Pegel Slide Collection: 1970 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant

by | Apr 26, 2018 | 2017-2018, Bob & Jane Pegel Slides, Home Page

4LIYC’s Dave Rosten and Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club’s Art Jark on Lake Mendota in Class A Skeeters c. 1970. NANCY E III was formerly one of Bill Mattison’s HONEYBUCKET Skeeters. 

These slides date from around the time of the 1970 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant. The 4LIYC had won ice yachting’s most prestigious title for 6 straight years but the 1970 challenge was a different story. Read Greg Whitehorse’s account of the 1970 IYCP below the fold.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage

3 15 1970ct
NANCY E III - Class A Skeeter iceboat
Art Jark sailing NANCY E III Class A Skeeter iceboat on Lake Mendota c.1970. Art purchased one of the HONEYBUCKET Skeeters from Bill Mattison.
NANCY E III - Class A Skeeter iceboat
Bill Mattison Skeeter Honeybucket
Bill Mattison sails HONEYBUCKET on Lake Mendota c. 1970

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Excerpt from the BLADE RUNNER NEWSLETTER

HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES: THUNDER JET

The Greatest Name Ever Hung on an Ice Boat

Winter 2001, Volume 6, No. 2

By Greg Whitehorse

“One of Bill Perrigo’s last great ice yachting triumphs came in the Challenge Pennant races sailed on Lake Mendota in March of 1970.

The 4LIYC had won the Pennant in 1964, and successfully defended it for the next five years. Indeed, few thought that the Pennant races of 1970 would produce anything other than a 7th straight 4LIYC victory.

But the Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club had different ideas.

In their bid to wrestle the Pennant away from the 4LIYC, Pewaukee decided to send Art Jark’s lightening fast, ex-Bill Mattison Honeybucket, now named the Nancy E III, to Madison as one of it’s challenging yachts.

And Art Jark promptly tapped Bill Perrigo to steer it.

The Pennant title came down to the last race of the series that year. 4LIYC’s Dave Rosten, expertly piloting his Skeeter, Pirate, appeared to be headed for victory. But as the long, ten lap, twenty mile race wound down the wind began to pick up. The light snow that had fallen on and off throughout the day began to be blown around at the ice surface.

Soon the swirling snow built to almost surreal white-out conditions. All you could see of the boats racing around the course were the top four or five feet of the mast and sail. Finding the marks in these unbelievably dangerous conditions was next to impossible. On the last lap of the race Rosten could not find the top mark.

Somehow, Perrigo did.

A few minutes later the race scorers and other on-lookers were shocked to see Jark’s V-69, with Bill Perrigo at the helm, streaking toward the finish line.

The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America went to Pewaukee.

Yeah… under the toughest of conditions Bill Perrigo proved how tough he was.

And damn good too”

By Greg Whitehorse

Iceboaters Skills at Land Sailing – 1984 and 2018

by | Apr 24, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page

4LIYC Renegader Jim Nordhaus, Bill Petsch of New Zealand, and Hobie Alter competing at the 2018 Blokart North Americans at Ivanpah. Photo: Gary Terrell

4LIYC Skeeter sailor Gary Whitehorse sails his converted iceboat on the Ivanpah dry lake near Las Vegas in 1984.

Ice sailors have been making the spring pilgrimage to the “cathedral of land sailing”, the playa at Ivanpah, for several decades. Pewaukee Skeeter skipper Bill Dale has been at it the longest, sailing in NALSA events for 40 years. 4LIYC members Jim Nordhaus, Geoff Sobering, Scott Geotz, Kyle Metzloff, and Wayne Schmeidlin have been competing in Blokart regattas there for the past several years.
At this year’s Blokart North Americans, Jim Nordhaus’ iceboating skills helped to take him to second place overall in Performance (think Gold fleet) and first in his fiercely competitive division. A Blokart speed record of  77.7 mph was set by Scott Young and Dave Lussier on the last day of competition. Read more about that on Scuttlebutt.
Gary Whitehorse recently shared photos and memories on Facebook of the time he sailed his iceboat ENTERPRISE at Ivanpah.

Gary Whitehorse posted the following on Facebook: “1984, we thought we would try our skills at land sailing. Ivanpah Dry Lake was not far from where we lived in Lake Havasu, AZ. I finished 4th in Class 2 (the fastest class at the time) at the World Land Sailing Competition. There are many good stories on how this all came together.
The race course was announced on the starting line. A yellow paper taped on the hull were filled with maps of the various courses. Being a novice at this sport, I had not memorized them. I never lead a race, although got up to 2nd a few times. The boat was very fast, but the big, sticky tires scrubbed off to much speed when changing direction.”

