As a youth, FDR participated in a variety of sports. During the winter months he skated and sledded at Springwood. He also pursued a daring, high-speed sport on the Hudson River—ice boating.

Ice boating involves catamaran-like sailing vessels that race across frozen rivers or lakes at speeds that can exceed 80 miles an hour. A popular winter sport on the Hudson during Roosevelt’s youth, it is still pursued by enthusiasts today.

Franklin’s mother gave him his own ice boat, the Hawk, while he was a student at Harvard College. He enjoyed the excitement of ice boating and was an officer of the Hyde Park Ice Boat Club. Later, he included ice boating materials among the items he preserved in his Library

More photos avaliable through the New York Heritage Digital Collections.

"The Fastest Vehicles on Earth": Hudson River Ice Yachts

Robert Wills of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust he discusses the little-known history of ice yachting on the Hudson River -- from a utilitarian 17th century Dutch tradition, to the Hudson Valley Roosevelts and the storied races of the late 1800s, to the present day. Three historic ice yachts, once "the fastest vehicles on earth," were displayed in the Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home in 2023/24.