Ice Boating: A Forgotten Part of Hudson River History
Rowing is often known as the Hudson River’s premiere water sport, but in the late 1800s, ice boating was just as popular.
Robert Wills, vice commodore of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, gave presentations at the Delamater Inn in Rhinebeck last weekend about the historic sport. In his hour long presentation, Wills spoke in-depth about the history of the sport, the style, and its significance today.
What is ice boating exactly? It is a unique sport that aims for speed, with origins from Europe. “The Dutch brought this activity over as a way to transport goods in winter. They put ice skates on the bottom of their hulled ships,” Wills said. “People realized how fast these things go and then they specially designed this style of craft to go fast.”
The sport is still popular in Europe and many countries have a national ice boating team. The Hudson Valley was once the ice boating capital of the world. “This sport captured the imagination of many people in the 1850s, 1860s, to 1910,” Wills said.
The center of rowing and ice boat racing used to be near the Marist College Cornell Boathouse, and where the Walkway Over the Hudson now stands. Races ran about 20 miles long and drew thousands of people to Poughkeepsie, along with various national publications such as Collier’s and The New York Times.
In the late 19th-century, many residents in the area had a need for speed, including the relatives of Hudson Valley native Franklin Delano Roosevelt. John Aspinwall Roosevelt, FDR’s uncle, founded the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club in 1885. “He and a bunch of his friends were avid sailors, but especially ice sailors,” Wills explained. “These were the fastest vehicles on earth, which is why they piqued the interest of all the wealthy folks up and down the Hudson who would commission new boats every year to race their neighbors.”
During this period, there were hundreds of ice boats in the area, due in part to Poughkeepsie residents Jacob Buckout and his son, George, who were the preeminent ice boat builders. However, these boats were not cheap by any means. In 1899, FDR’s mother bought him Hawk, a Buckout model, which cost about $8,000.
When the automobile and the airplane were invented, the wealthy lost interest in ice boating since it was no longer the fastest mode of transportation. Many gave their boats to the people hired to sail and assemble them. These people later passed them onto their children. Over the years, some of them have been donated or sold to ice yacht clubs, or eventually end up in owners’ garages.
Former Marist professor Bob Sullivan attended the event with his wife. Sullivan volunteers at the FDR Presidential Library, which is where he learned about Roosevelt’s connection with the sport. Before the presentation, he read about John Roosevelt racing a train with his ice boat in 1871. “I don’t know if the train engineer knew about it,” Sullivan joked. “He beat the train. They used to go 65 miles per hour on the river.”
Today in the Hudson Valley, ice boating is an occasional pastime that combines sport, speed and history. Wills, who owns two ice boats, tries to sail whenever he can. Usually it is yearly, but changes in climate have made it difficult recently. Though he did mention, “We were on the Hudson between 2000 and 2010 seven times, eight times, which was very unusual. The old rule was once every 10 years we would get on the Hudson River. We’ve had more sailing, more great sailing, but then no sailing at all.” The last consistent ice boating season on the Hudson was in 2014.
Although he mainly spoke about the past, Wills is also looking towards the future of ice boating in the area. “We’re thinking about a museum or something to do to with these things because the opportunities to sail seem to becoming fewer, and we’re getting older so we need to do something to preserve the sport,” he said.
Currently, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club has 80 members. Newcomers are always welcome, and if you happen to be interested, the club does give ice boat rides.
