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| HISTORY OF THE FOUR LAKES ICE YACHT CLUB |
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Our four lakes have seen a myriad of ice boat designs throughout the years, from rustic, home-made boats, to high-tech carbon fiber creations worthy of an art museum. In 1878, Harper's Bazaar Magazine recognized Madison's prominence in the sport in an article with a now famous engraving that depicts ice yachts and the scenic isthmus.
The Dutch are the grandfathers of ice boating. They were the first to add cross planks and runners under sail boat hulls for moving cargo over the icy canals of the Netherlands. Dutch settlers of New York's Hudson River Valley brought their custom of ice boating to the New World and ice yachting spread across North America wherever there was ice to be found. Like the Dutch, resourceful Madisonians
took advantage of the frozen lakes to convey men and construction materials
from outlying areas to the city by the means of iceboats. Carl Bernard, a famous
Madison ice boater, recalled in an interview that his father William transported
stone from Governor's Island and Maple Bluff for the rebuilding of the state capitol in the
early part of the twentieth century. Similar to an old fashioned mortar box, the boats
were constructed of three
cornered platforms set upon plow-share steel runners. Two of the runners were bolted
to the wood, the back third corner held the steering rudder. A Class of Boat Named for a City Another style of boat developed that came to be called the Madison Style. These were a smaller versions of the Hudson River style with a triangular box for it's body, a gaff-rigged cornered 350 square foot sail with jib, and the tiller aft. Ice boaters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; Menominee, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Gull Lake, Michigan also developed their own style of stern steerer. In 1874 German immigrant Charles Bernard Sr., who'd been building ice boats in Madison since the 1850s, established a boat works in the 600 block of East Gorham on Lake Mendota. By the 1930's their business and the popularity of iceboating had grown to the point that they kept a fleet of ice boats available for rental. Charles' son William Bernard developed the Madison style stern steerer. William built many championship ice yachts including the famous Princess boats for Emil Fauerbach, winner of the Hearst and Stuart International Trophies. William's son Carl carried on the family tradition of ice yachting. In addition to building boats, he skippered two renowned Madison stern steerers of the Hudson River style, the Fritz and the Mary B through the 1950s. The last Madison Style stern steerer constructed was Miss Madison in 1927. She can still be seen on Lake Monona skipped by Richard Litchfeld, who has kept her in period condition. Legendary Madison skipper, Jack Ripp, remembers,"....those Madison Styles were the worst! Big, long bow sprit out front, you know, and a short back end, just asking for a spin." Jack recalls that the first boat he ever bought, a Madison Style for fifteen dollars "every time you hiked, you could bet fifty dollars on it, soon as that runner came down on the ice, you were going to spin. I don't care what you did, around you go..... Out you went! But it was fun."
Reprints of ice boat races were a common feature in the Madison newspapers through the 1960s. Both the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Times regularly featured stories about skippers, personalities, boats, on-ice incidents, lap-by-lap race coverage, and even club meetings. In 1896,the Wisconsin State Journal put up the 'State Journal Cup' which was awarded to the winner of a series of races between Madison and Monona boats. The cup, valued at twenty-five dollars (five hundred today), was a gold-lined solid silver trophy. Proudly displayed in the window of Nelson's jewelry store on Madison's square, the trophy was engraved 'Presented by the State Journal to the Ice Yachting Club, Madison, WI, 1896'. William Bernard considered it the most prestigious trophy that he had ever won in his ice boat racing career. Serious coverage of ice boating hasn't been seen on the sports pages since the 1960's. However, the most important aspects of the sport, including technical development, the search for speed, inter and in club rivalry, sportsmanship, and competition remain the same. One wonders if those skippers of the 19th Century hundred year ever imagined that their ice boat club would still be in existence at the dawn of the 21st Century. In 1913, Madison ice boaters
joined representatives of the other major ice yacht clubs and formed the
Northwest Ice Yacht Association for the purpose of sanctioning an annual
regatta. The Northwest Regatta remains an important ice boat regatta to this
day. In 1914,Emil Fauerbach became the first Madison ice boater to win the A
stern steerer Northwest title. During the next 90 years, other Madison skippers
have taken home honors of the Northwest. In 2004, Bob Kau joined that
elite list by winning the Skeeter Class competition.
