The boat should be calked with white-lead and lamp-wicking and as carefully made as a water-boat, for it must be absolutely tight and water-proof. The deck may be covered with canvas and painted, or it may be of varnished or painted wood.
The hull should be from twelve to fifteen feet long and from four to five feet wide across the widest part. It is fifteen inches deep, and is provided with a centre-board and trunk the same as described for the sailing sharpy on page 221.
The mast is twelve feet long or about ten feet above the deck; the gaff is seven feet and the boom eleven feet long. The bowsprit is four feet long and is bolted to the forward deck, and from the end of it to the top of the mast a light, wire-cable forestay is made fast for the jib to run on.
The sails are made of twilled drill or very heavy unbleached muslin, and in the main-sheet one or two sets of reef-points will be necessary. The main-sail measures seven feet on the mast, six feet and six inches on the gaff, ten feet and six inches on the boom, and thirteen feet on the leach. The jib measures seven feet on the forestay, four feet across the foot, and six feet on the leach. The sail-cloth should be ribbed to strengthen it and a light rope run around all the edges of both sails.
The shoes are made of light, broad tire iron or steel twenty-four inches long and shaped so that the front part will bolt fast to the outside of the scooter sides and the rear ends will lie against the bottom of the boat where they can be bolted fast. The shape of these shoes is shown in Fig. 7 A (page 252), and any blacksmith will make them for you at a nominal cost. The rudder is of stout sheet-iron mounted in the end of a shank as shown at Fig. 7 B (page 252). Its fan-tail permits it to swing the boat in the water and its lower edge will guide it on the ice.
The rudder-post should be attached to the skag which is arranged at the under side and rear of the boat, and with a short iron tiller fastened as shown in Fig. 3 C and D the rudder may be swung.
When sailing on the ice the centre-board should be hauled up as high as it will go, for it is of use only when the boat is in the water.
A scoot is a cranky boat on the ice as the runners or fore-shoes are closer together than on an ice-boat with a triangular frame. Going before the wind it is all right, but when sailing on or up into a stiff wind it will keep a boy moving to hold his balance and steady the boat.
The shovel-nosed scooter shown in Fig. 8 is an easier boat to handle as it is broader than the sharpy, but it is not quite so fast, being slightly heavier.