Water Mill - Tom Halsey leans back in his office chair, hands clasped over his head, and peers through the storm door. He's taking a break from crunching numbers on the family farm. The wind whistles outside. It's winter all right.

Frigid temperatures have sent mercury plunging and many residents in front of the fireplace. Not Halsey. He can almost hear the molecules nucleate and crystals grow to form ice. He'd take three more months of this stuff.

It's January, the longest the island's most storied ice boater has ever had to wait to break out his beloved world-class racing boat, the DN, or his skeeter, Beetlebaum. He remains patient, slowly rocking back and forth; refusing to get too excited about what Mother Nature has served up – the extended forecast calls for temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Surely his dad and granddad had to wait like this once; their dads and granddads also, and Halsey's kids and grandkids are gutting it out now. Ice boating on frozen waters like Mill Pond, Mecox Bay and Long Pond has been a fixture in the Halsey family for more than a century. The weather hasn't always cooperated in the past, and it isn't cooperating now either. So he waits.

Water Mill's Tom Halsey approaches the finish line in what would be the biggest win of his career -- a victory in the silver fleet race at the 1991 World Championships on Saginaw Bay.

"I always said that I would trade a whole summer of soft-water sailing for one good day of ice boating," Halsey said, "and I still feel that way."

In early January, his boats aren't yet set up in his garage. It's killing him. Someday, one would think, the waters will freeze. The conditions, at least in the eyes of ice boating enthusiasts, will "improve." He'll strap a hull to the top of his Ford Expedition and hit the road, due for a sheet of ice out west, up north or down the road. "I'll sail any chance I get," Halsey said. "Wherever there's ice."

All In The Family
On a table nearby sit binders full of news clippings, diary entries and photos, showing a complete history of the Halsey family's hobby that goes back to at least the 1870s. The first boat on Long Island, and by some accounts in the United States, is credited to Charles Howell and Daniel Hildreth of Southampton in January 1837. According to Hildreth's diary entry for that month (written in the Old English of the day), "We had a sail to the beach and up to the Hay Ground Bay - she works like a charm. The wind blew a gale and we went part of the time a mile to the minit, the wether had been sevear for a long time and the ise sum too feet thick in places Charles Howell, Sylvanus White and I.D. Hildreth went on the boat."

Halsey cannot confirm that his great-great grandfather, Lemuel Halsey, a contemporary of Hildreth, was ever an ice boater. Halsey's great-grandfather, Charles Everett Halsey, is the first ice boater on record in a long line of family members. He passed the passion down to his son, Lawrence, who did the same with his son, Everett Halsey, Tom's father. According to Tom, his father "was an ice boater since the day he was born."

Emil Mollic, Tom Maran, Bud Topping and Duane Arnistas share a laugh out on Mecox Bay.

Everett bought Snow Goose from a Vanderbilt estate sale in the 1920s. Back then, ice boating was much like horse racing nowadays – wealthy families paid sailors to race and win with their boat. Snow Goose hadn't fared well. Everett Halsey re-rigged the boat, named it Penguin, and went on to win several races himself. The skeeter is one of many historic boats currently in the Halsey fleet, ranging from small to large and from quick to quicker, and is used by Tom's son, Adam, and his children to this day. Despite its age, it runs "exactly the same" as it did when Everett Halsey raced it more than 70 years ago, although compared to the DN – named after The Detroit News, which first sponsored an ice boat design competition in 1937 – Penguin and other skeeters run "like a Model-T."

A Puff of Wind
Some ice boaters do it for fun; Tom's brother John is one of them. Tom is not; neither was his dad. Wall hangings in the office make it look like a regional ice boat racing Hall of Fame. Halsey placed 16th in the first of his "seven or eight" International DN Ice Yacht Racing Association (IDNIYRA) world championships that he competed in all over North America, spanning from the 1981 championships in Hamilton, Ontario, to his final world-class race, the 1999 event on Quebec's Lac St-Louis. The most notable of Halsey's many victories came in the silver fleet race at the 1991 world championships on Saginaw Bay in Michigan. Halsey also proved to be one of the premier racers locally; capturing so many Long Island championships he can't even hazard a guess. Halsey "doesn't remember a time [he] wasn't in an ice boat." His competitive juices really stirred when friend and rival Ed Hildreth tipped him off about a nearby showdown.

"[Ed and I] got good together, and he suggested one day that there was a Long Island championship up in Lake Ronkonkoma that had a nice trophy, and that we ought to go get it," Halsey said. "The first year we didn't get it, but after that, we got it, and he and I swapped it back and forth for what seemed like 15 or 20 years."

