2020 Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Information
March 13-15,2020
Lake Waconia, Minnesota
Madison Area Antique & Classic Boat Cruise
The 4LIYC and Mendota Yacht Club have been actively promoting wooden boats in Madison since the late 1800s.
Another summer milestone is here, meaning we are nearer to December’s hope for ice.
Glacier Lakes Chapter
The Madison Area Antique & Classic Boat Cruise
August 3rd and August 4th 2018
Stop over to the Edgewater Hotel tomorrow (Friday, August 3) around the noon hour for a look at some of these wooden beauties. Our Commodore Don Anderson will be there with a couple of his classics. Instead of a static boat show on Saturday, the group will cruise around Lakes Waubesa and Monona. 4LIYC Renegader Andy McCormick is one of the program directors for the Glacier Lakes Chapter. More information at the link above.
The photo above from 1914 is posted on the Wisconsin State Historical Society website.
“Elevated view of the Wisconsin State Capitol building, showing steel work of North Wing under construction. Crowds of people are gathered on the lawn for the Fall Festival. More people are gathered on the roof of the Capitol building just below the dome. Two boats are on display in the foreground near a sign that reads: “Mendota Yacht Club ‘Boost Madison Lakes.'” The iceboat on the right is the Princess II and the sailboat on the left is the Neireid. The Neireid was owned by Henry Fauerbach (an uncle of our own Peter Fauerbach) and Lew Porter.”
Iceboat Tech That Never Caught On
Here’s some content for the doldrums of ice sailing, technology that never caught on. As I’ve stated before, iceboating appeals to dreamers. Some of their ideas became standard equipment but most didn’t.
In the 1930s and 40s, yachting author J. Julius Fanta must have taken a fancy to the idea of a four-runner iceboat and wrote at least two articles about them. In a thoroughly detailed article in Yachting Magazine about a four-runner Skeeter developed on Geneva Lake, he predicted “the four-runner iceboat is the coming thing in ice yachting and not a fly-by-night experiment.” Four-runner iceboats never became popular because they were not an improvement upon a standard three-runner iceboat. Download the Yachting Magazine article in pdf.
In a 1940 Popular Science article, he presented detailed plans for a four-runner stern steerer.
A four-runner Skeeter was photographed by Carl Bernard at the 1947 Northwest on Lake Winnebago.
Ben Lampert’s 4 Runner Skeeter at the 1947 Northwest Source: Carl Bernard Files
UPDATE: July 30, 2018: Via Skeeter Iceboat Club member, Jane Pegel:
Skeeter Ice Boat Club member Bob Ferris built and raced a 4-runner Skeeter. I believe this was in the 1950’s.
This boat had a springboard at the bow and also at the stern with a runner on the end of each springboard.
My recollection is that the runners at each end were steering runners and could be turned via cables and foot pedals.
The runner plank was located approximately half way between the two ends of the boat.
The runner plank was shorter than customary. When sailing, the bow and stern runners were on the ice
and the runner on the leeward end of the runner plank was on the ice. The runner on the windward end
of the runner plank “floated” slightly above the ice surface.The idea of the design was to be able to turn “on a dime”. The boat could make a tight turn at the
leeward mark (occasionally spun out.) Bob won some races with the boat but basically the boat was not as fast as her
competition sailing on the “straight away”. Only the Bob Ferris design would turn on a dime. Only three of his runners were touching the ice, what ever runner that was on the windward end of the runner plank was floating above the ice. The 4 runner boats that essentially were a rectangle would not be able to turn on a dime.
