2020 Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Information
March 13-15,2020
Lake Waconia, Minnesota
4LIYC Online Iceboat Shipstore Open
4LIYC Online Ships Store
The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club has partnered with Coral Reef Sailing Apparel to offer a full range custom shirts, hats, and more. You choose your iceboat graphic – a DN, Nite, Renegade, or Skeeter. Add a last name, boat name or sail number to personalize your Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Tech Shirt!
Order a shirt or branded gear today.
A New World Record: Biggest Iceboat in the World
Iceboating has attracted dreamers and creators since some guy in Holland first thought about attaching iron skates to a canal boat back in the 1600s. This past summer, David Janzen of Ontario, Canada, achieved his dream of building the biggest iceboat in the world. An iceboat that big needs big ice, and Janzen is hauling it to Thunder Bay, Ontario, this winter to learn how she sails.
Tip of the Helmet: Mike Madge
By the numbers:
Mast 53′
Hull 70′
Plank 37′
Sail is under construction.
By comparison, the stern-steerer DEUCE, mast 51′, hull 54′- 6″ and plank, 36′.
Minnesota’s Pat Heppert, who designed the C Skeeter cab-forward DRIFTER, has been in touch with Jansen during the project.
I admire David Janzen’s infectious enthusiasm and the extreme commitment to following an extreme dream and making it a reality. Truly impressive effort, and done on an average man’s budget. Follow your own path, and be your own hero. Can’t wait to see the smile on his face after that first sail that makes it all worthwhile.
Pat
Eight Bells: Marv Luck
Marv Luck sailing his Johnson B Stern Steerer at the 2010 Northwest Ice Yacht Association regatta. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
The South Side Ice Yacht Club in Oshkosh, WI, lowered their flag to half mast today in honor of Marv Luck, who passed away this morning, October 20, 2022.
Marv was the epitome of a Lake Winnebago stern-steerer sailor who loved this sport more than just about anyone. Marv collected Lake Winnebago ice sailing videos, newspaper articles, and photos which he always shared with me. My files are filled with Lake Winnebago history, thanks to Marv.
Rest in peace, Marv.
UPDATE: October 21, 2022:
Services will be held on Sat 10/29 at Fiss & Bills-Poklasny Funeral Home 865 S Westhaven Dr Oshkosh. Official obituary will be posted later.
Visitation will be held from 9:30-11:00am, Service at 11:00 and burial at Riverside to follow. We are also going to hold a light luncheon at the South Side Ice Yacht club following the burial
SOLD! October 10, 2021: Nite in WI
SOLD! 2009 Nite
Located in Pewaukee
Purchased new. Included: trailer, sail, mast, boom, and runners. Boat and equipment are in excellent condition S&R Marine in December, 2009. Seldom used – sailed less than 50 times. Only sailed on Pewaukee Lake. Boat, trailer, and equipment always stored inside.
$8,000
Notice of Dues: Get The Card
A Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Notice of Dues postcard should have recently arrived in mailboxes. Please consider joining and supporting the 4LIYC. Your membership helps us maintain our ATV and equipment and keeps this website running. You’ll get this cool membership card to flash around at any yacht club featuring Joe Berger’s fast photo of Nite sailor Don Sanford sailing lifting a runner Lake Monona last season.
Download, print, and mail a membership form here.
SOLD! September 9, 2022: Skeeter in MN
SOLD! Class A Skeeter built at the Mattison shop in Madison, WI. (Paul Krueger believes it may be an original RAMBLN’ boat) Complete and ready to sail. Kevlar sail by Quantum with under 50 hours of sailing. Stainless fore and side stays have 5-10 hours. In very good shape but could use new paint. Steel roll bar. Used lightly last 10 years for cruising only. Stored indoors during the off-season. Will consider trade for Nite.
Southwest Minnesota.
PRICE REDUCED: $1500
$2800
SOLD! September 17, 2022: Vintage DN in MN
SOLD Vintage DN
Complete and in good condition.
Stored inside.
No trailer
Comes with canvas covers.
Asking $1,200
Bloomington MN
Everything You Want to Know About Rear-Seat Skeeters
Bill Mattison wrote this article for Yacht Racing and Cruising magazine in 1981 in the heyday of the rear-seat Class A Skeeter, a few years before the dawn of the cockpit forward style. Hundreds of these rear-seaters are still out there. Print this article and keep it with the boat if you have one.
Tip of the Helmet: Mike O’Brien
Read the article.