The local newspapers continued to
prominently feature the sport. Some reporters were more poetic than others. Wisconsin State
Journal sports editor, Henry J. McCormick, when writing about the 1954 Hearst
Trophy Challenge said ".......Searching out the wind like a ferret and
hoarding it like a miser, Carl Bernard brought the Mary B. home eight minutes
inside of the deadline.......The Fritz handled the light wind and the troublesome ice the way Fred
Astaire handles a slippery dance floor........Owner OT Havey's Mary B In the 1920s and 30s,about one hundred boats would participate in Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club's races. Oddly enough, Madison's electric and gas power plant had much to do with the consistently excellent sailing conditions on Lake Monona. When other area lakes would have too much snow for ice boating, the soot from coal burned at the power plant coupled with the prevailing winds kept Lake Monona's ice snow-free. The only drawback was, as Jack Ripp recalled, that the coal cinders were "hell on runners". A skipper had to sharpen runners more often when sailing on Lake Monona. According to Ripp, the majority of
the boats were
home-made stern steerers and there were only about four or five front
steerers. In the coming years, the front steerers would come to
dominate. Dawn of the Skeeters The "Big Boats" ruled Madison's frozen lakes up until the late 1940's when the Skeeter Class began to rule. The Skeeter, so named because its' 75 square foot sail looked like a mosquito compared to the sails of a Madison Style Big Boat, has its roots in a boat developed by Milwaukee's Starke Meyer in 1930. Unlike a stern steerer, the Skeeter steering runner is at the forward end of the hull, the enclosed hull is long and narrow, the sail is triangular shaped. The cockpit is over the runner plank. Sitka spruce was the wood of choice for a Skeeter's fuselage, runner plank, and mast. Skeeters had many advantages over the old stern steerers and Madison ice yachters enthusiastically took up the class. Skeeters could be inexpensively (at least in those days!) built in ones' basement or garage. Skeeters were easily transported to the ice via a trailer or car rooftop. The set-up/tear-down process was a breeze compared to the hours and man power needed to properly set up a stern steerer. Probably the biggest attraction that the Skeeter had to a budding sailor was the fact that it was a one-skipper boat whereas the big boats were staffed with a skipper and at least two or three crewmen. Another draw that the Skeeter class still has today is that it
has few design specifications other than
a seventy five square foot sail area. Skeeters are the speed demons of the ice
boat world, capable of reaching speeds well over one hundred miles an
hour. In the 1950's a group of young Madison
men, many of them still teenagers, began designing and building E
Skeeters. The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club's most legendary Skeeter class designers,
builders, and pilots Jack Ripp, Bill Mattison, Paul Krueger, and Dave
Rosten would go on to win dozens of championships in the highly competitive world of
the "Formula One" of ice boating.
Part II: Home of the
Champions
4LIYC Skippers Sweep to Regatta Victories By the mid-sixties the 4LIYC had firmly
established itself as "The Home of the Champions". Joining Jack Ripp While the obvious expansion fleet of the 4LIYC at that time was the Skeeter fleet the club continued to be well represented in other classes as well. Jim Payton dominated the competition in the famous A Boat, the Mary B whenever the few survivors of that class got together for racing action. And in the smaller sized Class C stern steerers. Madison's Bill McCormick won several regatta championships sailing what Bill would proudly proclaim was "the fastest C boat in the world", the Twin Beds. During the late sixties and into the early seventies, new Class E Skeeters were being built with near production line efficiency in the basements and garages of Mattison, Krueger, and Rosten. Although a few of these well turned out boats were going to skippers outside the 4LIYC area, most were custom built for new owners within our club. It was not unusual for up to sixteen fast competitive Skeeters, with 'M's on their sails, to line up for our club races. The local competition was fierce as our club races had an almost regatta like feel to them. This, of course, helped 4LIYC skippers gain a noticeable edge when competing in national regattas. Soon other club members were chasing down regatta glories.
Over the years the talented skippers of the
4LIYC would post regatta titles in many different classes of iceboats. But
interestingly, no club member would ever notch a DN class regatta championship.
Despite the fact that the DN has been raced in our club since the fifties.
In the late sixties and early seventies a few club members would come close.
Jack Loew, Ed Elaranta, and Bob Gilson all ran well in several regattas, but
they couldn't quite bring home the regatta title. It seemed that in the 4LIYC,
sailing and racing a DN was almost always the means to an end for most of those
skippers. A few years behind the tiller of a DN, and then switch to another
class of boat was a continuum to the norm. In the seventies most of the active 4LIYC Skeeter,
Renegade, and Nite pilots could
look back on their beginnings in the DN fleet.
