Welcome to iceboat.org

The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club is one of the most active iceboat clubs in North America. We’ve been building and racing iceboats for over 100 years in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Ice Is Never 100% Safe.

Our ice reports are strictly for iceboat racers. Recreational iceboaters, kite boarders, cross country skiers, and ice fishermen should not rely on our ice reports. We have safety equipment. Do you?

Buy or Sell Your Iceboat

One of the best pages in North America to buy or sell iceboats and their parts. There’s also a complete list of vendors who will supply iceboats, sails, and their components.

Common Questions:

How can I get started? How fast can they go? How much do they cost? Is it safe?

Regatta Watch

Information about the ISA, NIYA, WSSA, Nite, and DN regattas.

Iceboat Classes

Learn about Skeeters, DNs, Stern Steerers, Renegades, Nites, and Ice Optimists.

The Rules.

The purpose of iceboat racing rules is to prevent collisions.

Ice Yacht Clubs

The best way to learn about iceboating and make life long friendships is to join a local club.

Why We Sail.

“If all our ice were glass, slightly wet, and all our air reasonably steady with lifters just where needed, sailing would be perfect. Sometimes we do find this, and it is worth waiting years to have. Meanwhile we must accept the more ordinary ice conditions, ordinary weather and wind, and gracefully accept snow, sometimes for weeks. Our ideal comes from time to time, the Great Maker gives only so much of the very best.” Charles H. Johnson.

Iceboating for Kids

Ice Optimists were created specifically as a youth trainer, designed to be easily built using commonly available materials, and to keep costs to a minimum.

UPCOMING:
4LIYC Awards Banquet:
Save the date-  April 26, 2025
International Skeeter Association & Renegade Championship: Tentatively called on for March 21 – 23. Next update March 19.
4LIYC Meeting : November 2025
4LIYC Shipstore: Order custom iceboat shirts, hats, and gear. More information.
BURGEE:
 Order your 4LIYC Burgee
Pay Your Dues Online

Sailing Devil’s Lake: A Report from North Dakota

Many of us who have attended the DN Western Challenge in Minnesota have seen the beautiful Yankee iceboat that always turns heads. It belongs to Regan Schwaen, who makes the drive from North Dakota each year. Regan gives rides, welcomes questions, and is clearly someone who takes pride in keeping the boat in top condition.

For years, I’ve wondered about the possibility of sailing on Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Now Regan has done it—and sent in this report:

Regin Schwaen lives in Fargo, North Dakota and sailed his Yankee B-class skeeter for the first time on Devils Lake this weekend. Trailer and iceboat had already been prepared for a visit to Wisconsin and his friend Doug Anderson had just arrived from California, but ice and wind altered the plan. Still bitten by the iceboat bug they used the NDTC webcam installed at the Lakewood public boat landing on northern Devils Lake for a rough estimate regarding ice conditions. Devils Lake in North Dakota is not an easy lake to sail because it is so large, but the ramp was in perfect order, and they found 16” of excellent ice. The first day presented awesome sailing conditions that perhaps would have been acceptable for a regatta. The next day the lake was covered with 3/4 inches of snow making if difficult to evaluate the old ice beyond Creel Bay that spills into Devils Lake. Top speed on the second day was around 35 knots. Regin Schwaen is still quite new to iceboating and this year ISA presented him with the number 171 that he now sails under. This was the first time it was safe to sail on Devils Lake this season and perhaps a first for a Yankee iceboat to sail in North Dakota as well.

Regatta Watch: 2025 Renegade Championship POSTPONED to Dec 2025

Elmer & Cora Lee Millenbach ready for the next regatta. 

Via IRIYRA Secretary Ron Rosten:

The 2025 Renegade Championship has been postponed until December 2025. The Boulder Junction area is expecting to receive snow followed by cold temperatures. Time to plan your summer Renegade projects. Next update: December 2025.

Regatta Watch: Correction on 2025 Renegade Championship


ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION – FAKE NEWS – CLARIFICATION
CLARIFICATION #2: UPDATE:
Upon further consultation with the Renegade board, the 2025 Renegade Championship is postponed until March 28 – 30, 2025. Stay tuned for the next update.

I want to clarify a mistake in the previous post regarding the ISA and Renegade Championship postponement. While the ISA has officially postponed until December 2025, the Renegade class is still keeping their options open for a regatta at Boulder Junction this weekend, March 21-23, 2025.
A final decision will be made tomorrow, Thursday, March 19; and there’s even a possibility of postponing for just a week rather than all the way to December. The regatta site, Trout Lake near Boulder Junction, currently has 28 inches of ice, so conditions are still under consideration.
Stay tuned for updates.

Regatta Watch: ISA Championship Postponed to Dec 2025

Mattison’s ISA fleet: Just six of the many Skeeter iceboats that Bill built. From the Bill & Mauretta Mattison collection.

The ISA Championship Regattas are postponed to December 2025.

The main snow is forecast to miss Trout Lake, but little or no wind on Saturday followed by snow all day on Sunday looks like a single racing day on Friday, and that is if 47 degrees does not soften the ice too much that day. The long term forecast is for temperatures in the 40’s and a normal melt off.

Steve Schalk

Secretary/Treasurer

International Skeeter Association

Save the Date: 4LIYC Awards Banquet

4LIYC Skeeter guys Paul Krueger, Bill Mattison, and Dave Rosten with a pile of hardware. From the Bill & Mauretta Mattison collection.

