Iceboat Design Lab

“Henry is starting his own class and Jack is working on a new futuristic design.” Mike Ripp

4LIYC Renegader Mike Ripp is keeping his boys, Henry and Jack, busy in the shop designing iceboats this summer. It’s never too early to start thinking ice!

Upcycle Your Fuel Tank Shell to an Iceboat


Here’s another intriguing discovery shared by Henry Bossett. At the dawn of the age of composites, Popular Mechanics suggested creating iceboat hulls from repurposed jettisoned plastic Naval fuel tank shells.

 

 

UPDATE: Here’s a note from someone who actually tried this.

After seeing your last post about discarded fiberglass fuel tanks, I thought I would send you two pictures of attempt by two knuckleheads putting together five pieces of the discarded Navy tanks for soft water version of our boat, later to be converted for use on the ice. The plan was by two seniors in high school to launch our dream boat in Northbrook IL. To then travel down the Mississippi to New Orleans and on return, to add runner plank, mast, runners and sail for our great venture in to ice sailing. Alas, we only made our river trip as far as Wheeling, IL before our spring trip became the second version of the Titanic! All former plans canceled.
Retired Iceboater
Ed Evans
Nite 433 & 72

The Crawfish


An unusual iceboat from the Richard Lichtfeld collection is up for auction on a website. Many years ago, Richard purchased the CRAWFISH from the Eibisch brothers in Columbus, WI. They presumably built the boat using plans published in a DIY magazine, potentially Modern Mechanics, in the 1930s or 1940s. Download the plans in a pdf file. The auction ends on July 19, 2023.