The word “iceboater” should be listed as a synonym for “dedication.”
Bill Mattison
Iceboat Swapmeets across North America
Ice sailing has a handful of commercial builders, unlike soft water boats. A few commercial builders serve the DN class, and the Nite Class has one. Swap meets are crucial to the sport. Swap meets are like big box iceboat stores where you can see a variety of iceboats and parts for sale in person. Swap meets are essential to commercial builders and the iceboating community. Support your local upcoming swap meet!
HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA
Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: Noon – 5 PM ET
Location: 470 Bay St. North, Hamilton, ON, Canada
The Canadian Ice Force is hosting a backyard swap meet and social at Les Druiven’s (KC3475) house. RSVP to Lester: dldruiven@gmail.com. Park at the Leander Rowing club on the shore and walk back up the hill on the footpath (1 minute). Canadian Commodore Colin Duncan and other Kingston sailors are attending.
NEW ENGLAND: Sponsored by the New England Ice Yachting Association
Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: 10 AM ET
Location: Thompson Speedway Golf Course, 205 E Thompson Rd, Thompson, CT 06277
More information.
MICHIGAN: Sponsored by Gull Lake, West Michigan, and Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Clubs
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022
Time: 10 AM – 1 PM ET
Location: The Dock ( at Bayview) from
12504 E D Ave
Richland, MI 49083
Map
Swap, sell, buy, trade. Catch up with friends and make many more who enjoy our unique sport of Ice Yachting.
MINNESOTA: Hosted by Tim Carlson at Sailcrafters
Date: Saturday, November 5
Time: 9 AM – Noon CT
Location: 7450 Oxford Street
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
Map
WISCONSIN: Sponsored by the Skeeter Iceboat Club
Date: Sunday, November 6, 2022
Time: 10 AM CT
Location: Delavan Lake Yacht Club
1501 Cedar Point Drive, Delavan, WI
Map
Swap starts at 10 AM followed by food and beverages inside yacht club. Packers at Detroit starting at noon. Admission free, ample parking and grassy area.
4LIYC Fall Social: Sunday, October 23, 2022
Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club racing on January 15, 2022, Lake Monona. Photo: Joe Berger
Please join us for our Fall Social at the Four Lakes Yacht Club on Sunday, October 23, 2022. All ingredients will be there, including the Packer game on the big screen, club burgees for sale, the traditional ham, beverages, and lots of iceboating talk.
Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Fall Social Event
Date: Sunday, October 23, 2022
Time: 11:30 AM – 4 PM (Packers kick off at noon.)
Location: The Four Lakes Yacht Club
6312 Inland Way, Monona, WI
Free public parking ramp at The Current, across the street from the yacht club
What To Know:
Please bring a dish to pass.
Ham and beverages will be provided
Please RSVP to Deb debwhitehorse@iceboat.org
SOLD June 6, 2022: Iceboat Trailer in MI
SOLD All aluminum box drop camper hauler. Multi function hauler/camper. Roof rack, windows with screens, lights in and out, battery, switch panel, heater/fan, side door, full lift up back door, air mattress, mis.c camping equipment, wheel lock, non slip floor, built in storage bins with netting, etc. External power connection port. Side mount spare. I’ve used it to camp in, haul kayak and paddleboard, iceboat and equipment, sheets of 4×8 plywood, go kart, etc. Easily haul 2 DN’s and all equipment
Lightweight and Easily pulled 1300 lbs.
7500$
Via Harken Blockheads: “It’s 96 Degrees in the Shade…Time to Think Iceboating!”
Some people just can’t wait…
Get Started Iceboating!
Our friends at Harken have done it again, utilizing their international reach to promote the sport of ice yachting. Marketing intern Samuel Bartel, a recent University of Wisconsin graduate and DN sailor, created a YouTube video series on how to get involved in this “outrageously fun sport.” Thanks Samuel and Hannah Lee Noll for the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club and iceboat.org shout-out!
Read more and see all four videos on the Harken Blockheads website.
Or view them on YouTube
Preparing for Iceboating
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
22-23 4LIYC Meetings – Zoom & In-Person
The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club is excited to announce that we will continue our hybrid meeting format this season. If you’d like to meet in person, please join us at Commodore Daniel Hearn’s office in Madison, where the conference room table is the perfect spot to meet with ice sailors from around the country on Zoom. A few days before each meeting, we’ll post the details about how to join us on Zoom.
We are also working on organizing a fall social event for October. Stay tuned for details.
