Cape Cod Style Sauna
After barreling down winding New England roads with precious cargo in tow, we arrived safely at our client’s seaside property. About an hour later the sauna was fired up! Their backyard was as flat as could be, which made for an easy delivery for their new electric mobile sauna. The longest part of setup was loading the rocks carefully into the Harvia Cilindro.
The family loves the sauna and look forward to the year-round cold plunges into the ocean!
With any sauna heater, read through the manual (not just about how to load the rocks!). The sauna should have an air intake under the heater, as per manufacturer’s instructions, and a gap under the door so the sauna gets a healthy exchange of fresh air. Learn how to build electric saunas the right way and review this post on venting your electric sauna.
UKTS Summer Camp: A Visit
Saturday Sauna—a tradition going back almost 100 years.
Recently, on our return trip after delivering one of our mobile saunas to the area south of Boston, we visited the old sauna camp at UKTS in Pembroke, MA. UKTS is the Uljas Koitto (“Brave Dawn”) Temperance Society, founded in 1890 in Quincy, Mass. The sauna and camp on Furnace Pond was started in 1926. The Temperance Movement was popular at that time in the US and elsewhere and eventually led to Prohibition. It is refreshing to know that temperance is still practiced in many places, including UKTS. As it was then, sauna is still the perfect antidote to modern life’s excesses.
Fourth and fifth generations were eager to share the history and had many lovely stories while we were there. Scarlet and I were both welcome and known of, people asked a lot about our sauna projects. The recognition was nice, but I’m sure they would extend the same warmth to anyone. “All are welcome to come” via invitation. Read Full Blog Post >
FINGER LAKE FINNS EVENT
Eero Kilpi Lecture: “Sauna Lost in Translation: Restoring Finnishness to a Global Tradition”
After all these years, Rob finally met Eero in person! Eero Kilpi is President of NASS and Finlandia Foundation New York and is on The Upper Bench podcast. Kilpi came to the Ithaca area recently and presented his lecture. There was a large display of our local sauna history with photos courtesy of the DeWitt Historical Society via Michael Ludgate. Much of which is part of The Sauna in Central New York, a book by Melissa Ladenheim, including a history of the Podunk sauna in Trumansburg, NY.
Sadly, it was a short visit without any sauna time with Eero. However, we had the pleasure of meeting Soile, Eero’s wife, and enjoyed the Finnish-style lunch provided by members of Finger Lakes Finns.
The community flocked around Rob and Eero—enthusiastic to talk about their personal saunas. Many sought advice on fixing that old sauna in the woods.
Photo by Michael Ludgate.
“HEATWAVE” is her name.
It’s been about three years since the beginning of this unique design/build project. We are happy to say that the sauna boat HEATWAVE is now safely docked at its home on Cayuga Lake. During this summer, we were able to make some finishing touches on deck edging and benches on the bow and tweaked the heater so it gets HOTTER. A good sweat is one thing we can guarantee.
We can’t wait to take her out with the family at sundown and cool off on that top deck.
It’s been a good summer. We have been super busy in the shop with several projects underway, and we’re getting ready for hosting the fall ’25 sauna building class. We haven’t planned the spring ’26 class yet but are thinking about a specific class for designer/builder/architect professionals. Stay tuned.
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WISHING YOU OUR BEST
THIS SAUNA SEASON,
Rob and Scarlet
This is a newsletter from the shop of
Rob Licht Custom Saunas located in Ithaca, NY
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