In 1973 the club lost one of its most celebrated members. Dave Rosten, died at the age of 36. Rosten's record included three ISA World Skeeter championships and two Northwestern Skeeter titles. He had also been a member of four successful Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America teams, when he tragically lost his life in a snowmobile accident. Given that ice yachting is a sport that rewards experience over youth, surely many more regatta championships would have come his way.
Ice boaters in general have always been a breed apart from 'normal' people. To wish for cold, windy weather, to anxiously wait for the passing of spring, summer, and fall in anticipation of those late fall nights when it was finally cold enough to make ice was strange enough. But even amongst ice boaters the stem-steerer guys were looked upon with wonder and curiosity. Most of the big A Boats, and many of the only slightly smaller B Boats, took a hard working crew the better part of a day just to set up. These crews were always the first to be on the ice in the bitterly cold mornings, as well as the last off the ice in the late afternoon when the already cold temperatures were beginning to plummet. Some of the A Boats were too large to trailer to the lakes and had to be shipped via railway flat cars. Most other A's and B's needed extra large trailers that required special permits in order to legally travel our nations highways. With the advent of the smaller, more efficient, and less expensive bow-steering boats, the gradual decline of the stem-steerers began. The Appearance of the Rear Seater Skeeter
Not only did the skipper not have to duck under the boom on each jibe or tack; he also enjoyed a much larger field of vision. The new design also allowed the gap between the boom and deck to be closed. In other words, when fully trimmed, the boom was now pulled down to meet the deck This greatly enhanced the performance of the already potent Class E Skeeter iceboat. Krueger's new design dominated the competition for the next few years. He won win two ISA World Championships, in 1976 and 1979, along with a Northwestern Regatta title in 1979. The dominance of Krueger's Rambl'n forced others to change to a rear seat design in order to keep up. With Krueger's and Bill Mattison's help, most of the 4LIYC Skeeter fleet was converted to the new design. Outside the 4LIYC area some Skeeter sailors were not real happy about having to make yet another change in their yachts, even though no parts off the old boats were made obsolete with Krueger's new design. The hull was fairly easily converted to rear seat dimensions, and the existing boom only needed to be made a little wider. Soon all serious contenders in the Skeeter fleet were sailing rear seaters. In 1977 Ken Whitehorse sailed a Krueger reconfigured Skeeter to a Northwestern Championship, becoming yet another 4LIYC member to win a major regatta.
Bill Mattison was always a firm believer in ice
yacht evolution, not revolution. He stayed away from radical changes from year
to year and focused instead on making a continued series of small improvements.
He also believed in what he called "building for the average". While
some yachts were built for optimum performance in high winds, and others made
for for light
Renegade Renaissance and the Rise of the Nites Meanwhile, the 4LIYC Renegade fleet was
starting to enjoy a renaissance during the sixties and seventies. In 1976, at a
ISA/IRIYA (International Renegade Ice Yacht Association) By the mid-eighties Skeeter competition from around the country was as tight as ever. The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America, a trophy originally put up by the Roosevelt Family, of Hyde Park New York, was in the possession of the Skeeter Ice Boat Club, of Williams Bay Wisconsin. The 4LIYC had last been in possession of it in 1970, when it was lost to the challenging yachts from the Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club. In 1986 the Skeeter Ice Boat Club again put the coveted pennant up for challenge. In a stunning upset, Four Lake's A.J. Whitehorse, sailing his sleek, needle-nosed Skeeter, Eagle I, dominated the competition to bring the Pennant back to Madison. Bill Mattison was teamed with A.J. that year, it was Mattison's sixth successful Challenge Pennant effort. (For the full story on the 1986 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant go to the Fall 1999 Blade Runner.) In 1987 Jack Ripp would finally end a twenty year drought in regatta competition, (although he had been very close to winning on several occasions during that span), when he captured the IRIYA Renegade Championship. Ripp would go on to post Northwestern titles in 1988,1989,1992, and 1998. He would add on to his IRIYA regatta totals with victories in 1988,1991, and 1996. By the mid nineties the, 4LIYC Renegade fleet would number in the twenties with many club boats becoming contenders at the national regattas.
