The Hudson River Maritime Museum 2007 Exhibit

Racing the Wind:
Two Centuries of Ice Yachting on the Hudson.

For almost two hundred years, boats have been sailing the frozen Hudson River for sport and pleasure. Many of the wealthy Hudson River families, including the Roosevelts, Rogers, and Grinnells, sailed and raced large, elegant and very fast wooden ice yachts. The competition was keen, yet friendly.

The sport continues to this day with a club of dedicated sailors who have lovingly restored, maintained and continued to sail the antique ice yachts of yesteryear. The sport of ice yachting in this country developed in Poughkeepsie, and the level of racing, design and craftsmanship led to Poughkeepsie being, for a time, the undisputed center of ice boating in the world.

The sport eventually spread to many other northern parts of the United States, and active clubs still exist today from the Great Lakes region to Maine. Locally, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club brings out its fleet whenever the weather gets cold enough to get a solid five inches of ice on local waterways.

The attraction of iceboating for sportsmen was speed. An iceboat, because of the lack of friction between it and the ice, can travel at twice the speed of the wind. A skillful ice sailor taking advantage of the wind could easily go 60 or 70 miles per hour on a windy day. In the days before cars only railroad trains could reach those speeds. Since the railroad ran right along the shore of the Hudson iceboats would try to race the trains on windy days. They could and did beat the trains.

The Hudson River Maritime Museum will feature an exhibit on Hudson River ice yachts and boats as its lead exhibit for 2007. On display will be the ice boat Knickerbocker and the large ice yacht Icicle which won the Hudson River Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant several times in the late 19th century when it belonged to Col. John Roosevelt of Hyde Park.