Ice Riders on the Chesapeake Bay by Charles Wysocki
Here’s a collection of various photos that have been previously posted to celebrate the July 4th holiday. It’s a perfect opportunity to remember that two of the founders, Ben Franklin and John Adams, were acquainted with ice sailing. Ben even ordered a set of plans! But one ride in the Netherlands was quite enough for John Adams. He wrote to a friend, that iceboating “as again endangered my Health and my Life.” Enjoy the holiday – it’s getting darker earlier every day. When Ben Franklin Ordered Iceboat Plans Ben Franklin’s Iceboat Drawings
JD’s EAGLE, Class A Skeeter. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Shown here from left to right doing their best to make the ordinary extraordinary are: Don Ermer, Don Sanford, Steve Arnold, Lady Liberty, Ty Reed and Ken Kreider. Ty Reed and Ken Krieder.
It’s the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club’s turn to host the Southern Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet, and the Nite Class has an event worth celebrating. The 4LIYC and the Nite Class invite you to kick off the season in October with an iceboating doubleheader extravaganza, the Southern Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet and a celebration of 50 years of the Nite National Championships. Our good friends at Harken in Pewaukee will host both events during the October 26 – 27 weekend. Stay tuned for more developments.
What to Know: 50 Years of Nite National Championships
Date: Saturday, October 26, 2024
Time: 4 pm – 7:30 pm
Round table discussion followed by a social hour
Location: Harken Inc.
N15W24983 Bluemound Rd.
Pewaukee, WI
More information niteracing.org
Southern Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet
Buy, Sell, and Learn About Ice Sailing
Date: Sunday, October 27
Time: 9 am – Noon
Location: Harken Inc. Parking Lot
N15W24983 Bluemound Rd.
Pewaukee, WI
More information iceboat.org
If you drop in on the Current Champions Fast Iceboat Shop, best to be prepared for anything, as Menekaunee Iceboat Club member Mike Derusha discovered yesterday.
Ken Whitehorse shares, “It was a momentous day at the Current Champions Iceboat shop. Our Renegade Champ Mike lent a hand with repairs on the DN Western Region ATV and equipment trailer, then loaded up 100 feet of Sitka Spruce, and finally, joined forces with Skeeter Champ Ken to construct a wigwam.”
Speaking of wigwams, I’m going to take the opportunity to plug what’s been keeping me from posting here as much as I’d like —helping to organize the first Harry Whitehorse International Wood Sculpture Festival, which will take place June 14 – 22 at San Damiano on Lake Monona. During the week-long festival, twelve artists from around the world will create wooden sculptures. Ken and Mike began constructing an educational longhouse frame that will serve as an exhibit space for Ho-Chunk cultural demonstrators and a wooden canoe. Hope to see you there!
Are you missing iceboating and in need of a fix? Check out the latest edition of the DN newsletter, Runner Tracks, for some stories, photos, and results. Read it here.
WSSA Secretary Andy Gratton recently explored the extensive history of iceboating preserved in the William Bernard scrapbooks at the Wisconsin Historical Society. These late 1800s and early 1900s scrapbooks provide insight into the world of ice sailing and are a go-to source for those interested in its history. Among the treasures that caught Andy’s eye was a photo featuring a Studebaker motor-propelled sleigh showcased at an exhibition around 1913. Even in the early days of ice sailing, William Bernard and other ice sailors were already on the lookout for race committee vehicles.
[UPDATE – edited to reflect it was Mike Kroll’s stern-steerer, not Mike Peters] I perused the scrapbooks with three young friends, time went quickly and we learned a bunch, but I still haven’t figured out for certain if Mike Kroll’s boat is the Princess 3 or not. I have been in communication with Peter Fauerbach about this, too. I will need to go back and study two books in more detail.
I did come across this very interesting photo in William Bernard’s “1913” scrapbook. It may be the first “Skeeter” on the ice. There was no article with the photo of the vehicle. It appears to be a Studebaker car with chains on the driving wheels and some sort of runners at the front and rear, possibly with wheels under the covers. I’m not sure whether the vehicle is one long frame or a trailer attached with more bench seats. It looks like the choice seats are at the very rear as that is where the extra windshield is positioned. I hope the heater works well.
Andy Gratton
As the ice sailing season takes a break, it’s time to explore more of our history. Recently, a piece of history found its way into my U.S. mailbox: a vintage photo of a stern-steerer on the Mississippi River at McGregor, Iowa, circa early 1900s. It’s the first photo of ice yachts south of Pepin, WI, and Lake City, MN, I’ve ever seen. Iowa’s ice sailing and stern steerers bring to mind the Davis family, located a bit further inland from the Mississippi River.
A quick search of newspaper archives yielded no information about ice sailing at McGregor so that it might have been an individual’s activity. The back of the photo indicates that it was associated with the Hollingsworth family. I’m sure that the stern-steerer sailors will be able to spot some details by closely examining the photo.
UPDATE: Stern-steerer sailor Mike Peters writes in, “The iceboat in Macgregor probably is sailing on the backwaters of the Mississippi.
Looks like a side railer or wishbone. Interesting it has a crack jumper or strut forward of the steer runner.”
