ABSTRACT
The essentials for this sport which became newsworthy in the 1920s were a light-weight scooter rigged with a mast and sail, a frozen river or lake, a stiff wind, and two or three daredevil sailors. More specifically this is how the scooter was designed:
Modern ice-boats are built in the form of a crossed letter t–the perpendicular line of the letter representing the timber from the base of the mast to the stern called the keel, and the horizontal line, the runner plank. These slender but strong spread-timbers give the boat the appearance, as someone has said, of “a huge water spider with a sail on its back.” Lightness and strength are obtained by a careful selection of wood, by the use of trusses or composite backbones, hollow spars and a lightly built cockpit.
