This season will see the first ever Ice Opti North American Championships, and it's pretty likely that James Lamb will be there. It's great to have a local youth entry. Good luck James!

Harder than hard water by James lamb

I can’t stand waiting another minute for the ice to form, so I had to do something about it. My father and I decided to dust off the good old homemade blow cart, and take advantage of a strong onshore westerly wind on a sunny Saturday November afternoon. This time of year the beach parking lots of Cape Cod are empty and make a great spot for land sailing.
We arrived at our favorite spot and were surprised to see the numerous different kinds of wind powered toys. An assortment of kite boarders and wind surfers in the water, there was even one guy taking runs on a skateboard in the parking lot with a training kite. The skate boarder stopped by to check out our land sailor and told us that during the winter he would use his kite on the ice with a pair of skates. How ironic to pick a small parking lot on the south side of  cape cod to find another fellow suffering from ice deprivation.
Jeff brown joined us with his extremely high tech radio controlled model. In the winter it’s an iceboat but when there is no ice it is easily converted into a land sailor. Jeff tried a couple different sail and mast configurations but found the gusts to twenty five were a little too much for his model. Although he did manage to get some great runs in the lulls. After a few dramatic spin outs he decided to pack it in. Jeff presently holds the radio controlled surface record at speeds of just fewer than forty miles per hour in this same model but on the ice.
My father and I took a couple of runs each before realizing the tires were soft and holding us back. After pumping up the tires the land sailor was immediately out of control with the full sail. After changing to our smallest sail the land sailor was rip roaring up and down the parking lot. I found out the best way to turn this thing around in a small beach parking lot at high speeds is to find a patch of thin sand and power slide one hundred eighty degrees. In one of the high speed tacks I found out what happens when one foot slips off the steering pedal, I ended up doing two three-sixties in a hike which to the on lookers, looked like a figure skater doing a double sow cow. I was able to recover and made a few more runs along the beach before it was time to pack it in for the day. The wind had built to a steady twentyfive knots and the parking lot was wind swept with sand blowing off the beach.
It seems like we don't use this one of our toys enough, but it’s great to fill in the void between soft and hard water sailing.

James Lamb dusting off his landsailor
Jeffrey Brown was also on the lot that day.
James Lamb in his Opti on the north pond of Webster lake