this is a Father’s Day version, at a country club brunch, of my sailboat ice sculpture
creating a sailboat ice sculpture design
added assembly diagram pics 6/8/23
You all should know that I take my ice sculpture designs very seriously. In fact, for this sailboat ice sculpture design, I went all the way to the East Coast, specifically Atlantic City, to do research. That’s where I got this inspiration pic of a cute little sailboat yard sculpture that you see below.
I saw this little sailboat sculpture a couple times at different places on the Jersey coast. Googling revealed it’s a widely available cement sculpture that you can get for a surprisingly wide range of prices.
Ok, that’s crap π© I did go to Atlantic City as part of a hybrid work/take a break trip, but there are plenty of sailboats on the Gulf Coast, so that would be insane π€ͺ However, they do have a bit more of a stuffy yachting/sailing culture going on in the northeast, so maybe it put me in the right mindset to work on this. I probably should have taken a pic of an ACTUAL sailboat while I was there though π€
At any rate, when I was first putting together this design, I needed a starting point. I got a piece of clipart that worked and it apparently came from here or a similar source. I’ve changed things significantly since then, but I definitely appreciate the foundation! The clipart artist isn’t credited; they never are π
onto the actual design!
Ok, this is kind of a tricky one actually. I’d say this is an intermediate design, definitely. Expert ice sculptors can handle my version of a sailboat ice sculpture pretty routinely, but there are some parts where a less than experienced ice sculptor could have major problems.
The finished sailboat ice sculpture is large, over 50″ tall and about 35″ wide. The ice usage is pretty efficient and the sculpture is composed of 6 pieces the way you see it here. Up until now, I’ve done this sculpture (or a similar version) a few times by hand. However, I’m probably going to try it on my CNC machine in a few days for a Father’s Day brunch. I’ll update if that comes to pass.
this is the plain vanilla version of my sailboat ice sculpture: no snowfill engraving necessary
figure out a way to stabilize the front sail (Remember it’s reversed in the template.) and then weld the sail assembly together like this.
when you’re attaching the sail assembly to the rest of the ship, the front bottom corner of the front sail will probably be in the way a bit. Carefully use a handsaw to trim it down gradually, letting the sail assembly sit flat on the center weld.
here’s my Japanese handsaw; I’ve had it for a long time
SUPER IMPORTANT: you need to be aware that the front sail is reversed in the templates. So the cuts in the template end up on the back of your sailboat ice sculpture. Orientating it like that is the only way it fits in the block.
which way do the little flags at the top blow?
At some point while I was designing my first (or maybe second?) sailing ship sculpture, it occurred to me to wonder if I had the little flags at the top of the mast pointing the right direction.
My grasp of sail dynamics isn’t great, but I do get the part where the wind is blowing in one direction and so it’s easy to go in that direction. I also understand that modern sails are a lot like airplane wings and with them you can use the wind to go almost any direction you want. Sometimes I’m lazy and don’t want to learn new stuff, but I did manage to put together the energy to stare at the video below for almost 10 whole minutes. (Not all at once though!) If you’re curious, check it out.
As far as I can tell, it turns out that for square-rigged ships (like in my Mayflower design), the little flags get blown in the direction the wind is blowing and the direction the ship is going. That’s because square-rigged ships suck at manipulating the wind to their own purposes.
With more modern sailing ships though, the flags can seemingly point in just about any direction, just as the ship can go in almost any direction. For a while, I was under the impression that a lot of sailboat illustrators have their little top flags pointed the wrong way, but I guess that’s only the case when the drawing is of a square-rigged ship.
I like my top flags to be waving, and also pointed like arrows, in the direction the ship is going. But feel free to change that if it looks wrong to you. Also, there are LOTS of pics of sailboats that don’t even have the little top flags. Seemingly most don’t actually. So you can skip it too, especially if you accidentally break it and have other priorities.
different design versions
Basically, I have 2 flavors of sailboat ice sculpture at the moment: for Father’s Day brunch and everything else. “Everything else” covers the multitude of birthdays, retirement parties, and just random nautical events where a sailboat ice sculpture would work. I’m sure also that you’ll think of even more events that didn’t occur to me.
For Father’s Day, “Happy Father’s Day!” is the default engraving option and you can engrave it on a sail or on the bottom. But you can also come up with other cute engravings like “#1 DAD” or “BEST DAD EVER!” or whatever works for you. For the brunch that I have coming up, I’m going with “#1 DAD!” on the sail because it fits nicely. Putting “Happy Father’s Day!” on the sail results in VERY thin letters since there’s not much room.
If my client wants their club name rather than “Happy Father’s Day!” down below in the waves, I’ll go with that. But I likely skip it if they don’t specifically request it, because we all know that I’m LAZY 
my favorite (so far) Father’s Day version of my sailboat ice sculpture
you can do cutouts for the spaces between the sails and the mast on both sails. Make the mast and sails as delicate as you like according to the needs of your event. But be CAREFUL!
how would it work on a CNC machine?
As with many of the other designs on this site, you can largely create your sailboat ice sculpture on your CNC machine. You may have to do some hand detailing and shaping, but the CNC can get you most of the way there with the right design.
The biggest favor the CNC will do for you here, aside from the engraving, is the clean and straight weld surfaces. Welding the sails together isn’t super simple; it must be done carefully. The CNC also does you the favor of saving you some ice with the 2 piece base slab that’s easy to put together due to the super-straight weld surfaces.Β
for more info and some guidelines
If you have any questions about my sailboat ice sculpture design, email me or comment below. (It might not let you though.) If you would like to use this ice sculpture design or any other design on this site, please check the design usage guidelines. The design collection page lists designs on the site.
You might also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets facebook page and you can comment there as well as below. Thanks!
