(water sloshing) (sail whooshing) - Ice boat racing is essentially the same as summer sailing.

A boat like this will go four to five times the speed of the wind, so if it's blowing 20 miles an hour, you can be going over a hundred miles an hour.

(upbeat music) (indistinct voices) - [Sailing Instructor] Are you all set?

- [Student] Am I out of the way?

- [Sailing Instructor] You might wanna slide down a little deeper.

- [Student] Sure, (indistinct).

- [Sailing Instructor] Bye!

(crank whirring) (upbeat music) - [Daniel Hearn] As you tighten that up, it takes camber out of the sail, which reduces the amount of drag, which increases your speed.

(energetic music) And then you have foot pedals that you steer with, so it steers just like an airplane where if you push right, the boat goes left, if you push left, the boat goes right.

(energetic music) The speeds are fast, but like anything, you adjust quickly and get very comfortable with that, and once you understand that you can control the boat and get it to go faster or slower in any direction that you want it to go, then your confidence builds, and you're good.

But it's a little scary to start.

(fun energetic music) It's a fickle sport, you know, we need to have, of course, ice that's thick enough.

We need to have wind.

We need to have time off of work, and all that has to line up, and, you know, little to no snow on the ice.

The ice has to be reasonably smooth.

So, there are a lot of factors, but there's absolutely nothing like it when you get a chance to do it.

It's just, it's such an amazing sport, and so thrilling that it makes it all worthwhile.

(energetic music) It's not hard to get into.

Wisconsin is truly, in Southern Wisconsin, in particular, is really the epicenter of ice sailing.

The conditions that we have with the lakes and the amount of snow and the temperature and the length of the sailing season makes Southern Wisconsin among the best ice sailing areas in the world.

We get a lot of, often, most years, a lot of good sailing time, and the community is very supportive, and there are lots of sailors.

(wind rustling) - That was great!

Thank you so much for the trip.

(energetic fun music)