Minnesota ice
Here’s another Iceboat Swap Meet for your calendar. Here’s your chance to get into the sport if you are in the Minneapolis area.
MINNESOTA SWAP MEET
Hosted by Tim Carlson at Sailcrafters Loft and Rigging.
Date: Saturday, November 4.
Time: 9 AM – Noon CT
Location: 7450 Oxford Street
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
Mike’s hometown, Menominee Michigan, shares the good news.
Renegader Mike Derusha is no stranger to the winter podium, having won numerous Renegade Championships, but one championship has eluded him until now. Congratulations to Renegader Mike Derusha for winning the 2023 Ensign Nationals. Results.
Mike Derusha pushes off at the start of the race at the 2022 ISA on Lake Monona.
Ron Sherry inspects the Class A Skeeter LOST KAUS at last year’s swap meet at the Delavan Yacht Club in Delavan, WI.
Date: Sunday, October 22, 2023
Time: 9 AM – Noon
Location: Town Square, Green Lake, WI
Our Green Lake Ice Yacht Club friends are preparing for their turn at the yearly iceboat swap meet. This event was initially established by Bob and Jane Pegel of the Skeeter Iceboat Club and was held in Williams Bay, WI for many years. Nowadays, the swap meet rotates between the Skeeter Iceboat Club, Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club, and Green Lake Ice Yacht Club.
Stay tuned for more details!
MISS MADISON Archives
In the early 19th century, the first American ice yacht designers tested their ideas near Poughkeepsie, New York, giving rise to the Hudson River style of Stern-Steerer iceboat. Eighty years later, William Bernard, owner of a boat livery on Gorham Street on Lake Mendota refined the Hudson River design and named it after the city where he had grown up.
Many Madison-style iceboats came out of the Bernard Boathouse, winning prestigious ice yachting titles such as the Hearst, Stuart, and Northwest. Eventually, the Hudson River style became more popular, and William and his son, Carl, built the last Madison-style iceboat in 1927, naming her MISS MADISON. MISS MADISON actively raced with the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. She also competed in the Northwest Regatta and for a famed trophy donated by newspaperman Randolph Hearst. Newspaper accounts and captions from the Bernard scrapbooks mention her skippers as Carl Bernard, Herb Teztlaff, and William Van Keulen. Carl Bernard stated that MISS MADISON “was the best hull ever built” in an interview on tape in the Wisconsin Historical Society archives.
The Bleck family of Monona, WI, bought her sometime between 1940 and the 1980s. Mari Ann Lichtfeld purchased her from the Blecks to surprise her husband, Richard Lichtfeld. Lichtfeld strived to keep her in period condition, which is unusual because most iceboat owners refashion vintage crafts with modern hardware. Lichtfeld and his kids would play hooky from work and school to take advantage of a perfect ice-sailing day on Lake Monona.
MISS MADISON is one of the best-preserved Madison- style ice yachts in existence, thanks to the efforts of her late owner, Richard Lichtfeld.
Mari Ann Lichtfeld donated MISS MADISON to the Iceboat Foundation this week. She’s now safely stored indoors, like she was at the Lichtfeld shop, with MARY B. Thanks to the Lichtfeld family for donating this piece of history.
On her way to join the MARY B.
Dick Lichtfeld left detailed instructions and photos showing how to rig this vintage boat.
Bill Mattison Archives
Jack Ripp Archives
Two highly respected Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club members, Bill Mattison and Jack Ripp, defined our club motto as “Home of the Champions.” They not only shared a passion for building and sailing iceboats, they were born six days apart in August 95 years ago. (Bill beat Jack in that race!)
Be it resolved that August 11-17 is an official holiday to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of Bill Mattison and Jack Ripp during their birthday week.
Jack, Bill, and Paul Krueger are seen here with buckets of Gougeon epoxy to build a new hull for the world’s largest iceboat, the DEUCE, back in 2005. Note Bill’s shirt from the 1992 America’s Cup victory, where he helped make the boat go faster.
Read about “A New Hull for the DEUCE” here.
National Iceboat Authority Web Page
Location: In person at the Elks Lodge 711 Jenifer St, Madison, WI 53703
Time: 6:30 PM
YOU ARE SKIPPER NUMBER
TO ROUND THE MARK SINCE NOVEMBER 1999.