Ice Sailors Compete in Mackinac Race
UPDATE: July 25, 2018
Congratulations to the Equation Team for winning the Section 01 / Mackinac Cup Division. Results
Via Ron Sherry’s Facebook page, posted July 23: “Wow Equation first in class First over all so far in the 333 mile Chicago to Mackinac race. One of the toughest races I ever competed in. It blew hard from the north up to 30 Kts. the whole way with Huge waves. We never put up a spinnaker or a jib top or a staysail. It was up wind against the waves the whole way. We had 17 crew that never left the rail. Most of the crew only went below to put dry clothes on or bring snacks up for the rest of the crew. WHAT A SUPER HUMAN EFFORT!!! The big difference was when the call was made to sail right up the middle of the lake on port tack Sunday morning taking the best of what Lake Michigan had to offer WOW. The pounding Equation and the crew took was brutal, but we got a 25 degree left wind shift with lots of leverage and reached across the fleet with a huge lead we would never relinquish. We finished at 4:00 am. this morning, and all the bars were closed, but don’t worry we will get our fair share today.”
Photo; Julie Jankowski
EQUATION
Another sign of the high season of summer approaches, the Race to Mackinac and ice sailors will be on board some of the 350+ boats that will race from Chicago to Mackinac Island on Lake Michigan. The racing begins on July 21. Here’s the annual list and please email to me and let me know if I’ve missed anyone.
- EQUATION (Section 01)
Ron Sherry DN US44
Chris Clark DN US4789
Tom Dawson DN US5470
Skip Dieball DNUS5
Griffin Sherry DN US4 - DENALI (Turbo Division)
Rick Hennig DEUCE stern-steerer
Dave Elsmo DN US5486
Dave Aguilar DN sailor
Matt Barron DN sailor
Nick Hovland DN sailor - BANDIT
(Section 2), with DNer Chris Berger DN US5166 and Marcy Grunert. BANDIT’S owners Arvid Eiesland and Joe Kestler have DNs, Arrows, and an old Palmer Skeeter. John Poast is also an ice sailor on this boat. - SHMOKIN’ JOE Section J111
Julie Jankowski DN US4271 - WINDSONG (Section 8) has DNer Andy Camarda on board.
- MC^2 (Section 01)
Matthew Kickhafer DN US5602
Steve Kennedy DN sailor
The “R” Word: Free Iceboat to Restore
 You can go from this… |  ..to this in a few simple steps. |
UPDATE: July 17,2018: The boat has found a home on Lake Como. Thanks to all who helped with this rescue.
Skeeter Iceboat Club sailor Steve Schalk recently came across the proverbial barn find near Delavan, Wisconsin that dates back to the beginning of the Skeeter class.This 1930s iceboat was home built and patterned after Walter Beauvaix’s early open-back Skeeter design. Just the hull and plank remain and It’s always been stored in a dry barn waiting for either the woodpile or for someone to restore her. If you’d like to save the boat from the burn pile and take on a restoration project, contact i546@charter.net to arrange pick-up. Andy Gratton has offered to donate a sail for the boat.
To learn more about the history of Beau Skeeters, read “A New First“, about the Goes family’s original Beau Skeeter PIKE, and “Wish You Were Here: Skeeter Iceboat Club History“.
Early Beau Skeeter PIKE, on the left with the P sail.
Independence Day
John Dennis sails his Class A Skeeter. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Have a great July 4th. Only 150 days until ice making!
A Boat That Is On Ice In July
While this craft isn’t exactly our definition of an iceboat, it’s July and it’s content for this website. On June 19, three French sailors began an expedition in a catamaran fitted with skis with the goal of crossing the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole by sail and without motor. This is their third attempt since 2011. Their journey will cover 1,1750 miles (3,000 kilometers) between Alaska and the island of Spitsberger in Norway. Here’s their latest blog post:
July 1, 2018: Today, we traveled 1 mile! But we, on foot, a good dozen … Between recognition, hoists, and a few big bags to lug (unloaded from the boat to lighten, pass, then reload) to successfully pass blocks from 2 to 8 meters. But we are satisfied with our day. We are passing the critical part, the big coastal chaos, and it is encouraging to say that we can pass in such corners !! It’s magic, a chaos of ice, with a dim light between mist and sun. Then we have a good team, it works well. Tonight, by the ice ax, we cut into the blocks to create a passage for tomorrow, 100m from here, and then the major ridge will be crossed. We do an ant work, but we move north, where we hope to find water and increase our daily progress.
