LIMESTONE, Maine — The former Loring Air Force Base, with its wide open spaces and two 12,000-foot runways, has become an increasingly popular spot for land sailing, a sport in which drivers use the power of the wind to travel at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.
Loring has hosted an annual land sailing regatta since 2020, originally spearheaded by the Maine-based Chickawauki Ice Boat Club.
Loring Land Sailing Adventures, a group established just last year, has led the events since 2025, said Jonathan Judkins, president and CEO of the Loring Development Authority. The group is hosting the regatta from its new home in the former DC hangar, a remnant of the former air base which had previously been shuttered for 35 years.
Bob “BB” Hredocik, who moved up to northern Maine two years ago from Cape Cod specifically because of the land sailing opportunities at Loring, leads the organization. The former base provides them with a much better area to drive blokarts — specialized vehicles powered not by engines, but massive sails.
“There wasn’t much real estate to sail on,” Hredocik said of Cape Cod. “We were getting thrown out of parking lots and off of beaches. So we came up here and found miles and miles of runways, and we started having these regattas.”
A regatta generally refers to sailboats, but it also applies to land sail vehicles.
“Two years later, I moved here,” Hredocik said. “I bought a house right on the base.”
He also sells blokarts through his business. The vehicles all have a similar design, but some are made out of repurposed ice boats with wheels, he said.
“They’re the ones that discovered this place,” he said. “So the iceboaters with wheels invited us blokarters up, and we’ve been coming since the spring of 2020.”
The event, which started on Monday and ends on Sunday, has drawn participants from Maine, New England and beyond. There are other spots in the country where people participate in land sailing, like deserts and dried lake beds, but Hredocik prefers Loring.
“This is the best spot as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Jim Turner comes from Trenton to participate. He has been sailing here since the start, and said the event is held twice a year, once in the fall and once again in the spring.
“We’ve had some speed trials and people broke 60 miles per hour,” he said. “We haven’t done those for a while, but routinely you’ll get in the 50s on the bigger boats. The blokarts don’t ordinarily go that fast because they’re so compact.”
Jim and Joe Gervolino, brothers from New Jersey, have been traveling up to the former base to go land sailing for several years. They both operate ice boats in New Jersey and enjoy land sailing in the off season.
Jim Gervolino piloted a custom-built ice boat with wheels. While his brother travels to the event in one day, he likes to travel over several days, he said.
“Me and my wife like to do about four days,” he said. “We see the sights and see America.”
Joe Gervolino said the trip is pretty long, and with Loring at the top of Maine they still have quite a bit of driving once they enter the state.
“From our place in New Jersey, just to get to Maine is half the ride,” he said.
The LDA is pleased to host the land sailors, Judkins said.
“We’re excited to have this group of people with us,” Judkins said. “We’re extremely happy to promote their activities and their events, and we wish them a great period of sailing.”
The land sailing activities typically bring in people from out of state, which Judkins said has a positive impact on the greater economy.
“Loring is just happy that we get to facilitate people doing what they love,” Judkins said.
