2020 Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Information
March 13-15,2020
Lake Waconia, Minnesota
Northwest Regatta Called ON for Jan 26-28
Photo: Joe Stanton
Via NIYA Race Committee Chairman Tim McCormick
“The Northwest Regatta is tentatively call ON for January 26-28. The primary site is Lake Winnebago and we’re holding Madison and Green Bay as backup sites. Final confirmation will be made by Wednesday, January 24th at Noon CST.”
4LIYC Racing Update for Jan 21
Coming to a lake near you soon….
Via Vice Commodore Tim McCormick:
No club races on Sunday, January 21, 2018.
Drifts are still too tall (6-8”) for racing on Mendota. Middle of the lake is better than Middleton bay. Daniel said he checked all 4 lakes and Mendota is the best. Need some rain to knock the snow down.
102.6 Miles of Winnebago Memories
Photo: Gretchen Dorian Andy Gratton’s WISCONSIN
Via stern-steerer skipper Michael Kroll:
A great day of sailing on Lake Winnebago! Andy Gratton and I set sail at 10 am this morning, sailing the famous Wisconsin, from Oshkosh on one of the best Lake Winnebago excursions ever.
We headed south to David L Lallier’s house in mind for our first stop. As we passed the wayside, we saw 2 sails near shore. We sailed into the way side to find Mark Wiener and Dan Tess sailing DN’s. After a brief chat we continued on to Dave’s house. Mark and Dan followed. We arrived at Dave’s house to find him working in his shop. After a slight arm twisting, he decided to come sail with us. He sailed Mr. Dass. His friend Rob showed up and sailed Ella. I was told both those boats are Don Ward built boats. George Gerhardt also showed up at Dave’s House. At this point George hopped in Wisconsin with Andy and I sailed with Dave in Mr. Dass.
What great fun. We all sailed the south end of the lake for awhile and ended up at the FDLYC. I took my spot back on Wisconsin and we parted ways. Andy and I headed north with the intent to make it to the north shore. After navigating the cracks and rough ice we ended up turning back for Oshkosh at Garlic Island just north of Oshkosh at around 3 pm. We figured we would run out of daylight if we continued North. We made it back to Oshkosh around 4 pm. I rigged the Flying Cloud and we continued to sail in the bay until after dark. We needed 10 more miles in the bay to reach our goal of 100+ miles. We sailed a total of 102.6 miles. After this long and fun filled day of sailing we walked off the ice to the SSIYC for a well deserved fish dinner and a couple of beverages. Words just can’t describe the memories this day of iceboating I will have forever.
WISCONSIN on Lake Winnebago in 2017 in similar conditions.
4LIYC Racing Update for Jan 20-21
Middleton Bay on Lake Mendota was inspected Friday, Jan 19, 2018. There are 12″ drifts that make the lake unsailble today. There will be no club racing on Saturday, January 20.
The lake will be inspected again at 4 PM on Saturday, January 20 to make a decision as to club racing for Sunday, January 21. Next update is Saturday, January 20 before 5 PM. We are hoping that the warm weather in the coming days will knock the drifts down to make is raceable. read more…
4LIYC Racing Scores Published
Photo: Rick Myslinski; Class A Skeeters on Lake Mendota, Tom Hyslop and Ken Whitehorse
Tim McCormick has tabulated the first Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club scores of the season. See them here.
Scores from the current and previous seasons are always available on the right sidebar of this page if you are on a laptop or desktop. On a phone (or some tablets), scroll to the bottom of the page to access the scores.
iceboating
testing
A New First
PIKE an early Skeeter iceboat owned by the Goes Family
From the Skeeter Iceboat Club on Geneva Lake, Jane Pegel sends this photo with a note:
Here is a photo of Chris Goes sailing January 12, 2018, on Delavan Lake in the Beau Skeeter “Pike”. This boat has been owned and given loving care by the Goes family since 1935. With Harry Melges, Sr. at the helm, “Pike” won the Northwest in 1935, the first year that Class E Skeeters raced in the regatta as a separate fleet. This is what the boats looked like when the Beau Skeeter Ice Boat Club (now the Skeeter Ice Boat Club) was organized in 1933.
Jane’s information puts the Skeeters in the Northwest one year earlier than records had indicated, a date confirmed by this Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper article from 2-28-1935. That’s not the end of the story because it appears the Skeeters first sailed the Northwest in 1933 at Oshkosh but that regatta was cancelled for reasons likely related to weather. The Northwest regatta officials must have embraced the new Skeeter class the same year it was organized at Lake Geneva.