Gary’s brother, Greg added to the story: “I remember you called me from Arizona and asked if Bob Kau and I could convert the Enterprise into a land sailor. Paul Krueger had all the stuff, it would be easy you said. Well, Bob and I worked late into the night for a few nights to get it ready. (Some of the late nights may have been more to do with a well stocked fridge at Bob’s shop now that I think of it). Ron Rosten was going to tow it out there for you. A few weeks prior to sending it out West, I had tipped it over on Lake Kegonsa. Although damage was minor, I neglected to fix the steering pedals and all that you had to push on were the pipe ends. You weren’t thrilled about that.”

Jim Nordhaus Land Sailing
Jim Nordhaus crosses the finish line in first place.
Skeeter Landsailing 3
ENTERPRISE Class A Skeeter at Ivanpah in 1984
Skeeter Landsailing 2
Ron Rosten hauled the boat from Wisconsin to the desert.

Pegel Slide Collection: FROZEN ASSET

by | Apr 21, 2018 | 2017-2018, Bob & Jane Pegel Slides, Home Page

Bob Pegel Class A Skeeter FROZEN ASSET

Bob and Jane took meticulous care of their iceboats. Bob’s Skeeter, FROZEN ASSETS, had different color schemes which is unusual in my opinion because up here at Four Lakes, the most of the Skeeters in that era were red and white, period. Jane writes about Bob’s boats:

Bob had many different boats. Each boat had a different paint scheme. I don’t recall the sequence or how many boats there were. He had conventional under the boom cockpits and also rumble seaters. Originally Bob’s number was I-117. The number 9 had been assigned to Cora Millenbach and she gave 9 to Bob and he then had I-9 on his Skeeters and then also on his Renegades. After he got tired of the color blue, he had green boats. Bob raced in A Division and also in C Division (which was a varnished boat with a white deck). He won C division ISA and also Class E in the Northwest. The brown skeeter with sail I-117 was actually the boat with white sides and dark blue deck. The hull broke in half and was rebuilt. It was rebuilt and back on the ice and rigged to sail before it could be repainted. I have a photo of that boat under sail hanging in my hallway. In that photo It it obvious the hull is getting ready to break.

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Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel FROZEN ASSET

The Summer Slide Series: Bob & Jane Pegel Collection

by | Apr 18, 2018 | 2017-2018, Bob & Jane Pegel Slides, Home Page

Jane Wiswell Pegel of the Skeeter Ice Boat Club with trophies.

Several months ago, an envelope arrived in the mail with 177 slides. I finally got around to converting them and am pleased to announce that iceboat.org’s off-season series will feature the Pegel family iceboating slides. I’ll try to post a few each week with commentary and context from Jane and Susie as their schedule permits.
I don’t have any information from them yet on these photos, but will update if it comes. Before she was a DN sailor, Jane sailed a Skeeter, CALAMITY JANE.  In the above photo, Jane holds a plaque that appears to read “Women’s Skeeter Champion.” ISA regatta records indicate that Jane won the Women’s Championship in 1955, 1956, and 1957.
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Jane Pegel Ice Sailor4
Jane Pegel Ice Sailor 3
Jane Pegel Ice Sailor 2jpg
Bob Pegel Ice Sailor

 

TRUDLE II: Story Behind a Photo

by | Apr 16, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page, WSSA

Lake Winnebago Stern-Steerer sailor, Dave Lallier, posted this eye catching photo on the 4LIYC Facebook page this morning.
A little research indicates that TRUDLE II was owned by Ernst von Lengerke of New Jersey who served as Commodore of the Musconetcong Ice Yacht Club. He received credit in Frederic Gardiner’s book, “Wings on Ice”, as an invaluable source of information about the sport. The boat is also mentioned in a 1940 New Jersey Register article about a successful iceboat regatta held at Red Banks. If you want to dig deeper, one of the Google search results led me back to this website in the form of an article written in 1947 by Ray Ruge that references TRUDLE III.
UPDATE April 18, 2018: Nels Lybeck posts the following on Facebook: “The Trudle III is currently in the care and hands of myself and Doug MacFarland (ex DN US 2500) here in Red Bank and has been restored with a new sail to fit her Duralum (before aluminum) Marconi rig. We received it from Ernst Von Lengerke’s daughter before she died a few years ago.”

Red Bank Register 1940 2
New Jersey Register, Jan 11, 1940
Red Bank Register 1940 1
New Jersey Register, Jan 11, 1940