From The Beginning

by | Mar 30, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page

Facebook share from Eduard Zilinskiy

Everyone starts in this sport somewhere!  This creative attempt at an iceboat brought back memories for ice sailors on the 4LIYC Facebook page. See their comments below.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, kids in Madison used to raid housing construction sites for wood to build their versions of what this represents. Hope they enjoyed the ride, caught the bug, and upgrade to better one for next season.

When I was 12 years old I got the plans for an iceboat out of Popular Mechanics and built it. I took it down to the lake and sailed it across—it sailed pretty good but I had to walk it back—-after about three times I took the boat home and dismantled it—what a dumb sport—-I didn’t know about tacking then !!!!!
Richard Lichtfeld, MISS MADISON stern steerer owner

My first boat was a psuedo-Madison-style stern steerer with a tobacco pole mast and largely rotten cotton canvas sails. Still, it went, and I’d (almost) always end the day smiling and smudged with the oxide of the red barn paint with which she was finished. One major quirk: you had to sail her with an appropriately sized wrench on a lanyard around your neck, as the bolt securing the tiller to the steering runner post would always loosen up underway.
Mark Langenfeld, 4LIYC sailor

Too bad I never got a picture of my 1976, ice boat built at age 12. Runners were free hand ground from ice skates bought for 25 cents at the second hand store. mounting plates welded on at local Shell Station. Half a blown out Snipe sail. Stair banister for a mast with cotton close line rope for stays. Half a broken lawn chair for a seat. 3 or4 cheap cast pulleys, nothing like a harken. Bow Steering was from an FAO Schwartz sail car, the aluminum mast on that rig snapped while luffing at the end of the drive way the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. I had to regrind the runners twice, until I got the right kind of angle. The boat was Oak 1×6’s. They were stacked and nailed together in varying layers to give the right strength and flex at different parts of the boat. Three different lengths for the runner plank bend, thickest in the middle. Loose footed, no boom. It sailed pretty good, once the runner edges no longer looked like steak knives. My brother did figure out the method to screw the runners to the plank in an amazingly well aligned manner.
I rigged a bicycle with screws through the tires and geared it for speed. I could get from home to Norton’s, where naturally all ice boats were parked in those days, in a few minutes. We were blessed with a long ice boating season that winter. I always had a need for wind powered speed.
Drew Zeratsky, Green Lake Ice Yacht Club

A Proper Ice Check

by | Mar 29, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page

Who knew that a 2 minute ice check drone video could be so hauntingly beautiful?  Rick Elrod shot and edited the video March 28th on Little Bay de Noc in Gladstone, Michigan. Escanaba Nite sailor Terry Reynolds, Menekaunee sailors Mike Derusha and Ken Kreider, and a few others inspected the ice for International Skeeter Association regatta. The 2:13 minute mark shows exactly why the regatta was postponed but there’s plenty of ice. Many thanks to Terry Reynolds and friends from Escanaba and Gladstone who took the time to check the ice for the ISA.

Regatta Watch: ISA Called Tentatively ON for March 30 – April 1

by | Mar 25, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page, ISA

Photo: Gretchen Dorian – Class A Skeeters on Lake Winnebago

The International Skeeter Association Championship has been tentatively called ON for March 30 – April 1, 2018. Potential sites include Little Bay de Noc in Gladstone, Michigan. Final confirmation will be made by noon Wednesday, March 28.The word from acting regatta chair John Dennis is that the committee is optimistic about conditions at Gladstone.

The High Miles Club

by | Mar 25, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page, WSSA

Andy Gratton Mike Kroll with the stern steerers ROSEMARY II and WISCONSIN at Menominee, Michigan

Not only was maximum fun achieved by all who responded to the invitation to sail at Menominee on Saturday, stern-steerer addicts Andy Gratton and Mike Kroll marked 1000 miles of sailing this season. That’s the equivalent of sailing to Toronto and back.or a one-way trip to Augusta, Maine! Nine Nites and Illinois DNer Tim Dixon joined the fun on the bay.
Nite sailor John Hayashi reports from Facebook: “It was an old time club sailing weekend at its finest. It brought out the crowds to the downtown, cars were parked everywhere, the grill was going what more could you ask for. There are a lot of people talking about iceboating again in that town. I will not be amazed if some more boats show up sailing up there next season.”
Photos: John Hayashi

Get Up to Menominee! – Sailing March 24-26

by | Mar 23, 2018 | 2017-2018, Home Page

Menekaunee Ice Sailor Ken Kreider at the 2018 Nite Nationals on Green Lake.

The Menekaunee Ice Yacht Club invites ice sailors to join them for a fun weekend of sailing on Green Bay in Menominee, Michigan March 24-26.  Ken Kreider and Mike Derusha have been sailing all day. They report 20″ of ice,no cracks, no shell ice, and some patchy snow that they had no problem sailing through today. The sailable area north-south is 2.5 miles; east-west is 1 mile. In order to preserve the landing, they ask that once you drop your trailer on the ice, please park in the lot.
Launch: Great Lakes Memorial Marina Park just south of the Menominee Marina.You can park your car in the lot there.