Related: Northwest Regatta Winners
Wisconsin State Journal, Feb 23, 1933. The “mosquito class” is now known as the Skeeter class.
On TV: Neenah Nite
NEENAH (WLUK) — Some quick-skimming action on Lake Winnebago.
It’s a winter sport that combines sharp skates, high speeds and a polyester sail.
On Saturday, ice boaters took to the frozen waters off the Neenah shoreline.
With just a bit of leg work, the ice boaters were underway. Matthew Thenell has been sailing for 30 years.
Continue reading.
WSSA: The People
WSSA Secretary Andy Gratton shares these photos from the 2018 WSSA Championship that remind us that an important part of iceboat racing is the camaraderie.
In The News: WSSA Regatta Photos
Scott Ash/Now News Group
Nice to see the WSSA get some coverage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Photo gallery here.
Regatta Update: Northwest Postponed
The 1948 Northwest on Geneva Lake. More here.
Via NIYA Race Committee Chair Tim McCormick:
The Northwest Regatta is postponed until January 26-28. The next update will be on Sunday, January 21st at 8pm CST.
WSSA Championship Photo Gallery
Photos from the 2018 WSSA Championship sailed on Pewaukee Lake from Bob Borkowski
Lake Mendota Photo Gallery January 15, 2018
Photographer Rick Myslinksi braved the cold, wind, and slippery ice on Lake Mendota Sunday. Thank you for sharing these photos with us!
Air Force
Thanks to Jeff Russell for forwarding these pictures from his good friend Steve Jameson who was flying his Cessna over Lake Mendota on Sunday. I’ll have more photos from club racing, the DN Western Regional, and the WSSA regatta to post. Stay tuned!
2018 DN Western Region Results
Final results on idniyra.org
WSSA Championship Final Results
Wisconsin Stern Steerers Championship Regatta
2018 WSSA January 13 & 14 2018 "Results are final as of 12:48 on January 14, 2018" Overall "Sailed: 5, Discards: 0, To count: 5, Entries: 9, Scoring system: Appendix A" Rank Class SailNo HelmName R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total 1st A A10 Erik Sawyer 1 1 1 1 1 5 2nd C C 25 Mike Peters 4 3 2 3 3 15 3rd C C 2 Peter McCormick 3 5 6 2 2 18 4th C V 49 Jeff Seeboth 5 2 3 5 5 20 5th D D17 Andy Gratton 2 4 4 6 6 22 6th D V 36 Joe Terry 6 6 5 4 4 25 7th B S 3 M. Wiener/D. Tess 9 7 9 8 7 40 8th C W Mike Kroll 8 9 8 7 8 40 9th D D 7 Kurt Martinson 7 8 7 10.0 DNS 10.0 DNS 42 read more...
Regatta Update: ISA & Renegade Championship Postponed
The ISA is postponed due to the NIYA regatta being called on. Next update will be 1/21/2018.
Regatta Update: Northwest Called On for Jan 19-21
Via NIYA Race Committee Chairman Tim McCormick:
The Northwest Regatta is tentatively call ON for January 19-21. The primary site is Madison, WI but we’re expecting a snow event for the next 24 hours so we may postpone as soon as Monday, January 15th. We’ll keep you updated. Final confirmation will be made by Wednesday, January 17th at Noon CST.
…An ‘increasingly fickle sport’
Ice boats, ‘faster than any motorcycle,’ are part of Hudson history
Robert Wills Vice Commodore of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club tells the story of ice yachting, an ‘increasingly fickle sport’
PUBLISHED JAN 13, 2018 AT 12:28 PM (UPDATED JAN 10, 2018)
But ice yachting wasn’t always a sport. Wills explained that there were iceboats in the region as far back as the earliest Dutch settlements. Those boats were utilitarian vessels for moving goods in the winter. One early record of ice boats dates back to the Revolutionary War and involves a plan to blow up British ships on Lake Champlain. There’s also an 1812 record of using an iceboat to deliver people and sheep from Athens to Albany.
4LIYC Racing Report
DN Western Region Championship on Lake Mendota
Via Vice Commodore Tim McCormick
The Skeeters, Renegades, and Nites had some scrub racing today but it never reached 9F for official club races. We’ll try again on Sunday so come out and enjoy the great ice. It will be cold again tonight but it should be 10 degrees by noon so we’ll be racing. The DN regatta is using most of Middleton bay so we’ll likely need to race in the main body of the lake. George Gerhardt and I checked that area out today and it’s prime regatta racing ice.
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