Mark your calendars! The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Let’s celebrate the incredible season of 2024-2025.

More info to come!

From Here to There—Or There to Here

William Bernard’s YELLOW KID at the 1913 Northwest Ice Yachting Association Regatta in Menominee, Michigan.

While checking out archive.org for new iceboat-related content, I came across a striking February 1926 cover of Ainslee’s Magazine illustrated by Ethel McClellan Plummer. The artwork depicts two elegantly dressed women aboard a stern-steerer, the boat in a bit of a hike—yet they appear completely unfazed. Naturally, they’re improperly dressed for iceboating, and not exactly sailing the boat—but that’s artistic license of illustration.

Plummer was a well-known illustrator during the Golden Age of Magazine Illustration. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1888, she later lived in New Jersey, where she may have seen ice yachts firsthand. Her work for Ainslee’s Magazine connected her to a publication with an incredible stable of writers—W. Somerset Maugham, P.G. Wodehouse, O. Henry, and more. But there’s a deeper iceboating connection hidden within the history of this magazine.

Ainslee’s Magazine began as a humor publication called The Yellow Kid, named after the famous cartoon character in the first-ever comic strip published by Hearst newspapers. This character, created by Richard F. Outcault, appeared in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World before William Randolph Hearst lured Outcault away to publish the strip in his New York Journal paper. This newspaper war led to the rise of sensationalized tabloid reporting, which became known as “yellow journalism”—all because of a comic strip.

Now, the Madison iceboating connection: In the early 1900s, William Bernard, Madison’s well-known ice yacht builder and sailor, owned a stern-steerer named YELLOW KID, no doubt named after that very same cartoon. And let’s not forget Hearst’s own link to ice sailing—he sponsored the Hearst Trophy, one of the most prestigious ice yacht races.

So, from a 1926 magazine cover featuring an iceboat back to a Madison stern-steerer named after the magazine’s original namesake and circling back to Hearst’s own involvement in iceboating, it’s all connected. From here to there—or there to here.

Regatta Watch: 2025 ISA & Renegade Championship Tentatively Called ON for Trout Lake in WI

Steve Schalk sailing a B Skeeter on Lake Kegonsa at the 2023 ISA. Photo: Will Johnston

The 2025 ISA and Renegade Championships are on for Friday March 21st-23rd at Trout Lake Wisconsin, just south of Boulder Junction. The final call will be made by noon on March 19th .

A weather system has just been forecast that may snow out the location, but if we dodge that we will know by noon on Wednesday. Stay tuned. Next update is Wednesday, March 19th.

Steve Schalk

Secretary/Treasurer

International Skeeter Association

Join Us to Celebrate Walter Whitehorse’s 100th Birthday!


The Whitehorse family invites all ice sailors, past and present, to celebrate Walter Whitehorse’s 100th birthday on Friday, March 28, 2025, at the Ho-Chunk Branch Office in Madison, Wisconsin.
Date: Friday, March 28, 2025
Location: Ho-Chunk Branch Office
4724 Tradewinds Parkway, Madison, Wi
Lunch Served: 11:00 AM
Grand Entry Honoring Walter’s Military Service: 12:00 PM
A Grand Entry is a Native American tradition that marks the opening of a gathering with an honor procession and will honor Walter’s WW2 military service. Veterans are encouraged to wear military attire for the event.

Walter and his brother, Harry Whitehorse, were long-time Skeeter sailors in the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. In the late 1960s, they helped build the “Red & White” feet in Madison, spearheaded by Bill Mattison, Dave Rosten, and Paul Krueger. Walter sailed on lakes across the Midwest and beyond, including Lake St. Clair (Detroit), Lake George (New York), Pewaukee, and many others. One of Walter’s fondest memories is the ISA regatta at Pewaukee, where he recalls sailing in a pack of boats arriving at the top mark—20 deep and 10 wide!

Join us to celebrate and honor Walter Whitehorse!

1975 ISA in New York: The usual suspects – Left to Right: Harvey Witte, Gary Sternberg, Susie Whitehorse, Greg, Gary, Barb, Sandy Witte, Ken and Wally.

Christmas in March “From All the Trolls”


Here’s another gem from the Bill and Mauretta Mattison collection: a vintage Harken Vanguard Christmas card starring a Nite iceboat in cartoon glory and a clever poem with a unique ending.

Regatta Watch: 2025 ISA & Renegade Championship Postponed to March 21-23

Very warm temperatures upcoming for next weekend have moved the 2025 ISA & Renegade Championship out a week to March 21-23.  A cool down is forecast starting Sunday the 16 giving a chance for some sailable ice in the vicinity of Boulder Junction, WI for the 21. Next update March 16.

Steve Schalk

Secretary/Treasurer

International Skeeter Association

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Regatta Dates 2025

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Click for 4LIYC Meeting Dates

2024-2025

  • January 2 THURSDAY Honor Roll Nominations
  • January 15 Deadline for By-Law or Racing Rules Amendment Submission
  • January 29
  • February 12 Business Meeting 
  • February 26
  • March 12 Last Meeting of the Season

Location: In person at the Elks Lodge 711 Jenifer St, Madison, WI 53703

Time: 6:30 PM

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Lake Access Permits

A year-round permit required for designated launch sites in the City of Madison and Dane County Parks. Locations include:

    • Lake Mendota Warner Park Mendota County Park
    • Lake Monona Tonyawatha Tr. Olin Park
    • Lake Waubesa Goodland Park

Purchase Lake Access Permit Online.

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