The DN [Detroit developed Ice Boat]

**p69rrh51** · April-11-13, 07:04 AM

Detroit area resident and former World Champion Ron Sherry competing on Lake Baikal this week in an ice boat that was developed here in the city.

From wikipedia:
The International DN is a class of ice boat. The name stands for Detroit News, where the first iceboat of this type was designed and built in the winter of 1936-1937. Archie Arrol was a master craftsman working in the Detroit News hobby shop, and together with iceboaters Joe Lodge and Norman Jarrait designed a racing boat they called the "Blue Streak 60", later to become known as the "DN 60". In 1937 a group of 50 laymen worked with Archie in the hobby shop to produce the first fleet of the new iceboats. These first boats broke during the initial season, and after Norm and Joe modified the design to increase the strength, the group got back together to build a second set of iceboats in 1938.

This design, featuring a narrow, single-person cockpit, three steel blades in tricycle style arrangement and a steeply raked mast, remains to this day the most popular ice boat design in use.
The DN is 12 feet [[3.7 m) long, with a 21 inch [[53 cm) wide cockpit and an 8 foot [[2.4 m) wide runner plank. The 16 foot [[4.9 m) mast supports 60 square feet [[5.6 m²) of sail area. The front runner is typically rigged with a steering rod that connects the runner to a tiller that is mounted just aft of the mast base. The boat weighs around 100 lb [[45 kg), and is piloted by a single helmeted sailor.

The class has a devout following. The International DN Ice Yacht Racing Association [[IDNIYRA) is the governing body for the class. It publishes standards for boat design and allows enthusiasts to assemble for races and to share good ice locations. The DN is raced extensively in the northern United States, Canada, and throughout Northern Europe, with World Championships alternating between North American and Europe each year. In addition to the World Championship, the North American and European Championships count towards a racer's World Ranking.

One of the reasons that the DN Ice Boat Class has become so popular over the years has been largely in part to how transportable and fast they truly are. With a steady 10-12 mile per hour wind and good ice conditions, the DN, when piloted properly, can reach speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour. And with just a 12-15 mile per hour steady wind, the Detroit News Ice Boat can reach a readily attainable 55–65 miles per hour, providing a thrilling rush of purely unadulterated bone chilling wind powered ice sailing.

**Hamtragedy** · April-11-13, 08:55 AM

Sailing on the open water at that speed would be a blast. 8 knots just seems to painfully slow, especially when the beer's running low.

**Hermod** · April-11-13, 08:59 AM

Back in the days before global warming when Lake St Clair would freeze solid by Christmas there used to be whole fleets of iceboats sailing off of the Grosse Points. My father used to take us out to watch them. The spectator cars would park out there on the ice to watch the boats go. yes it was much, much faster than displacement hull sailing.

**diggindetroit** · April-11-13, 09:03 AM

Family lore has it that my granduncles used the family cottage on Harsen's Island Northchannel as thier contact point for rumrumming during Prohibition. They had a fast speedboat for summer runs and five iceboats for winter runs across Lk. Ste Claire.

**Lowell** · April-11-13, 09:10 AM

Interesting link to Detroit and the Detroit News. Iceboating was big in Wisconsin, when I lived there in my high school days, particularly on Lake Geneva. Apparently it still is. For a taste of this exciting and bone-chilling sport, here is a video from Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin.

Speeds in excess of 100 MPH have been achieved.

**p69rrh51** · April-11-13, 09:23 AM

Ron manufactures the boats and composite parts.

A link to his website including a few more good images of the boat.

http://www.iceboatracing.com/

**old guy** · April-11-13, 09:40 AM

An excerpt from a story on Ice Boat.org
Renegade Ice Boating

"I happened to be at Mt. Clemens when the group from the Detroit News workshop brought out the original DN iceboats they had just finished building. Only a few of the fellows were sailors, and very few iceboat sailors. The wind was blowing a good 25 mph with gusts over 30 mph. The inexperienced sailors wanted to see their boats sail and asked some of the experienced sailors to sail them."

I also remember watching some old film clips of that, but I can't remember where. Somewhere on the web.

**p69rrh51** · April-11-13, 10:10 AM

I found the images on of all places Wayne State University's site. Charles "Skip" Boston, a long time Mt. Clemens resident and manufacturer of ice boat sails. The Boston family has long been involved in yacht racing and ice boating. Skip's son continues to make the best ice boat sails in the world. The boat is an Arrow not a DN but the images were taken on Lake St. Clair.

**EastsideAl** · April-11-13, 11:45 AM

Here is a Life magazine story from 1942 about ice boating championships on Lake St. Clair. I don't think these are DN boats, but the story does feature one of the early DN boat users and an important figure in Detroit-area ice boating, florist and FTD co-founder Al Pochelon [[whose old building on Bates was recently purchased by Gilbert and is apparently headed for demolition).

http://books.google.com/books?id=x1E...20boat&f=false

Like Hermod, I remember my grandpa driving us up Lake St. Clair in the winter to go see the iceboats race. He had an ice fishing friend and drinking buddy up by Algonac who owned and raced an iceboat until he injured himself pretty badly in a crash. Hitting ice at 60 or so MPH is not fun.

**p69rrh51** · April-11-13, 12:23 PM

For a better look at a DN under sail check out Detroit area resident John Harper in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1hea...layer_embedded

**Eber Brock Ward** · April-11-13, 12:24 PM

aww man, i thought detroitnerd [["DN") was out there ice-boating!

**p69rrh51** · April-16-13, 01:23 PM

For anyone interested Ron Sherry ended up winning the Black Pearl Cup in Russia. Sherry is #44 in the image. Also an image from space of Lake Baikal.

**michiganessay** · August-30-13, 08:40 PM

It was mentioned that the DN boat was developed at the Detroit News hobby shop. I've tried to find more information about the hobby shop.

Anyone know what the Detroit News hobby shop was? Was it essentially a workshop? Was it open to anyone? Was it what we would think of as a makerspace today?

**John** · August-31-13, 09:31 PM

The hobby shop was on the 5th [[top) floor of the Detroit News Garage, which is at the Southwest corner of Lafayette & 3rd Street. In the mid-1930's, Archie Arrol was placed in charge of the shop after he built a model yacht for one of publisher W.E. Scrips' children.

With the country still in a depression, and unemployment over 15%, the sport of iceboating was considered to be for the rich & famous. The goal of the Detroit News project was to provide an inexpensive, home-buildable iceboat that could be built out of common lumber and simple hardware. The production of 50 iceboats was billed as a 'community relations project', but I am not sure how the 50 builders were selected, or what other projects the hobby shop was used for. The development of the DN iceboat seems to be the shops' most notable claim to fame.