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Photo gallery Sail-Inside-Wing skate sails, Ice-Wing
Photo gallery Sail inside wing skate sails
Fast, simple, light, compact and inexpensive!
A very elegant wing with an unusual plan form, a short bottom cord. The three top sections can be removed one by one for sailing in increasing wind speed.
The 100 mph, 160 km/h, high speed stand inside wing skate sail.
This is, as far as I know, the only stand-inside-wing sail dedicated to speed.
Normal course racing wings have twice the sail area of this sail and starts to severely over power you at around 75 mph, 120 km/h, in a wind of 16 knots, 8 m/s.
We have measured 59 mph, 95 km/h, in a 13 knots, 6.5 m/s, breeze but we sail in twice as strong winds.
A wind surfer on ice needs about twice the wind speed, 27 knots, 13 m/s, to reach 60 mph, 96 km/h. Mainly because his body creates a very large aerodynamic drag.
With this wing overpowering should come around 110 mph, 170 km/h (square root of 2 = 1.44 times higher speed). Not twice as high because wind forces increase with the square of the speed.
Wing still in testing phase.
I have some other concepts of skate sailing that should be capable of some 150 mph, 240 km/h, https://sites.google.com/site/iwspeedrecord/
Sailor/design/builder: Anders Ansar.
Short video at
An Ice Wing cockpit is cramped. Generally a thinner wing is faster. Sailor/design/builder: Anders Ansar.
Wing skate sail winning One of a Kind Race
Before the start of a One Of A Kind race in Stockholm in moderate winds. Each sailor being national top class in his class.
They finished in this order: The wing skate sail. The DN iceboat, some 300 yards/m thereafter. The traditional skate sail, some 900 yards/m after the wing sail.
Course length in the order of 2000 yards/meters.
Extremely tall sailing skates, 1 feet, 30 cm, high
The height can be changed by replacing the read tubes with others of another length.
Light wind and good ice: With high skates you can carry a tall sail with large area = a fast sail. Strong wind: Low skates, makes your less likely to fall, and a lower small sail.
Didn't work well. Runner direction control bad due to a too flexible construction. One time skates went outwards onto inside of wing resulting in a quick stop - fall forward and a damaged wing.
Design/builder/sailor: Anders Ansar.
The Ice Wing cockpit is cramped
An Ice Wing cockpit is cramped. Generally a thinner wing is faster. Sailor/design/builder: Anders Ansar.
An all hard, metal, surface speed wing skate sail - a try to catch up with the state of the art airplane wing design. Most wing sails have rear of wing made of sail cloth.
Stabilizer needed because in short cord designs sailor can't get to the wing 1/4 cord position , where the wing balances.
Never worked well.
Design/built in Stockholm, Sweden.
A wing with unusually large transparent front. White top can be removed for sailing in strong winds. Sailor/design/builder: Anders Ansar, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hi! Is it windy up there?
Extremely tall sailing skates, 1 feet, 30 cm, high.
The height can be changed by replacing the read tubes with others of another length.
Light wind and good ice: With high skates you can carry a tall sail with large area = a fast sail. Strong wind: Low skates, makes your less likely to fall, and a lower smaller sail.
Didn't work well. Skate direction control bad due to a too flexible construction. One time skates went outwards onto inside of wing resulting in a quick stop - fall forward and a damaged wing.
Design/builder/sailor Anders Ansar.
This is, in short, how you get into a wing:
Raise the forward end.
Get under the wing.
Lower the wing around you body.
This particular wing lasted only one strong wind session. Sailor: It was a pity that we didn't get the time to know each other.
Sailing video. The 75 mph, 120 km/h, skate sail - World's fastest?
Very light wind 4 knots, 2 m/s, note flag movements.
Still speed is 25 mph, 40 km/t.
On youtube the video comes with this text:
Arguably the world's fastest skate sail with a top speed around 75 mpg, 120 km/h. More, incl. building plans and and an article: https://sites.google.com/site/icewinghomepage/
This is a course racing sail for moderate winds. A dedicated speed sail can reach some 100 mph, 160 km/h.
Ice skate sailing is a dangerous sport: thin ice, drowning, collisions, crashing into land, get smashed onto the ice by a misbehaving prototype: "It was sad that we never got to know each other" said one sailor after the wing got smashed into pieces on the first sail - bu no fatalities in Sweden so far.
I call my sails Ice Wing.
Developed for ice sailing but can also be used on land and snow. It beat DN and large E-skeeter iceboats at a race in the US.
Contrary to other ice, land and snow sailing concepts this design has no extra aerodynamic drag from planks/hulls/sailor etc.
It sails up to 6 times faster than the wind in light winds.
This wing crashed when the sailor hit double ice and fell forward. The window is broken.
A wing sailor sailing at top speed in a strong wind. He leans to windward to balance the force of the wind. Speed is some 120 km/h, 75 mph,
Some historical photos
Under construction
This is the wing I sailed at the Swedish Skate Sailing Championships 1976 - and showed that it had superior speed compared to the other skate sails - and set Stand Inside Skate Sail construction by others rolling.
Slide stamped March 1974. Klas Argulander is contemplating a wing sail partly made of polystyrene. Didn't get any further as far as I know. Could have been very fast with a long smooth leading edge.
He may have been inspired by my second Stand inside Wing Skate Sail. See Ice Wing Evolution (2)
Slide stamped March 1974. Pelle Lagerholm, Stockholm, in his all cloth wing. The stabilizer is very beautifully made like model air plane construction.
Slide stamped Feb. 1987. Here a design with short bottom cord. 1987 was the so far, 2021, last cold winter in central Sweden.
Slide stamped 1977. From the left: Me, Anders Ansar, Johan Bergström, Pelle Lagerholm, all from Stockholm, Sweden.
Johan Bergström was an Olympic Tornado Catamaran sailor, like me. He and other Tornado sailors were attracted by the Ice Wing because of its high performance like the Tornado.
"Ice yacht sailing on Lake Stora Värtan, Stockholm, Sweden." Oil painting circa 1900 by Robert Thegerström.
In the foreground left is a parallel trapeze skate sail. At the right is one being sailed. Stora Värtan is a lake in Stockholm, Sweden. Non Ansar copyright.
The difference between skate sailing and ice/land yachting
Skate sailing is sailing with ice or roller skates on your feet and being propelled by a sail. Ice or land yachting on the other hand is e.g. sitting in a hull or standing on a platform (ice surfing) or similar, which is equipped with runners (skates) or wheels and a sail.
Eco-friendly! These contraptions are about as small as things can get for high performance ice, land and water? sailing.
A reason for this is that you use what you are born with instead having it made in workshop or factory. Legs for support and suspension. Feet for steering. Your body as a mast supporting the sail. Your mass as ballast. Your arms and hands for sheeting the wing. Your brain with its sensors, sight, balance (as you sail leaning into the wind), taste (if you feel a blood taste take a rest), hearing probably comes in as you hear the wind and the sound of the skates.
They weigh some 45 lb, 20 kg. An ice or land yacht weighs some ten times more and requires correspondingly bigger resources.
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Modified Aug. 2021.