The wait is over.
Lee Spiller drove by Sabattus Pond and saw what he and his sailing buddies have been searching for all across Maine.
Spiller laced up his ice skates, “skated the entire lake” and gave it a thumbs-up.
With a Facebook post that read “SABATTUS it will be,” Wednesday marked the first day of the ice-boating season for members of the Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club.
“Very nice,” Dave Fortier of Biddeford said.
“A little more breeze and we’ll be all set,” Fortier added while rigging his DN ice boat over 4 inches of ice.
“It has been frustrating,” said Brunswick’s Bob MacEwen as he talked about the warm winter and the lack of frozen lakes. “We are about a month behind.”
“We have been looking around for lakes for the past month,” Spiller said.
Boaters were making road trips to Quebec before the club’s “ice spy” found good ice in Sabattus.
Sabattus Pond was not even on the club’s radar before Wednesday.
“It’s going to be on there now,” Fortier said.
MacEwen was the first of more than 10 ice-boaters to have his hand-built boat ready to slip across the shallow lake on Wednesday. He waited patiently for Don Stearns of Sanford to join him on the south end of the lake.
“We have a club rule to not go alone,” said MacEwen while wearing a set of ice picks around his neck for safety. The picks are used to pull yourself up onto the ice if you fall through.
MacEwen built his ice boat with 2-by-4 pieces of wood and $450. He can reach speeds of 40 mph, but some club members’ boats go much faster.
“I reached 64.4 mph,” Stearns said. “I ruined my sail, but it was worth it. It was terrifying and I never want to do it again,” he added with a laugh.
Spiller said they would sail until dark if the wind held up.
“It’s rare when there is both ice and wind,” Dennis Glidden of Cape Neddick said.
Sabattus will play host to ice-boaters until Saturday’s expected wintry mix ruins the glass-like surface.
“As soon as it snows, it’s all over,” Glidden said.
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