Follow their journey “La Voie du Pole” here.
Hot Day with MARY B
Iceboating weather can be extreme, but usually on the cold side. The MARY B group met on Friday, June 30 (on a day that the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning) to set up the historic stern-steerer. Their goals were to practice efficiently setting up the boat, to put up the newly cleaned sails, and to assess the boat. Despite the heat, a big group pitched in to make easy work of it. The new sails and the bright chrome made for an impressive sight.
DRIFTER Plans
Minnesota ice sailor, Pat Heppert, has put his virtual drafting pencil to paper and produced AutoCAD plans for his C Skeeter build, DRIFTER. Download them here.
It seems like many people have asked me for plans for my current iceboat, which has been kind of partially drawn up for a few years. So I have finally taken the time to fully detail out the entire boat. The goal of this is NOT to profess any sort of iceboating wisdom, just simply to try to get more people interested in building and continue enthusiasm in the sport. It ended up being 29 pages on 11 x 17 paper. The plans and building guide are now posted in a public folder on Google Drive per the link below. You should be able to download the files with the link below; if you have trouble let me know. The plans are in PDF format as well as AutoCAD format. The AutoCAD format can be viewed and printed with a free viewer program downloadable from Autodesk.
Pat Heppert
TBT: Lake City, MN
Lake Winnebago stern-steerer sailors Andy Gratton and Mike Kroll might still be on the search for ice so that they can add to their 1000 mile season. Ice is rare this time of year but they did drop in to visit with an iceboater from Lake City, MN.
“Mike Kroll and I were in Rochester and stopped to see Bruce Eggenberger, a long-time stern steerer sailor at Lake City. He had this photo from his uncle who used to ice boat there.
The story is that most of these boats were all stored in the same barn. Some irate wives of the iceboaters burned the barn one night. Silly them, they didn’t realize the boats were keeping their husbands out of the bars. I bet it was Bob’s wife because he didn’t name the boat after her”.
Back of photo
In a related story, a few years ago, Harry Allen sent a link to this Lake Minnetonka Magazine article written about the iceboating scene on Pepin and Minnetonka in the 1890s. The story details a race between the Pepin and Minnetonka stern-steerers with the winning skipper of the race being a 17 year old girl, Nancy Bassett.
Pegel Slide Collection: Frank Trost & TUSCARORA
Frank Trost TUSCARORA III
Frank Trost, along with his neighbor William Perrigo, was another legendary E Skeeter sailor from Pewaukee, WI. Trost and Perrigo captured the 1953 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant the first time the race was held in the Midwest after Fox Lake’s Eddie Rollberg won it out east in 1952. Trost was part of the winning team that went on to win it another 3 times.
Frank Trost gave one of my favorite descriptive quotes about ice boating to a Russian reporter in 1960:
From “Sailing In the Cold Region“, a Russian magazine article published in 1960:
Frank Trost, Perrigo’s neighbor, describes even poetical a ride on his “Tuscarora”:- Iceboat comes alive, he begins to talk to you. Was I somehow on Lake Delavan. Gusts crosswind reached 80 km / h. I didn’t feel under itself, but the “Tuscarora” didn’t obey. It seemed to fly through the air; only the wind howled in the wires and whistled – people standing on the bank told us that the boat roared like a jet plane – and in my helmet was a rumble that I have not heard the creaking of the runners. After the arrival, from flying in all directions icicles Trost’s face was covered with hundreds of tiny cuts. But the little things it did not disturb. As many iceboat sailors, he doesn’t recognize the face masks. He argues that in order to determine the speed of a good sailor should feel the wind on his face and trap slightest changes, skillfully using them to speed up the movement. It is worth and cause injury to the blood!
Triple Twins
An experimental iceboat. Photo from the World Ice & Snow Sailing Association Facebook page.
