Preparing for Winterfest, Feb. 4-11; Toboggan Nationals Feb. 10-12

Toboggans being built and waxed too!

Tue, 01/31/2017 - 8:00pm

Rockport Select Board members Owen Casas, Bill Chapman, Geoff Parker and Ken McKinley hope to repeat last year’s victorious toboggan competition against the Camden Select Board. They tried out their sled at a regularly scheduled board meeting Jan. 30. (Photo courtesy Rick Bates)

Putting the forms together for the snow sculpting contest. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

Winterfest mascot, Cam, sits atop an ice sculpture near the entrance to Camden Public Library and the Amphitheatre, where Community Ice Sculpting will commence Saturday, Feb. 4, at noon. (Courtesy Karen Brace)

Katelyn Cox, a Mt. Ararat High School senior, sands the toboggan she made for her team to race at the 27th annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships Feb. 10-12. (Courtesy Tom Cox)

Katelyn Cox is the granddaughter of Toboggan Nationals committee member Tom Cox, who also builds toboggans and inspects all of the toboggans before they are certified to race each year.

Katelyn Cox.

Finishing touches... a little wax? Some racers don’t share their secrets. (Courtesy Tom Cox)

Putting the forms together for the snow sculpting contest. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

Katelyn Cox, a Mt. Ararat High School senior, sands the toboggan she made for her team to race at the 27th annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships Feb. 10-12. (Courtesy Tom Cox)

Katelyn Cox is the granddaughter of Toboggan Nationals committee member Tom Cox, who also builds toboggans and inspects all of the toboggans before they are certified to race each year.

Katelyn Cox.

Finishing touches... a little wax? Some racers don’t share their secrets. (Courtesy Tom Cox)

CAMDEN and ROCKPORT — Final preparations are underway in Camden, as the town gears up to welcome participants and spectators for Winterfest, Feb. 4-11, which culminates in the 27th annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships, Feb. 10-12. There are snow sculpture forms to build, ice blocks to set up, banners to hang, a ticket shed to set up across from the town office, and out at the Snow Bowl, ice-making is underway in the chute, more banners are being hung, registration packets filled and goodie bags stuffed.

It’s no wonder these partner events take nearly a year to plan and execute.

On the Village Green Tuesday, Public Works employees and Winterfest committee members were working together to assemble the 8-foot-tall box forms, that were then filled with loads of snow trucked in from the Snow Bowl. The snow was made special for the Maine State Snow Sculpting Championships, since so far, Mother Nature hasn’t given the Midcoast enough snow to cover the ground, let alone build up a snowpack.

That is supposed to change Feb. 1, as the weather forecasters are calling for a few inches, maybe a little more, of the white stuff to make everything look as cold as it feels right now. But just in case that snowless weather continued, the Snow Bowl made a big pile for the sculptors, so their competition could go off without a hitch beginning Saturday, Feb. 4.

There are four snow sculpting teams, that will set about working at the Village Green on Saturday morning and finish Sunday at noon, and a dozen ice carving teams that will be carving at the Amphitheatre from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

And it’s not just the committee organizers and volunteers keeping extra busy right now. Many of the racers are building new toboggans, some because they are first-time racers and others because they just like to race a new toboggan each year. And making a toboggan takes time. Boards of ash must be cut and then steamed so they can be bent and curled, without breaking.

And according to Tom Cox, a Toboggan National committee member and toboggan maker and teacher, “You’re going to break some boards.”

Then the toboggan must be assembled with runners, sanded smooth and followed by a lot of varnish and maybe some special sauce on the bottom, like wax, that is buffed and reapplied, buffed and reapplied, buffed and reapplied.

Cox’s granddaughter, Katelyn Cox, just finished making her own toboggan in her grandfather’s wood shop in Rockport last weekend. She built it for a project at Mt. Ararat High School, where she is a senior.

Katelyn has registered a four-person team and plans to compete, and will be vying for the trophy for Fastest Student Team, one of four special race divisions.

Over in Rockport, four members of the town’s Select Board have been practicing their racing form as they gear up to defend their title and retain rights to the Arch Trophy, awarded for the first time in 2016. Last year saw the Rockport Select Board compete against the Camden Select Board, and this year Camden will be fielding a team of town employees.

“I’m not the best person to have on a toboggan again,” said Camden Select Board Chairman John French.

But the Camden Select Board won’t be sitting home, watching movies or playing on their iPads. They will again join the action at the Snow Bowl, in Tobogganville, and serve as guest judges of the annual costume contest. Serenaded by the Plant Pan Steel Drum Band from Blue Hill, costumed racers will gather on the ice and then parade before the judges, who will be perched on the score board platform. The winners of the contest will be announced Sunday, when race winners are also announced and a trophy ceremony is held.

All of this and more kicks off Saturday, Feb. 4, with events downtown and the CamJam, now at the Snow Bowl. To see the full Winterfest schedule, click here. To see the full Toboggan National schedule, click here. There is still time to register a toboggan team, but don’t delay. Advance registration is required, and the deadline is Friday, Feb. 3. To register online, click here, or call 207-236-3438.

Contact Penobscot Bay Pilot at news@penbaypilot.com.