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Saturday, January 26, 2002

Earl Jacobsen has visual proof that area residents once used a device called an ice boat to skim and sail across the lakes during the winter months.

The ice boat he now has in storage was homemade as a father-son project in the late 1970s. His son, Carl, who now lived in Baraboo, Wis., had previously used a two-place ice boat which was a commercial model and a purchased item.

Earl said the ice boat now kept in his garage is what’s known as a &uot;DN&uot; model. It’s based on plans once featured in the Detroit News newspaper and used by ice boat enthusiasts on Michigan’s Lake St. Clair.

&uot;This boat sails five times the wind speed,&uot; Earl explained. &uot;It really accelerates fast.&uot;

He added that what’s known as &uot;black ice&uot; is best for sailing on the lakes. The prime times, he added, are the first weeks of winter and the last part of the season when there’s little or no snow cover. Earl said the present condition of ice on Fountain Lake with its snow cover wouldn’t work at all for ice boating.

One of the best area lakes for ice boating, he said, was Pickerel. &uot;It’s shallow and freezes over sooner,&uot; he added.

Sails on a Minnesota lake are an accepted sight in the summer time, but there was a time when sails were also an unexpected sight on both Fountain Lake and Albert Lea Lake some winters when the surfaces were frozen solid.

Ice skating, ice fishing, and a once-popular activity called ice boating are three prime examples of what Albert Lea citizens did in past years to use the lakes for wintertime recreation.

Albert Lea’s location on two large lakes, with smaller lakes nearby, has been a factor for year-round recreational usage since the days of the pioneer residents. And when the lakes froze over, the recreational activities just changed to take advantage of the icy surfaces.

Years ago the lakes were used much more during the winters. The ice skating rinks were then located right on the lakes. Now flooded and lighted areas in city parks, plus the City Arena, have become the more popular alternatives. Where snowmobiles now travel (when the conditions are safe), ice boats used to travel even faster.

While the skaters and ice hockey players were using the somewhat sheltered bays and easy access places for their activities, the remainder of the lakes were being used by the inland wintertime sailors and their amazing ice boats.

The ice boats used on both Albert Lea and Fountain Lakes were homemade and skillfully handled by their owners. They could easily attain speeds of 40 to 50 mph across the clear, wind-swept ice.

The late Frank Jensen is likely one of the last people to sail across the lakes lying on an ice boat, steering with a tiller, and operating the sail to take full advantage of the wind. He once said, &uot;Ice boating was a lot like sail boating. We could go anywhere on the lake, and easily go twice as fast as the wind.&uot;

Jensen, a 1931 graduate of Albert Lea High School, made two ice boats during the years he enjoyed this unique sport. The three runners were made of oak with steel shoes and served the same function as skates. The ideal run for the best speed was to skim across the ice on just two runners. The ice boat enthusiast even made his own sails out of unbleached muslin.

&uot;Albert Lea Lake was better for ice boating than Fountain Lake because it was larger,&uot; he said. He and other ice boat owners used to leave their craft near the present site of the older sewage disposal plant. If the ice boats were moved to Fountain Lake, then the parking place was by Katherine Island. In either case, no one ever disturbed the strange winter boats, Jensen once said.

Jensen explained a glassy-smooth surface was essential for ice boating. Thus, because of rough ice or too much snow on the lake surfaces, there were years when this sport had to be set aside for another winter.

The perfect time for ice boating, said Jensen, was to have smooth ice, no snow and &uot;plenty of wind.&uot;

Ice boating on both lakes continued through the 1950s and then gradually died out.

And the last time Earl and Carl Jacobsen used their boat for a sail on the ice of Fountain Lake was in the late 1980s.

Telling of the interest in winter sports in Albert Lea before World War II, maybe Jensen said it best: &uot;Back then we had to make our own entertainment.&uot;