Finally, as winter drags on across much of the country, some are looking for new ways to enjoy nature. In tonight’s Weekend Journal, CBS’s Noel Brennan ventures out on a frozen lake in Wisconsin on a sailboat.
“Everybody’s going to want to come out here and go fishing now.” [LAUGHS]
NOEL BRENNAN: On a frozen lake, when few fish are biting—
RICH STEARNS: One little northern.
NOEL BRENNAN: —you’re better off trying to catch the wind.
JERRY RING: This is pretty good. It’s very nice day.
NOEL BRENNAN: On Wisconsin’s Geneva Lake, the best way to catch the wind is to bring a boat that’s made for winter. Rich Stearns readies his boat every season.
“Ice is about a foot thick.” “That’s ready to go.”
NOEL BRENNAN: And Jerry Ring drives up from Chicago to catch a ride.
“I will admit, I’m an adrenaline junkie.”
NOEL BRENNAN: At 79—
“Have been.”
NOEL BRENNAN: —nothing scratches his adrenaline itch like hopping on board a boat with three skates and no brakes.
JERRY RING: People go, wait a minute, you’re supposed to have stopped doing this 20 years ago. But I’m enjoying it. It’s fun.
NOEL BRENNAN: The Dutch were the first to ice-boat, but Americans made it their own.
“Theodore Roosevelt had an ice boat, a big ice boat, and he sailed on the Hudson River.”
NOEL BRENNAN: Now skippers compete in races on different classes of ice boats.
RICH STEARNS: The power of the wind is so spectacular.
The boats can race up to five times the speed of the wind. Think highway speeds on ice.
JERRY RING: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Best I’ve ever done on that boat over there was 72 knots, according to my GPS, which is just at 80 miles an hour.
NOEL BRENNAN: No need to break records to feel the rush.
“A little faster than on water?”
“Yeah. I mean, we might be going 50 every so often here. So pretty fast.”
NOEL BRENNAN: Some prefer it as a spectator sport.
“Got all the beautiful houses and ice boats going by and— yeah.”
NOEL BRENNAN: On a frozen lake, the wind is the catch of the day.
JERRY RING: When someone says it’s time to ice-boat, you go.
NOEL BRENNAN: Noel Brennan, CBS News, Fontana, Wisconsin.
“Just as long as the lake stays frozen.”