Iceboating appeals to dreamers. This twin-masted bow steering iceboat comes from the Facebook page of the World Ice & Snow Sailing Association. One of their members in Canada built the boat. This is one of the more unusual twin-mast concept iceboats because the wings are on the plank. Here are two more twin-masted iceboats, one in the from of an oil painting by Harry Whitehorse, and the other from Brian Reed who saw it ten years ago on Orange Lake in New York.
Pegel Slide Collection: Elmer & Cora Millenbach
Elmer Millenbach rounds the weather mark in RENEGADE I on Geneva Lake. Note the film crew standing bravely at the mark.
Elmer Millenbach was one of the most influential iceboat builders in North America. Hamilton, Ontario ice sailor, Rob Intini, went so far as to stencil “We All Plays Elmer’s Tune” on his Class-A Skeeter boom as a reminder of Elmer’s iceboat innovations. Elmer designed the bow-steering Renegade and along with his wife, Cora Lee, created a successful one-design class. Cora Lee also served for many years on Race Committees and spent hours on the ice handling scoring duties.
Elmer designed the Renegade because the newly created DN Class couldn’t make up their minds on specifications.
From Renegade Reflections, an interview with Elmer Millenbach:
…. We no sooner got comfortably started when the Detroit Ice Yacht Club rescinded the allowable changes and reverted to the originally modified plans. That was it, as far as I was concerned! The three of us were stuck with sails and material for 3 boats, but I just couldn’t bring myself to build to the original plans. I told my two companions in the project that I was going to design my own boat and left it to their choice to do as they chose.
Read the entire article here.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage
DN Class May Runner Tracks Newsletter
The DN Class newsletter, Runner Tracks, has arrived on the virtual doorstep. Read it here.
Skeeter Iceboat Club Honors
Photo: August Greidanus
Via SIBC member Jane Pegel:
The Skeeter IBC 85th annual trophy dinner took place on May 5th.
Winner of the various completed series were presented their trophies.Boe Craft B Skeeter:
Championship Series – Steve Schalk
Saturday Morning Series – Rick Pappas
Wednesday Series – Steve SchalkDN Saturday Series – Pat Fitzgerald
The Nite fleet did not have a completed series, but Kyle Navin was recognized
as the winner of the races that had been sailed.Two former Commodores were granted Life Membership status –
Chuck Kaye and Steve Schalk. They both have performed outstanding
service to the Club as equipment maintenance men, ice checkers, rescue team, and as members of the sailing committee.
The current existing Life Members who were present to express their welcome to Chuck and Steve included
Burly Brellenthin, Bud Melges, and Jane Pegel. Life Member Spark Lundberg was unable to attend the event.
That’s All Folks…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTOthsZiIvA&ab_channel=DebWhitehorse
A 12 second PSA from iceboat.org. Let the summer building season begin! Check back here periodically for more posts about iceboating history and to learn how iceboaters keep busy in the off-season.
Minnetonka May Day Madness
Hooray Hooray, the First of May, Outdoor Ice Checking Ends Today
The idea sounded like a good one – ice sailing on May Day! The Minnesota ice sailors tried their best to make it happen today but Lake Minnetonka ice had deteriorated. Mike Bloom reported that they walked on the lake and found “lots of sketchy areas. Once again, Mother Nature proves who’s boss.”
Pegel Slide Collection: Classic DNs
690: L. Wohrle, 445 Bob Cave, 378 Eric Sternkoff, 294 Lou Lonnecke
Today’s subject is DN iceboats from the late 1950s to early 1960s. This class has changed with the times and allows for more modern materials such as carbon fiber in the masts.
Bob Cave and Lou Lonnecke, pictured above, remain active racers in the DN class.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage
Pegel Slide Collection: 1970 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant
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
Click here to read more
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
T Bay’s Not Done
DNer Mike Madge remains in ice sailing mode up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. On Tuesday, Mike sailed for 3 hours on “mostly black, textured ice.” There’s 39 inches of ice there!
Iceboaters Skills at Land Sailing – 1984 and 2018
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.”
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