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Like Sharp, not all ice yachters are racers. Some ice yachters prefer the joy of just sailing and maneuvering while taking in the sights surrounding whatever body of water they happen to be on. "There are sort of two varieties of ice boaters; there’s the racers and the cruisers," says James Thieler. "Most people are what you classify as cruisers: They just want to show up on the ice and zig-zag around and have fun all day, not to concerned with racing or getting that last little bit of performance out of the boat. Then there’s the racing crowd: We’re a little bit more obsessed with making the boats go faster and the technical aspect of it, and obviously trying to win the races and have bragging rights for the week." Even though cruisers prefer to shy away from organized racing, Doug Sharp insists that sometimes the latent racer will come out in them when another cruiser tries to leisurely pass by. "Some of the guys are horribly competitive, but I’m not. I have a good time. I race informally, but I don’t race formally. It doesn’t matter who, what, where, when: One boat is sailing, two boats is racing, that’s universal."
The most thrilling place to be at an ice yacht race, other than in one, has to be standing next to the windward mark pylon as the frontrunners come shooting around it. At this point the ice yachts are using the wind nearly to maximum advantage, and craft that seem virtually silent from a distance now make a low, sharp tearing sound as the runner blades of the ice yachts cut into the ice as they start to turn. The best racers will approach these pylons at speeds approaching those on an interstate highway, then close within feet of it as they round it. After the lead boats have whipped past the pylon, a few more boats dart by with just a little less vigor. A couple of minutes later, those running toward the back of the pack also pass by it, but with no where near the same intensity as those running up front. These boats are struggling to keep up: their tacks are wider as they come down the course, and their rounding of the pylon is far less daring; coming no where near as close to it as the leaders.
 Generally, the racers running at the back of the pack are not there because they are having a bad day on the ice. The front runners usually are the most serious about racing, and have spent countless hours making their equipment and set-up better. But buying or building a great boat does not a great ice yachter make. The most important element to winning is experience. Those new to the sport, or those who may have been doing it for awhile but recently decided to start racing, can have a steep learning curve. Eben Whitcomb of Westbrook, Connecticut, a boatyard carpenter and metal shop foreman in his mid-forties, started ice yachting as a cruiser in the early 90s. Eventually he decided to give racing a shot after being encouraged by an ice yachting friend. "I loved sailing and didn’t even know if I’d like racing, but decided to try it after awhile; this is like after a couple of seasons had gone by probably. I started going with him to every race, then I got bitten by the bug of trying to go a little faster. Actually the first season is trying not to finish dead last." Whitcomb has come a long way since then: Usually he finishes in the upper third of a race and is currently commodore of the New England Ice Yacht Association.
No matter how much experience an ice yacht racer has, if his equipment is not top notch, he’s probably not going to win. If there are two experienced racers toward the front, the one that has put more time and money into his boat may very well be the one that comes across the finish line first. The experienced racing zealots understand this, so they let their fierce dedication to the sport and winning bleed over into evenings and summers when they can’t race. This time is spent planning what improvements need to be made, or in their workshops fine-tuning or building new improved gear that might give them an edge on the ice.
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