ST. AGATHA, Maine – The ice of the Long Lake melted quickly under a hot spring sun on Saturday, but a determined group of volunteers in northern Maine worked faster to turn a circular piece of ice over 27 acres and turn the World Championship to Reclaim Ice Carousel Record.
Northern Maine Ice Busters last Friday, in just one day, cut a 1,234-foot-diameter disc from the icy lake using chainsaws and one of two inventions made by the St. Maine Ice Busters. Agatha plumber Roger Morneault was designed.
The Ice Buster volunteers used boreholes on Friday to drill 1,280 holes in perfect precision, thanks to voluntary survey efforts by Sackett and Brake Survey Inc.
Today, the group used ice carousel enthusiasts outboard motors and a potato blower motor that Morneault fitted with a 24-inch copper screw to successfully turn the carousel one full revolution, enough to bring the world record title back to Maine.
“It just shows the ingenuity and determination of the people above,” said John Mazo, a volunteer at Ice Buster.
The volunteer group of between 20 and 30 Ice Busters initially planned to cut a smaller disc until a group in Finland threw an ice key into these plans. In February, the Finnish group cut and twisted a monster-sized disk a little over 1,000 feet in diameter.
The Finnish disc set a record of 749 feet set in 2019 by Sunny Twin Memorial Ice Carousel Extravaganza of Little Falls, Minnesota.
The Ice Busters successfully cut a 2018 World Record Ice Carousel on Long Lake in Sinclair in April of that year. The northern Maine championship ice sheet was 427 feet in diameter and weighed 22 million pounds.
The World Ice Carousel Association is watching the events.
Hundreds gathered at the St. Agatha boat landed to witness the latest world record event.
Many spectators were reluctant to step on the melting lake ice and watched from the boat’s landing, where Lakeview Restaurant cooked up burgers and provided musicians AJ and CJ with lively musical entertainment.
Among them was Todd Daigle of Frenchville.
‘I just want to see if it’s a possibility because it’s a world record; “I want them to bring it back home,” Daigle said.
Ice Buster Mike Cyr said the ice in the lake is safe enough to handle the hassle today, but maybe not tomorrow.
“We made it through the hair of our chin-like chin,” Cyr said.
The Ice Busters, along with the Guinness Book of World Records, will add the ice cream carousel to the famous record-keeping organization.
“We’re going to provide the documentation to put it in the book,” Cyr said. “No one will beat it in 2021.”
Kevin Sargent of Sackett and Brake of Dover-Foxcroft said his team did not hesitate to volunteer their surveying service when Morneault reached out to them.
“It’s not every day that you go to see something like that,” Sargent said.