To steer an ice-boat well considerable practice is required. There is no perceptive "feel" to the helm as there is to that of a water craft. The tiller turns so easily that great care and patience are required to attain the proper "touch," but when this is once acquired it is delightful to feel the power of a finger-touch over so great an engine. The manner of stopping an ice-boat is similar to that of stopping a sail-boat, in that you round up into the wind; but an ice-boat rounds up much more quickly, and is held fast by jamming the helm hard down so that the rudder lies parallel to the fore cross-beam—the base of the triangle.
The majority of pictures of ice-boats that I have seen show the machines keeled over and speeding along over the ice on two runners, with a lot of terrified-looking passengers gripping beams and ropes. This is all very well for purposes of illustration, but it is not in exact conformity with fact. Ice-boats do sometimes "rear" as the pictures show us, but it is not because the steersman desires such conduct. Rearing is a thing to be prevented and not to be encouraged. Ice-boats have three runners, and they are intended to run on three runners, not on two. A good sailor will keep his boat down on all three runners all the time. If the wind is so strong as to lift the windward runner, send a man out on the end to hold it down with his weight. There is no danger in this position, and considerable sport.
The speed of an ice-boat is greater than that of anything but a locomotive, and under favorable conditions the boat can even distance the engine. A mile a minute has frequently been made by such boats on the Hudson River. I should not advise young ice-yachtsmen to attempt too great speed, however, until they have become thoroughly familiar with their craft; until they have learned every trick of the machine, and have secured such control over the tiller that they are masters of the ice-boat, and the ice-boat never master of them. Above all things, shun thin ice as you would the open sea, and keep a constant lookout for cracks and rough spots. Under such conditions you are beyond danger, and you have at your command one of the finest of sports, and one of the keenest of sensations—rapid travel.
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION.
C. G. McDAVITT, President.
H. I. PRATT, Vice-President.
H. N. DUNBAR, Secretary.