2018-2019 Season Archives
2018-2019 Archives
Saturday Skeeter Session
4LIYC Skeeter sailors Ken Whitehorse, Paul Krueger, and Jim Gluek gathered at the Krueger/Whitehorse Skeeter Shop on Saturday. They brought and measured 8 sails and learned that all were less than 74 square feet. They also spent the day configuring a new Harken cascade pulley system designed by Steve Orlebeke for Ken’s new blue-soon-to-be-red Skeeter. Steve’s design is attracting a lot of interest including some from Daniel Hearn who stopped by to see it being installed. Ken reports that Tom Hyslop will also be changing his pulley system over Steve’s design which uses a combination of Harken block 3238, 3216, and 3215. Iceboat work never stops!
Jim Gluek took some of the photos and sent along this note:
Great day with two legends in our sport. PK and Kenny. Stories of the Skeeter side-car so Kenny could take a crew; two sets of chocks on the plank so you could move the runner in board. One of the most awesome thing about ice boating are the people and the stories over the years.
Steve Orlebeke: At The Front!
4LIYC Skeeter & DN sailor and head of Harken Engineering Steve Orlebeke explains why he’d rather be on ice in the Harken publication, At The Front.
Like a lot of us here in Pewaukee, I’m a lifelong sailor. Maybe less like most of us, my favorite sailing is done where you really hope you never get wet. For the last several years I’ve been working as hard as I can in the Skeeter and DN iceboat classes. I descend from a grand Harken tradition. Get them in the right moment, Peter and Olaf might let slip that they like iceboating best too. Read more.
Waiting with NORA
A splendid picture from Uppsala in Sweden with the famed historic ice yacht NORA and an Ice Optimist as they wait together for the wind to come up.
On the DN Road: Gold Cup & NA Update
A quick update before heading out for the first day of the DN North Americans on Lake Wawasee in Indiana. Yes, we’ve moved 3 hours west from Ohio to better ice. You’ve all probably heard by now that 2019 DN World Champion, Michal Burczinski of Poland, won the regatta in a boat borrowed from 4LIYC member and Spaight St. Syndicate director Daniel Hearn, and not just any boat, Daniel’s best equipment. An incredible testament to true sportsmanship by Daniel when he learned that the Polish boats were delayed in transit and wouldn’t make the regatta in time.
But that’s not the only 4LIYC boat on the line. Jori Lenon loaned her boat to land sailor Renee Fields of Nevada who had never sailed an iceboat prior to this regatta. Renee was the third highest placing female in the Gold Cup. I think we may have another convert. So thank you Jori and Daniel for helping to promote this sport by loaning your boats to competitors. Follow the action at idniyra.org! Off to the lake….
DN World Championship Update
A quick post before I head off to day two of the DN Worlds. Excellent racing yesterday in 3 hugely competitive fleets. Scores, photos, and video over at idniyra.org
4LIYC Goes East to Ohio!
Several members of the 4LIYC including Daniel Hearn, Dave Elsmo and myself will be heading to the 2019 IDNIYRA Gold Cup and North American championship which has been called on for Indian Lake, Ohio. This is going to be a good one to watch – as of this morning, 112 competitors are registered with surely more to register tonight. I’ll try to post updates throughout the week. Safe travels to everyone!
Follow along at idniyra.org.
Runner Tracks Newsletter Scores
The February issue of the DN newsletter, Runner Tracks, has just been published over at the DN class website. Besides some excellent photography, this mid-season issue has a couple of articles that may be of interest to those involved with the race committee end of things. IDNIYRA Commodore Warren Nethercote’s article about the DN tiebreak system also includes information about how Steve and Mary Jane Schalk deal with tiebreaks in other classes. If you want to get a handle on the Bart scoring system, read Loretta Sherry Rehe and Paul Goodwin’s article that explains Bart scoring (also known as Grand Prix scoring, or Indy 500 scoring as I call it. When the checkered flag goes up at the Indy 500, all cars finish no matter what lap they are on.)
Saturday 4LIYC Racing Update
Vice Commodore Tim McCormick checked in to report at 2 PM that some Renegades and Nite gave it a try but determined that the ice on Lake Monona was too rough for racing. With snow in the forecast tomorrow, club racing has been cancelled for the weekend.
Accepted Iceboating Wisdom applies here: A bad day iceboating is better than a good day at work.
4LIYC Racing Called ON for Feb 9-10 @ Monona
Four Lakes Ice Yacht club racing is called on for February 9-10, 2019 on Lake Monona. Use the Olin boat launch.
Saturday’s races are postponed until 1 PM because of the low temperatures that are in the morning’s forecast.
Ice: Tim McCormick and Don Sanford report 6″+ of ice (They couldn’t drill completely through the ice with a 6″ bit). The ice is very hard and there are some 2″ high sloped humps (no vertical faces) completely covered in ice. .
Launch: The launch ramp at Olin is covered in ice. Please use extreme caution if you drive on the ice to drop your trailer. If you drive on, drop your trailer and drive off the ice IMMEDIATELY. Don’t leave your vehicle on the ice more than 5 minutes. This can’t be stressed enough!
Observe all regulations at the launch including the parking lot permit.
Junior Worlds Complete
The 2019 Junior DN and Ice Optimist World Championships are complete. Congratulations to all who competed including the 4LIYC’s Thor Rosten who kept his DN moving in some sticky, light conditions. The European Championship began today and will be completed on Friday.
It’s heartening to see these kids racing iceboats and gives us all hope for the future of this always fragile sport. North Americans may be wondering how the Europeans can field an 80 boat youth regatta on ice. 4LIYC member and North American Junior Secretary Ron Rosten has written about why he thinks the Europeans are miles ahead of North America in youth iceboat sailing. Read his article, “The State of Youth Sailing” in the September 2018 issue of the DN newsletter, Runner Tracks.
Europeans are also leading the way to encourage more women to compete in the sport. One sailor who has benefited from such a strong youth program is Polish DN sailor Zuzanna Rybicka -she has had quite an ice sailing season. Someday we will see her compete in North America. I took the liberty of posting (with a bit of correcting and guessing on the translation) her thoughts from Facebook today:
Yay! Today ended the junior world championship where I took 2th place in the DN fleet and 1st place in the women’s division. 🏆
It’s a great goodbye with age junior, and at the same time successful year greeting with age
This year I got a lot of support from a lot of people and I would like to thank everyone Awesome starts having such great fans like you guys.Summary of my results in season 2018/19:
🥇 1st Women, European championship
🥈 1st. Women, Polish junior championship
🥈 2nd Junior World Championship
🥇 1st Women, Junior World Championship
[In today’s] European Junior Championship, after the first day I am on lead among women and second place in DN. Open. Keep your fingers crossed, tomorrow decisive races 💪
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