In 1988, the 4LIYC added yet another name to
its already impressive list of Class E Skeeter ISA world Although no 'Big Boat' racing, outside of a regatta setting, had been seen in the Four Lakes area since the late seventies, there were still a couple of regatta titles that fell to 4LIYC yachts. In 1990 Dave Nelson, sailing his Class B boat, Long Tall Sally, was the co champion at the Northwestern Regatta, and in 1995 Peter McCormick sailed the old Twin Beds to yet another Class C regatta title, its first in nearly twenty years.
Just as the growth fleet of the 4LIYC in the
sixties and seventies was the Class E Skeeter and in the eighties Entering the New Millennium The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club enters the new millennium as the premier ice yacht club in the country. Our club members are, as always, a force to be reckoned with at the national regattas in nearly any class of iceboat. Locally, we conduct out club races in a professional manner, always with properly set marks, starting blocks, a Chief Judge, and a scorer. We continue to ran races for four different classes of ice yachts, Skeeters, Renegades, Nites, and DN's, during our club racing schedule.
In 1999 the 4LIYC established a website, www.iceboat.org. Our club's webmaster, Debbie Whitehorse, has turned into what is possibly the world's finest iceboating website. Late breaking news, ice reports, race and regatta results, ice boat links, photo and art galleries and much more are now only a mouse click away. In addition to the website, the 4LIYC publishes a newsletter, The Blade Runner, three times a year and maintains a ice boating Hot-Line during the sailing season. The 4LIYC holds meetings every other week from about mid-November until late March. These meetings include an election of officers at the second meeting of the year and a business meeting in February. All 4LIYC meetings are open to the public, and anyone with an interest in iceboating is welcome to join. The 4LIYC can boast of its largest membership in its long history during the 1999-2000 season. Every spring the club holds its annual awards banquet, where more than thirty perpetual trophies are awarded to our club champions, top season finishers, and special race winners. Many of these beautiful trophies have a rich history, dating back to the late 1940's. The history of the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club
is an ongoing story. Be sure to check back here for the latest updates. Better
yet, become an active 4LIYC skipper and become part of it.
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was as
pretty as a girl in her first formal, and skipper Carl Bernard sailed her with
the calm assurance of a fellow who knew he had the best date at the
party......." 
In
1955 Madison's Jack Ripp, a member of the 4LIYC since the mid-forties, put his
accumulated knowledge of iceboat design and construction into a brand new Class
E Skeeter, Miss Fortune III. The beautifully constructed, red with white
trim craft, was not a radical departure from the fast Skeeters of its day,
rather it was the natural evolution of the design. New sail materials were
becoming available and Ripp rightfully figured that these new generation sails
could be made taller than those of the past. Miss Fortune's twenty-three
foot spar was nearly a foot taller than the other rigs on the lake. As
mentioned, the new boat proved to be fast and Jack Ripp was able to capture the
1957 Northwestern Regatta Skeeter class championship, which was sailed that year
on Lake Monona. Ripp, now a many-time Renegade class champion, began the
Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Skeeter class winning tradition when he won his first
Northwest Ice Yacht Association Class E Skeeter title in 1957.
and Bill Mattison on the cutting edge of Skeeter design and racing were club
members Dave Rosten and Paul Krueger. Like true champions these leading
designers and builders shared the knowledge they gained with others that were
looking to join the club's Skeeter fleet. Regattas with nearly fifty Class E
Skeeters entered were the norm through-out the sixties, and a large number of
those boats were built by Bill Mattison, Dave Rosten, Paul Krueger, and Jack
Ripp.
In 1967
Jack Ripp switched from the wide-open
Skeeter fleet to the one-design Renegade class. It was an unusual move in
light of the fact that he was at the pinnacle of the Skeeter fleet at that time,
and that there were virtually no active Renegades in the Four Lakes area. But
Ripp saw the writing on the wall early. The no holds barred Skeeters were
becoming increasingly expensive if one wished to remain competitive. Changes
needed to be made every year in order to stay on top.
By the early seventies with the popularity of the
Skeeter, the increased interest in the Renegade class, and the
introduction of the Nite iceboat, came the eventual decline of the 'Big Boats'.
The large, Marconi rigged stern-steerers, which at one time numbered in the hundreds
on the Madison area lakes, were now down to just three competitive Class C
boats. Continuing to campaign the traditional stern-steerers were 1961
Northwestern C Boat Champ, Dave Butler, sailing the Ace of Spades, Mike
McCormick piloting Pieces of Eight, and seven time (1966, 1967,
1969, 1973-1976) Northwestern Champion, Bill McCormick sailing Twin Beds.
