiking” since he does not own an ice boat, but several of his friends do and he hoped to get a ride.
“You have to have at least a week of single-digit temperatures for the ice to be solid enough,” said Angelo, who was wearing a dry suit.
Even with the dry suit, going into the frigid water “feels like the life is being sucked out of you; you can still feel the freezing water,” said Angelo, who sails at Shore Acres Yacht Club in the summer and participates in “frostbite” sailing at Monmouth Boat Club in the winter.
Brick residents Robin Demand and her husband Will own eight of the ice boats, which they keep stored on a rack outside their garage. They brought and assembled five of the boats to share with their friends and others.
“It’s a family thing,” she said. “We’ve inherited some and Will built some.” The boats will float in water since they’re made of wood, she added.
Pulling the sail in makes the ice boat go faster and letting the sail out makes it slow down, she explained.
Boats can lift up on one blade, or “heel,” if the wind is strong enough, Demand said. Some, but not all of the ice boats have brakes.
“The last time we could ice boat on Barnegat Bay was Martin Luther King weekend in 2017,” Demand said. Otherwise, the family races their boats on the Navesink River and Budd Lake.
“The conditions have to be perfect: there has to be ice, wind, and no snow,” Demand said. Some ice boats have a “sidecar” for children, and the Demands take their 7-year old son out on the ice, which he finds thrilling, she said.
Before each use, ice boaters use a grinder to sharpen the boat’s blades. Safety equipment includes “bear claws,” which are like ice picks that can help in climbing out of the water and onto the ice, and an inflatable life jacket.
“The ice boats go really fast and they can be really scary, but we love it,” Demand said.
