Who Wants These Frigid Temps? Nantucket's Ice Boaters

With the first week of January bringing sub-freezing temperatures to Nantucket, a group of islanders have been glued to the forecast, hoping the temperature might drop just enough to freeze the ponds with a few inches of solid ice. And if that ice sheet forms this week, they will be on the ponds, some with skates, some with ice boats. For those boaters, it’s all about speed.

“It’s addictive,” said Chris Gordon, who grew up sailing and has since taken up ice boating. “[Ice boating] is like surfing. When the waves are there you have to drop in and go. There’s no work that day.”

The last time the ponds froze over sufficiently enough to sail a boat on the ice came in 2022. That winter provided one solid day of ice boating. But ice boating is as much a game of patience as it is of speed. Over the past decade, ice boaters have been able to take the boats out on Hummock Pond for only a handful of years, including in 2018, 2015 and 2014. During one of those years—2015—Sesachacha Pond also froze over, giving Gordon what he called the best ice sailing he’s ever had on Nantucket.

Typically, Gordon waits for three nights in a row with temperatures in the teens. But with the daily high temperature hovering around 32 degrees last weekend, and a cold snap bringing sub-freezing highs through Friday with lows in the low 20s each night, Gordon said there’s a chance for ice sailing this week, though it’s still only a chance. He also has his eyes set on mid- to late-January if this week doesn’t work out.

“The adrenaline rush is there,” he said. “It’s the most intense thing that I’ve done. It’s like starting a race. You get butterflies. A lot of days I wish I didn't have this personality.”

Gordon uses a DN class iceboat. Each boat is roughly 12 feet, weighing roughly 100 pounds, with three runners and a 16-foot mast, according to the website DN North America.

While Gordon grew up sailing on Nantucket, and saw first-hand as a kid how old-salt sailors would rig their ice boats with sunfish sails in the winter, Gordon himself didn’t get into ice sailing until much later. Then, in 2001, his father moved to the mainland and took up ice boating as a hobby. His dad bought several ice boats and sailed on frozen ponds off-island. When his dad moved to Florida, Chris Gordon ended up with his dad’s equipment.

“It’s the same concept as sailing in terms of trimming the sails,” Gordon said. “But you can go five times the speed of the wind [on an ice boat]. With winds at 10 knots, you can do up to 50 knots while sailing, though on Hummock Pond, you don’t usually get that kind of speed because by the time you get up to speed you have to turn.”

Nantucket ice boaters have formed a community built around sailing as fast as possible. Gordon expects a group of sailors to link up should the ponds freeze.

“There’s a certain type of person who’s drawn to ice boating,” Gordon said. “It’s not for the weak,” he said. “When you’re on the pond and sailing, reaching those speeds, the wind chill is that much worse. You reach speeds that you would never reach in sailing.”