Water Mill's Duane Arnistas, who with his father has sailed with the Halseys' since the late 1970s, marvels at Halsey's ability. "He's smart," Arnistas said. "He knows the wind. He soft-water sails in the summertime, he sails sunfish, and being a farmer, you always have the wind in your face. That to an ice boater is key. You have to know where that little puff is coming from. Tom knows that."

Years after his grandfather did in the same boat, Adam Halsey cruises on Mecox Bay in Penguin.

A Sport That Sizzles
Ice boating, particularly ice boat racing, isn't for the faint of heart. Figuratively, the boats can fly. Race speeds routinely reach 60 miles per hour. In ideal conditions, a DN can make speedboats look like tugboats. The widely accepted speed record for an ice boat was set by John Buckstaff on Lake Wisconsin in 1943. How fast did he go? A cool 143 mph. Legend has it Buckstaff benefited from 70 mph winds that day.

In the first half of the 20th century, ice boats were predominantly steered from the stern; present-day international class boats are controlled from the front. In races, upward of 50 captains set off from the starting line and immediately lie flat on their backs to reduce wind resistance. Ice boats face less friction than with soft-water boats, helping ice boaters reach the incredible speeds. Another difference is that soft-water races typically take a triangular course; ice boat racers sail three laps around two points on the ice.

"With 50 boats all getting [to the first turn] at the same time, it gets to be very exciting," Halsey said.

Ice boating is a family affair for the Halseys. Shown clockwise from top right, Tom Halsey, grandchildren Eli and Lauren, and son Adam.

Halsey grew up testing out all kinds of sports, but they were more of the outdoor variety, such as hunting, fishing and trapping around the bay. He likens it to auto racing, not just because of the extreme speed at which they travel but due to the care one must take for his vehicle. He gave up on a baseball career, figuring he couldn't compete with a young Carl Yastrzemski for his high school baseball team, Halsey did go on to play lacrosse at his alma mater, Cornell.

"The setup's as important as the driving," Halsey said. "If the runners aren't parallel, you aren't going to go very fast. A lot has to be done to get the boat ready to sail."

Physically, ice boating isn't as simple as climbing into a boat and setting sail. One has to constantly adjust the sail and shift one's weight, all while lying flat on one's back for reduced wind resistance and thus increased speed. For Water Mill's Tim Maran, another avid ice boater in the East End, the winter goes by faster because "after a day of ice boating, you're so darn tired you go home and sleep."

Sailing is a craft that, like any other sport, one can master but never perfect. Baseball players can hit 1.000, basketball players can hit everything they put up, and ice boat racers can always go faster, so there's always room to improve. A quality tuning partner is a necessity. For years, Halsey teamed with pal Ed Hildreth, and their success spoke for itself. They'd set up a course on Mecox and go at it, determining which stainless steel runners work best on fresh water or brackish ice, switch runners and trade tips.

"If you don't have a tuning partner, you're not competitive," Halsey said. Most of all, the passion has to be there. Halsey has no shortage of that.

Passing On Love Of The Sport
Halsey's 69 years old. Many of his ice boating buddies of yore are no longer alive for the precious weekend jaunts. The body doesn't move or recover as quickly as it once did. Surely that won't improve as he further advances in years. Yet time can't slow his eagerness to venture out for a race or even a leisurely cruise. "I'll be ice boating forever," he said.

He carries on the Halsey tradition because he chooses to do so. He sails because he loves it. His son, Adam shares his sentiments. "It's a good pastime in the winter for us," Adam Halsey said. "It's a lot of fun out there sailing in all the boats in our family, and it's something I hope my children will enjoy doing." Adam's son, Eli, set sail out on a mud puddle on the Halsey farm late last year. Along with his sister, Jocelyn, and cousins' Amy and Jennifer, they'll make up the sixth generation of ice boaters.

"When you're six years old and you're sailing a little ice boat, tearing around and having a lot of fun, you don't feel any obligations," Halsey said. "You feel a desire to get at it."

Although he hasn't raced with any frequency in the last five or six years, the Long Island championship is still on Halsey's radar - forget that he'd likely be the oldest competitor there. If he could log the necessary boat time and seat time, there's no telling what he could still accomplish. He's hoping one day to find out.

Everett Halsey's boat, Penguin (middle), lines up alongside its rivals in 1944.

On this day, Halsey flips through the ice boating annals he's taken pride in assembling over many years. There's a picture of his dad, his brother, his kids, his brother's kids, their kids. He'll run out of room soon. When it comes to ice boating, it's a family affair.

"It goes on and on," Halsey said. That is, when the weather cooperates, of course.