"I was surprised to find out how little development there has been" When you have a good thing that works right, do not mess with it. The perfect example of the KISS principle at work.
I love watching them, but the thought of hitting the ice( hard non moving object) at great speed, dos nothing for this tired aging body, even if the surface is slipperier than cat snot.

They are a good size Ron, must be around the 8ft mark? Might look out for those seeds at the garden center, and have a go in a proper bed as you have. I know they like a lot of food.

JB

That, Ron, is something I'd like to try, an ice yacht, model or real and particularly a real one. The only time I've seen any was on a lake in the Jura near the French winter resort of Les Rousses. Could they move, pull in the mainsheet and off they'd go, down the other end of the lake in seconds. I was surprised to find out how little development there has been. Several there that day were of the Detroit News sponsored class and I remembered reading about those in American magazines of my father's in the 1940's.

Cheers, Nerys

Yes, much softer than the frozen variety. Though some rejoice with the hard water by sailing Rc ice boats.

Burpee seeds, package says Pike’s Peak suppose to grow 4.6M We planted them several times near the house and some critter came around at night chewing off the stem. I even put wire fencing around the one remaining plant to no avail. The critter must have been hungry as it broke through the fencing to cut down the plant which by then was close to 2M.

Catharine planted the three seen here in the raised bed which also enclosed the rhubarb plants.

I think it's that humans are social animals Gary, and when we are locked up or restricted from interacting fully, we naturally tend to get a bit down ( dogs locked in a yard all day with no company will start pining and howling, and that's just a day!) We've been restricted for a year which we unfortunately won't get back. We are lucky at least to have this hobby, (or any other) which must lessen the stress to some extent. Many people have no hobbies, so imagine how hard it is for them to find something to do.

Once we figure out how to live with this virus, we'll be back to some sort of normal in no time, I'm sure. I feel sorry for the millions of business owners who have been destroyed by this, and consider myself lucky to be retired and building model boats etc, and not worrying about losing everything I have.

JB

We're actually just starting spring in NZ now Ron, and the weather is starting to warm up. You're lucky to have all those lakes up there,- ours are miles away (mostly in the bottom of the south island). Hoping to get some boating in soon, and hoping to have the new model up and running by the time the sun comes back. Great sunflowers by the way (Russian 'Sky scrapers' by any chance?) My best was 8' 3" in good soil,- fun to grow, but mice used to steal the seeds at night. Cant grow them in this place unfortunately, too much clay,-still have a packet of unused seeds.

JB

Ron,
You forgot to mention that this time of year, our water is a LOT softer too! Certainly makes running them easier.

Jumping into this discussion with my two bits, summer is generally not a boat building time for us in the northern hemisphere. You members down N.Z. or S.A. way, are in the depth of winter, so you will be posting building blogs.

Around here there is gardening, lawn to maintain, house up keep, camping, activities with grand kids and golf. Take your pick as to the primary activity.

😎

I had to reply to this for two reasons, one I am a very big Nerys fan and have the greatest respect for the lady. Secondly, this current lack of interest that seems to be doing the rounds at the moment, everything you said is very applicable to me at this moment of time, and I am wondering was it something they put into that damn Corvid vaccine? Regards, Gary.