PORTLAND, Maine – A snowmobile operator who encountered open water while racing across a partially frozen lake saved himself from drowning by accelerating fast enough to glide over the waves for at least a mile.
Gary Huntley said he had never ridden a snowmobile over water – a dangerous practice known as “skimming” – but had heard it was possible.
So when the ice on one of Maine’s largest lakes abruptly ended during a ride Saturday, Huntley and a companion made a split-second decision to accelerate onto the water.
“I just thought to myself that as long as the sled is moving and I’m sitting on it, I’ll be able to breathe and live,” he said. “If I end up in the water, I don’t have a chance.”
It’s widely known that snowmobiles can stay afloat for short distances on open water. The trick, riders say, is to maintain speed so that the belt driving the snowmobile becomes something of a paddle wheel. Let off the throttle, riders say, and the snowmobile will sink.
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