Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — AN ENJOYABLE SPORT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AN ENJOYABLE SPORT.

INFORMATION ABOUT SKATESAILING. • An Art Which Originated In Standing with Your Back to the Wind and Allowing Old Boreas to Bowl You Along. Condensed Instruction. The practice of skate-sailing is an! outcome of the old custom of standing with your back to the wind andallowing old Boreas to bowl you

along, in lieu of any muscular exertion on your own part. It has been remarKfecT in the long books which describe skatp-sailinjj that somebody ought to have discovered this art before, because it is so simple. But there are many valuable inventions in this world which, though quite simple, have remained a long time

bottled up, and probably a great many more will be made through some accident. Ice yachting is a sport of very recent adoption, and it is essentially the same as skate-sail-iDg. Those who know how to sail a catboat would have very little trouble in learning the theory, though there is considerable difficulty in getting the knack of the sails. The best way

to learn thoroughly is to begin by holding your coat or umbrella open and then with the wind at your back allow yourself to be propelled forward. Next try to deviate your course slightly to the right or left, holding the coat or umbrella at the

same angle as before, with respect to the direction of the wind. After vjouljave done this you will find yourself at the other end of the pond with no means As getting back, apparently, except by ..the vigorous use of your legfc dhd that in the face of a brisk

breeie Here is where the science comes in. ■> la order to get back you will have to discard your coat and umbrellaaad adopt a sail, so that you may tack. There are many different kinds of

sails employed. The one represented in the picture is much used in the Danish islands and a brief description is given. The frame consists of

five bamboo rods, to which the sail is attached, as shown in Fig. 3. The sail should be made of cotton duck. The top is about 4 feet 10 inches across, the center 0 feet 2 inches, and the bottom, along the straight line from corner to corner, 7 feet. The total height is 7 feet, of which 2 feet is the depth of the top sail. The manner of putting the apparatus together is shown very well in the cuts. In running before the wind, as you did in going across the pond, you simply hold the spars as shown in Fig. 1. When your course is at right angles to that of the wind, or against it, it; is necessary to point the sail more or less in the direction from which the wind comes. By facing or turning the line of the skates to an angle of about 45 degrees to the right from the direction of the wind, and holding the sail about half as much “off," you will be enabled to tack, or work your way in a zigzag fashion gradually back to the point from which you started. This tacking is very well shown in Figs 2 and 5, Skate-sailing is a very pleasant sport for a lazy man. It requires very little exertion, and, at the same time, affords all the exhilaration of a fast drive or a yacht race. The sport has not been widely adopted in this immediate vicinity, though it is very popular in Canada and is quite extensively in vogue in the New England States.

FIG. 1—SCUDDING.

FIG. 2—POET TACK.

FIG. 3—BACK OF SAIL.

FIG. 4—DOWN TOPSAIL.

FIG. 5 —STARBOARD TACK.