Mar 06 Letter from David in MI:
We also did not have much ice here. Sailed 4 days. Just thought I'd let you know that I took my TenderII to a big ice boat event (60 plus registered racers & many other boats). I hauled it as a backup boat in case my Skimmer broke down, which it did, broke the boom in half. The day was windy, 20 mph with gusts in the low 30's. As I was setting up the TenderII I was pretty sure it would break in the gusts, but it was the end of the season and the boat is easy and inexpensive to fix so I went for it. I really went for some good rides and the boat held up fine. My Tender II was the only one on the ice so it got some attention from the other boaters, most said they liked the simplicity and inexpensive design. I led a few would be builders to your web site.
David
Thanks David!!!

Dec. 05 No ice this year in upper Illinois or southern Wisconsin. Never got a chance to head far enough north to where the ice is.

03-09-04: The Ice Tender is now back on dry land and drying out. There wound up being only 2 of us going. We were both outfitted with dry suits and full scuba gear. We planed out what we were going to do to lift the boat and in we went. Dragging floats and 2 extra BCD's (buoyancy compensation device) we swam on the surface to a position close to where we thought the boat would be. My brother in-law Chris went down first to check out how deep it was and also the visibility. I was watching from the surface and could just make out a silhouette when he was on the bottom. When he came back up he said it was around 15-20 feet deep. I was going to then drop to the bottom and come back up to check out my gear before we proceeded with our search pattern. I could not get down so we added another weight belt and I tried again. The added weight worked great and I was descending just fine, as the bottom came into sight I could not believe my eyes. I was dropping right on top of the Ice Tender. It was covered with silt, but every thing looked intact. I returned to the top and told Chris. He was just as shocked as I was. We both grabbed lines attached to our buoys descended and attached them to the front and back of the boat. Now that we had marker buoys attached I started getting the rigging bunched up and secured between the rudder pedals and to the center of the back. That way we would not get tangled in the cables and ropes when we brought it up. He was up in front and found my GPS and the mounting bracket for it. We then went topside again. He grabbed the BCD's and took them down and attached them to the cable attach points on the rear beam. The back of the boat started floating off the bottom so I grabbed to front end and brought it to the top with me. I then attached the line on the front of the boat to the bottom of the large buoy. The Ice Tender was then floating level just under the surface from 3 points. Chris and I grabbed the lines and started the long swim back to shore towing the boat behind us. That was one of the toughest swims I can remember. Iceboats do not drag though the water as easy as one might think. Once we could touch the bottom I helped Chris off with his tank and he took it to shore. He then helped me and I did the same. Much easier to pull the boat when you are walking on the bottom. We packed up all our gear and then carried the boat to the truck and strapped it down the rack. One hour later we were home and the boat is now sitting out side the garage drying out.

03-05-04: We have a search and rescue mission planned for Monday 3-8-04. The raising of the Ice Tender prototype is the desired outcome of this mission. There are 2 scuba divers with dry suits and 2 men top side on the rescue platform (boat) planned for this delicate endeavor. We did make notes of the location where she went down so finding her should be the easy part. That is if I paced it off correctly after I dried out and lined up the landmarks properly. We have a small floating platform which uses an inner tube for buoyancy. One end of a line is attached to the bottom of the platform. The divers will feed the other end of the line through the eyebolt in the middle of the rear beam then bring the other end up the the men in the boat. The 2 in the boat will then hoist the Ice Tender to the bottom of the small platform. Once secured we will then raise the front end into the boat take the rigging apart and stow it onboard. Then the Ice Tender will be towed to shore and pulled from the water. Keep your fingers crossed for us and thanks to all of you who wrote and gave your support after my little mishap.

02-25-04: I have not had much news to post lately since my boat and I went for a swim. I was just looking through my customer database and thought I would share the list of locations of builders and sailors of Ice Tender iceboats.
United States: Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Wisconsin.
Canada: Nova Scotia, Ontario.
Netherlands: Friesland.
A few others that bought the email version and I never did find out where they were from.

01-25-04: Went sailing with my son and a friend. We were going to take turns sailing since we only brought one boat it was the prototype test bed boat. We walked a little of the lake since it was the first time we ever sailed there. I went first and was headed towards a pressure ridge, seeing a low area of the ridge between two peeks I turned towards it. Just as I entered the area the front runner broke through. I was doing over 20 mph when I hit the area and man did I stop quick. I rolled over in the boat and started climbing out of the back of the boat when the entire area broke and I found myself swimming for the edge. I tried to climb out and the edge broke again, so I swam to the new edge and worked my way on top of the ice. I remembered to place my forearms on the edge and kick my legs to the surface and slide onto the ice horizontally. The boat was still floating just below the surface. I think it was sitting on top of the chunk that broke underneath it. I tied to reach it and I broke through the ice again. That was the dumbest thing I think I have ever done! After I got out again I watched it slowly sliding beneath the surface heading for davey jones locker...argh. I was lucky my friends daughter lived near by and my son helped me get my frozen clothes off and I took a shower right away. Dry clothes, some food and I was just fine. It is ONLY a boat and I can always build another one. Scaring the heck out of my son the second time that I went in is not worth any boat or loss of an object. Moral of the story: ALWAYS check the ice before sailing, not just a small area, but ALL THE ICE!!! I got lucky, very lucky. Does give me an excuse to finish up the other 2 boats I have started and to break out the scuba gear in the spring. Sorry bad joke I know. Please be careful everyone. Have fun sailing and not a survival adventure.

01-11-04: Went sailing with my son, a friend and his son. We took a short video of the Ice Tender in action and posted it on the site along with some new pics. The pics show the new seating position for the updated plans. We had very wet ice and minimal winds, but still had a great time.

01-07-04: Updated the Construction Manual per feed back from builders. The new manual in now available free of charge from the Ordering Information Page. The detail drawings still have to be purchased for the usual $10.00.

12-27-03: Went sailing today at Olson Lake in Rockcut State Park - Machesney Park, IL. The winds were strong around 10-15mph and 50 deg temp. The surface was a bit sticky with the high temps, but we still managed to sail around 20mph most of the time. The fastest speed for the day was 29mph (GPS) . Over all it was a great day of sailing without freezing your tail off. The lake had a good 4" of ice and not too many pressure cracks. I am sure with the rain forecasted for tonight and above freezing temps for the next couple of day the ice will be in pretty bad shape.

12-20-03: I tried to go sailing on Pierce Lake at Rockcut State Park, near Rockford, IL. The ducks and geese still have a huge hole in the middle open that is probably 200-300 yards across. Most of the ice that is there is 2"-4" thick. The ice that I did have was in pretty good condition, but just in the wrong place. The bay where you put in at is protected from the wind by a deep valley and dense tall trees. The %&^$#$ ducks have the best part as far as good winds. The winds that I did have were only 3-5 mph with an occasional light gust. Even in those conditions I was still able to hit top speed of 12 mph. Although most of the ride was only around 7-8 mph. Even a bad day of sailing is still better than sitting around the house. I definitely prefer the "updated" seating arrangement. It allows so much more visibility, especially when you are kind of paranoid about the edge of all that open water.

12-02-03: Started building 2 more Original Ice Tenders. I got the wood frames done in just 1.5 hours. Started mount the hardware and that is going fairly fast also. I am manufacturing the metal parts as I go. It is hard not to just take parts out of stock and use them. I have to keep some stock on hand for when someone orders them. I'll weld up the steering yokes this week sometime and get those mounted. I have 3 sails in stock and will make some detailed drawings of how I make the rigging when I get there.