All you need to know about Hard Water Sailing

Hard water sailing, or as it is also known iceboating, is a sport that is gaining in popularity and might eventually have a place in the Olympics. If you’ve ever been on a skating ring, you might remember gliding on the ice with the air in your hair and barely any resistance at all. Hard water sailing is all of that but way cooler.

The boat is similar in shape to a go-cart, minus the wheels. Instead, it comes with sails and runners that have been sharpened to a very fine edge. The small, light-weight boat, can only take one person, who usually rides lying down on the shallow bottom of the boat.

Sport for speed junkies

What makes this sport so exciting is the speed. With those razor-sharp runners, there is barely any friction to interfere and detract from the speed. With a good wind and clean ice, hard water sailors can even reach speeds of up to 80mph.

It is this speed that makes this sport so thrilling. One can even compare it to the thrill of playing at the slots while watching the last of the reels come to a stop when you already have 3 matching symbols in a winning combination. The kind of excitement that you can find here can easily be compared to the thrill of gliding over the ice at high speed.

9 Mar 2020