2022-2023 FOUR LAKES ICE YACHT CLUB MEETING DATES
Location: In person at S & B Strategic Marketing @ 1352 East Wilson Street, Madison, WI – or on Zoom, you choose.
Times: Alternate Wednesdays at 6:30 PM CT
November 9
November 23
December 7
December 21
January 4
January 18
February 1
February 15
March 1
March 15
DN Newsletter September Runner Tracks
If you are interested in some of the latest iceboating news, check out this month’s edition of the DN newsletter Runner Tracks. The IDNIYRA Technical Committee has been working on improving the Official Specifications, and they’ve submitted proposals and drawing for the fuselage and runner plank. There’s also an epic adventure about defending a DN World championship title in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) by Mike O’Brien. Read it here.
Southern WI Iceboat Swap Meet November 6, 2022
12-pack to go
WISCONSIN
Time to start digging out iceboats and spare parts you want to sell. If you are new to the sport or looking for your first ride, iceboat swap meets are the best place to find what you need and meet the ice sailing community. The Skeeter Iceboat Club has scheduled the Southern Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet for Sunday, November 6, 2022. This year’s event is at the Delavan Yacht Club in Delavan, WI. Stay tuned for more details!
MICHIGAN:
Speaking of swap meets, The ice yacht clubs of Michigan will be holding their swap meet on Saturday, November 5, 2022.
Save the Date:
Saturday November 5th…our tradition of the first Saturday in November for the 2022 Annual Iceboat Swap Meet.
This year we are on our home Lake, Gull Lake, near the South Bay off M-89 at
The Dock ( at Bayview) from
10 am to 1 pm
12504 E D Ave
Richland, MI 49083
Swap, sell, buy, trade. Catch up with friends and make many more who enjoy our unique sport of Ice Yachting.
Sponsored by:
Gull Lake Ice Gull Lake Ice Yacht Club
West Michigan Ice Yacht Club
and Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club
MINNESOTA: To be announced.
NEW ENGLAND: Saturday, October 29, 2022 @ Thompson Speedway Golf Course, Thompson, CT. More information.
The Wings of Ice Fields
Here’s another find from Henry Bossett, The Winds of Ice Fields, a Russian booklet published in the 1970s. In addition to some crucial DN history, the booklet features some epic photos of 12-meter wing sail iceboats.
All Wing Sail posts.
1 Ice Yacht Racing Way
From the vast files of ice sailing researcher Henry Bossett, here’s an idea from the 1800s that never caught on, a planned community centered around ice sports and refrigeration. George Newnes originally published the illustration in his British weekly magazine, Tit Bits, “Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books and Newspapers of the World.” Newnes was an “early father of popular journalism”, and Tit-Bits had a surprisingly long run from 1881 to 1984. (I enhanced the iceboat sails with color.)
Plucky Kids Beat Snobby Kids in 1922 Iceboat Race
SIRIUS at the 1913 Northwest Regatta at Menominee, Michigan. (See all the photos from that regatta here.)
One hundred years ago, a newspaper insert geared towards children, Golden Days For Boys and Girls, published this gem of a story in nationwide newspapers. The fictional action takes place around what appears to be the Lake Winnebago area. One of the boats in the story is named SIRIUS, and perhaps the boat with that same name from Lake Winnebago was the inspiration. Take a few minutes to read the story. (Click on the image to enlarge.) The author was not credited but the story would make a terrific movie.
Eight Bells: Terry Erwin
The ice sailing community mourns another one of our sailors. Terry Erwin of Wayzata, MN, passed on August 15, 2022, after a long illness. Terry sailed in the DN and Nite classes and knew how to make an iceboat go fast. His presence has been greatly missed these past few years. He was always willing to share his knowledge. An example is an article from the 2012 Nite Newsletter, posted below as a way to honor and remember the remarkable sailor he was.
Jeff Lallier 1960-2022
Via Jeff’s brother, Dave Lallier: “…[here’s] Jeff when he was pulling sheet and I was at the tiller of our C Class Stern-Steerer, COUNTRY WOMAN. He sailed Renegades as well as the Johnson A Class Stern-Steerer that we have, and of course, the Flying DUTCHMEN that he restored back to sailing condition.”
The iceboating community extends our deepest sympathies to the family of Jeff Lallier who passed on August 8, 2022. Jeff was a lifelong Lake Winnebago Stern-Steerer sailor and had raced a Renegade in recent years.
Link to obituary and funeral events.
New! ISA News & Views Newsletter Archive
