The news from Lake Pepin on Wisconsin’s west coast is that it only took 3 hours for Ed Newcomb to decide to buy the rear-seat Class A Skeeter from Ken Whitehorse. WARRIOR III will join WARRIOR II, another rear-seat Class A Skeeter that Ed bought from Ken several years ago. We’ll be scanning the horizon for these fast Class A Skeeters the next time we sail on Pepin.
Speaking of the Buy & Sell page, by popular demand, there’s a new feature. When you confirm your boat or component as sold, your ad will be moved under the SOLD heading (with your contact information deleted) below the Wanted column.
4LIYC’s Steve Arnold’s Skeeter made for a perfect bench on which to socialize during a regatta postponement. From left, Lorne Sherry, Charlie Miller, Elmer Millenbach, Bill Mattison. Note the freighter in the background.
Previous: 4LIYC Meetings Join the Virtual Revolution
Iceboaters are familiar with postponement. With that in mind, our first 4LIYC Zoom meeting of the season is postponed until November 18, 2020. We decided to wait until there was more to discuss. Club members will receive a link via email on November 17 to access the Zoom meeting.
Important News for ISA Class A Skeeter Owners from the Secretary/Treasurer
Rear Seat skeeter owners – Trophies will be awarded to the top rear seat A skeeters sailing in Class A in the Annual Regatta.
At the annual membership meeting of the ISA in 2018 at Battle Lake Minnesota, a change to the trophy schedule was made to award keeper trophies to rear cockpit A skeeters as a sub-class of Class A. All Class A boats will still sail as one class with no changes to any class specifications. While the minutes of the meeting were mailed out to the membership, the change was not publicized until now. Time to dust off the rumble seaters for the next regatta.
Below is the changed section of the ISA Rules, which is also posted on the ISA Page: Section 3. Trophies
3.1 If only one boat competes in any class, the perpetual trophy will be awarded but not engraved.
The number of trophies shall be as follows:
1 – 14 Boats: 4 Trophies
15+ Boats: 1/3 of the fleet
Within Class A, Trophies per the above schedule will be awarded to boats with behind the runner plank cockpits as a sub-class.
Ron Sherry US44 and Rasmus Maalinn C20 push off the starting line at the 2020 DN Gold Cup in Sweden.
We haven’t seen a printed ice sailing calendar for a few years. This one by Montana based photographer Sean R. Heavey was worth the wait. Head over to Sean’s website to reserve yours. (They make excellent gifts for ice sailors as well.) 2021 Ice Sailing Calendar
More information.
2020 has been a year that will go down in the history books. For myself it has been a year of upheaval and unexpected adventures. The most unexpected adventure began after a text from an acquaintance tipped me off that our local lake was within days going to host North American Ice Sailing Championship.
I rearranged my schedule and went out on to the ice to get a closer look.
What a sight to witness… Truly is!
A few weeks later and with the help of people far and wide, many of whom I didn’t know or I had meet just days earlier, I found myself embarking on a trip to Europe to attend the World Championships.
So this year I though I would make a special 2021 Ice Sailing Calendar with some of the moments I captured along the way.
They are $20 USD each and what you get is a 12 months, full color, calendar that’s 8.5×11 in size with a couple bonus pages for fun. Here is a link to a full layout preview.
So thank you and I think it’s going to come out looking really nice. Think Ice…
Sean R. Heavey
Say farewell to the A-Class Skeeter rear-seater era in the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. Ken Whitehorse’s WARRIOR was the last rear-seater to sail competitively in our 4LIYC races, International Skeeter Association races, and Northwest regatta races. The above photo of Ken hiking on Geneva Lake appeared in the Janesville Gazette several years ago. Ken recalled that day of scrub racing. Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s Buddy Melges was the judge/flagman on a mushy, slushy track. Ken remembers that the boat “was a real mudder that day, WARRIOR came up and out of the slush to win 4 races!” Ken’s looking for a good home for the boat and listed it for sale on the Buy & Sell page.
More on the boat: Bill Dale gave Ken a super wide mast-pole 14″ from top to bottom and also gave him a super-full 2″ draft sail. (The kind of sail Dave Clapp and Tom Nichols used to use on the Navasink River.)
Paul Krueger developed the rear-seat Skeeter back in the 1970s. Here’s an excerpt about rear-seat Skeeters from the 4LIYC History page.
The Appearance of the Rear Seater Skeeter
By Greg Whitehorse
In 1975, Madison skipper Paul Krueger was involved in a serious iceboating accident while competing in a Northwestern Regatta on Lake Winnebago. Krueger thought that part of the cause of the accident was the limited vision one had while sitting under the boom when sailing a Skeeter. With that in mind he designed and built the first rear-seater Skeeter for the 1976 sailing season.
Not only did the skipper not have to duck under the boom on each jibe or tack; he also enjoyed a much larger field of vision. The new design also allowed the gap between the boom and deck to be closed. In other words, when fully trimmed, the boom was now pulled down to meet the deck This greatly enhanced the performance of the already potent Class E Skeeter iceboat.
Paul Krueger’s A Class Skeeters spanning 40+ years: From left, Ramblin’ c. 1970, Ramblin’ c.1980, Ramblin’ 2015 ISA
Krueger’s new design dominated the competition for the next few years. He won win two ISA World Championships, in 1976 and 1979, along with a Northwestern Regatta title in 1979. The dominance of Krueger’s Rambl’n forced others to change to a rear seat design in order to keep up. With Krueger’s and Bill Mattison’s help, most of the 4LIYC Skeeter fleet was converted to the new design.
Outside the 4LIYC area some Skeeter sailors were not real happy about having to make yet another change in their yachts, even though no parts off the old boats were made obsolete with Krueger’s new design. The hull was fairly easily converted to rear seat dimensions, and the existing boom only needed to be made a little wider.
Soon all serious contenders in the Skeeter fleet were sailing rear seaters. In 1977 Ken Whitehorse sailed a Krueger reconfigured Skeeter to a Northwestern Championship, becoming yet another 4LIYC member to win a major regatta.
Paul Krueger and Ken with the boat on the trailer a few weeks ago. Paul is the builder of this boat.
Old school stern-steerer hand protection: Big leather mittens.
What type of mittens do you wear while ice sailing? Sports and Product designer Emily Guerra would like your feedback.
My name is Emily Guerra. I am a graduate student at the University of Oregon in the master’s in science in Sports Product Design program.
I am working on researching hand protection in Iceboat Racing and Winter Sailing. I came across your website during my research and would love to ask you some questions related to iceboat sailing, winter sailing apparel, and hand protection in the sport.
I have a form with questions related to my research subject and it would be great if you could fill it out and/or pass it on to other fellow iceboaters. The link is https://forms.gle/c45MyAH1txXBGjR46. Feel free to answer some or all of the questions. I am conducting my research using this form as well as through phone calls so if you would like to speak more over the phone that would be great as well.
If you are interested, please let me know and we can set up a day and time. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you!