When Butler retired from the sport in the early seventies, it left only the
McCormick brothers to carry on the century old tradition of racing
stern-steering ice yachts in the Four Lakes area.
In 1975,
Madison skipper Paul Krueger was involved in a serious
iceboating accident while competing in a Northwestern Regatta on Lake Winnebago.
Krueger thought that part of the cause of the accident was the limited vision
one had while sitting under the boom when sailing a Skeeter. With that in mind he
designed and built the first rear-seater Skeeter for the 1976 sailing
season. 
Throughout the sixties and seventies, Bill
Mattison continued to win regatta after regatta . A succession of Skeeter
iceboats named 'Honeybucket', each one faster than the previous, brought
Mattison ISA World Championships in 1962,1963, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, and
1977, along with a Northwestern Regatta win in 1969. He was also a member of
five successful Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America teams during this
period. 
air, Mattison built his Honeybuckets to perform well in a wide
variety of conditions. Mattison seldom finished a regatta race so far down that one race could cost him the regatta title. Despite
building for the average, Mattison's boats were very capable of winning races in
nearly all conditions. At the end of a three day regatta Bill Mattison would
often find himself at the top of the over-all standings.
He would go on to post several more regatta wins in the eighties and nineties.
Regatta on Lake Mendota
, Jerry Simon and his yacht Simonized II captured the first
championship for a 4LIYC Renegade skipper. It looked as though Simon's victory
was what the club needed to establish itself as power in Renegade racing. But
the competition was extremely tough and it would take several more seasons for a
4LIYC yacht to notch another regatta title. In 1984 a remarkable thing 
happened
at the Northwest ice yacht regatta. For the first time since the Renegades
sailed as a separate class in 1958 ( they sailed as Skeeters before that),
someone other than Detroit, Michigan's Elmer Millenbach won the championship.
Jerry Simon was able to end Elmer's twenty-six year stranglehold on the
Northwest title. By this time 4LIYC Renegade ice yachts were becoming a true
force to be reckoned with at any regatta.
Two second generation ice-boaters would be the
next stars in the 4LIYC Renegade fleet. Tim McCormick and Greg Simon joined Jack
Ripp and Jerry Simon as the boats to beat in local club racing. In 1990 Tim
McCormick became the somewhat surprise winner of the Northwestern Renegade
championship. But in proving that it was not a one-shot deal, Tim went on to
sail for regatta crowns in at the Northwest in 1993,1994, and 1996. He added a
IRIYA championship in 1999. Greg Simon came
through with a win in the 1998 IRIYA
championship regatta held on Trout Lake in Northern Wisconsin. As the 4LIYC
enters the new millennium several other club Renegade skippers are starting to
close in on their first regatta Championships.
champions, Ken Kreider. Sailing his shocking pink
yacht, POON, Kreider sailed to victory at a regatta
held on Lake Mendota. Six years later, in 1994, at a Northwestern Regatta held
on Lake Winnebago at Oshkosh, Kreider again emerged victorious after a exciting
three days of racing in high winds and on very rough ice.
When the 1992 DN North American Championships
were held on Madison's Lake Mendota, 4LIYC DNer Mike Fullerton won the Bronze
Fleet Championship. It finally looked as though the club was going to turn the
coiner in DN competition. Madison DN skippers were building new spars and
runners, new high-tech sails were being ordered every year, the club's DN fleet
was beginning to look as modem as anyone's. But when some of these skippers
moved from the Madison area, and others followed the old tradition of using the
DN as a stepping stone to other classes, the club DN fleet was again suffering.
was the
Renegade, as we approached the new millennium, it appeared that the Nites were our club's fastest growing fleet. Many new members were attracted
to the one-design, two-seater yacht, and before the turn of the century it was
not uncommon to see up to a dozen Nites on the starting line for our club races.
It has not taken long for 4LIYC Nite sailors to contend at national Nite
regattas, indeed, it appears that regatta victories are within reach at any time
in the future.
Our on-ice equipment includes a four wheel,
All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), set up with an accurate anemometer, digital
thermometer, and wind vane. It is also outfitted with a VHF radio communications
system. On the ice safety equipment includes an evacuation sled, medical
supplies and thermo blankets, along with rope and fife buoys. We carry all this
equipment to our club races and local regattas in a new trailer which can also
serve as a scoring booth.
Glen
