2020 Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Information
March 13-15,2020
Lake Waconia, Minnesota
MARY B Wins Again!
Photo by Gretchen Dorian
The classic stern steerer, MARY B, and the folks working hard to restore her, have received a 2017 Preservation Award in the catagory of Preservation from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.
AWARDS CEREMONY
Date: Thursday, May 18, 2017
Location: Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street.
Time: Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and social hour in the WHS lobby from 5:30-6:50 p.m. Awards ceremony begins in the WHS reading room at 7:00 p.m.
More information
Stern Steerer Cruise on Lake Petenwell
Joe Terry, Andy Gratton, and Mike Kroll powering through the snow drifts as only stern steerers can do on Lake Petenwell in central Wisconsin on January 4, 2015.
1968 USSR Championship
Via WSSA Secretary/Treasurer Andy Gratton alerts us to this really interesting Youtube video: “Matt Critchley found this video. Wing-sails on stern steerers, all they need is a bubble canopy. I don’t even see any wires on these boats. Everyone should see these boats.”
Ole Evinrude’s Ice Boats
Ole Evinrude, inventor of the first reliable outboard boat motor, also built and sold stern-steerers in his factory for a brief time during the 1920s in Wisconsin.
The only reference I’ve been able to find online to Evinrude ice boats is from the Rudder Magazine of February 1922. Evinrude exhibited an ice boat at the New York Power Boat Show that year. (Enter the search term “ice boat” on this link, quite a bit about ice boats in this magazine.)
The caption in the magazine reads “Evinrude Motor Company: A novelty will be a fully rigged Class F ice boat.” Intrestingly enough, here’s another photo with an “F” on the sail. Thanks to Mike Peters for the photos.
UPDATE: Mark Weiner writes: “Saw the photo’s from Mike Peters of the old Evinrudes posted. I though you might like some photos of an old Evinrude ( or at least parts of one) as it exists today. The boat is “Spindler”. Acquired about ten years ago and refurbished by Dan Tess and Mark Wiener. Home port of Fond du Lac. As you can see by the photos some parts have been rebuilt through the years, but there are may signs of the old boat still there. The most obvious is the tail block. The runners, and the plugged holes in the plank for the saddle brackets. The mast is now a banana, but the sail cut looks much the same, and is still cotton. We are still doing work on her each year to make her sail better, but we do intend to keep her looking as original as possible. Where ever we set up, Spindler seems to be a crowd pleaser and a calling card for the sport.
We do sail the “B class” with the WSSA when ever possible. We are not the most competitive boat in the fleet, but we would like to see many of the old boats come out and sail with us. If we could get enough old boats on the ice we could start a cotton sail division.
The photos enclosed were taken during a Spring rigging improvement day a few years ago.”
1948 Northwest at Geneva Lake
I came across these photos while searching through the Life Magazine photo archives for the 1962 issue with a Pewaukee Skeeter on the cover. It brought me back to a few weeks ago, sitting on Bill and Mauretta Mattison’s lake side porch with a group of old friends who gathered to reminisce about the stern steerers MENACE, MARY B, and Madison iceboating history. Bill shared the story of the time he crewed for Jim Lunder on FRITZ at the 1948 Northwest and how they won the regatta. The last A stern steerer race was sailed in dimming light at the end of the day. During the race, Bill and Jim sailed into Williams Bay which was not a good place to be sailing an iceboat in near darkness because at that time, ice was harvested there and slabs of ice were piled all over the bay. With a lot of luck, Jim Lunder piloted the FRITZ around the ice blocks without hitting them and made it to the finish line in the darkness. Life’s photos from that regatta are posted here. Northwest regatta winners posted here.
1947 Northwest
A55 is an A Class Stern-Steer TAKU, currently owned by the Schloemer family in Lake Geneva, WI
1947 Northwest: Post WW2 Boom Years Begin
After a 5 year hiatus because of World War 2, the first post-war Northwest was held at Oshkosh in 1947. 4LIYC’s FRITZ (with new owners, the Lunder brothers and Carl Bernard at the helm) won the A stern steerer trophy. Ed Rollberg, who would go on to bring the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant to the midwest a few years later, won the E Skeeter title. Iceboaters who served in WW2 came back with new ideas about boat building, particularly the great Elmer Millenbach. More about Elmer next time.
Shortly before the 1947 Northwest, Eastern iceboater, Ray Ruge, wrote an in depth article in Yachting Magazine about the state of iceboating in North America. Read it here.
Skeeters. Note the lack of springboards.
1942 Northwest
1942 Northwest: WW2 Years Begin
The 1942 Northwest was sailed in Menominee, Michigan just 6 weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and would be the last one sailed until 1947. Neenah Ice Yacht Club’s Jim Kimberly won the E Skeeter title in PHANTOM II. There was no entry in the A fleet that year. The “queen of the ice lanes”, FRITZ, stayed on her home ice that season. (Read more about FRITZ coming out of “exile” here.) In fact no 4LIYC skippers competed in the Northwest that year. Here’s a Capital Times article detailing the winners of the regatta.
1934 Northwest
Madison’s iceboating history is all around if you know where to look. The FRITZ is still remembered at the former Bernard Boathouse on Gorham St. on Lake Mendota.
1934 Northwest
In the mid 1930s, stern steerers were still the only class that sailed in the Northwest. The 1934 Northwest A class title was captured by the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club FRITZ, a boat built by Frank Tetzlaff, owned by Fritz Jungbluth, and piloted that year by Carl Bernard. The boat would go on to win the Northwest A Stern Steerer title for a total of 7 times. There’s enough history about this boat for a book to be written. Here are some articles about that regatta and links to some history. Apologies for not having the time this morning to write a more deserving in depth report on this boat.
1938 Northwest
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1938 Northwest: Oshkosh to Madison
The photo above is the starting point and inspiration for this week’s edition of Northwest Regatta Throw-Back-Thursday. That’s Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s Harry Melges (you may have heard of his son, Buddy) in front of H.V. Fitzcharles of Chicago on Lake Mendota. The Northwest was supposed to have started on Saturday, January 15 at Oshkosh but a heavy snow storm forced a postponment. The local newspaper wrote in a way all too familiar for those who enjoy this sport, “Oshkosh lost another regatta through an uncompromising Weather Man who has played a ‘dirty trick’ on the city and and particularly its iceboaters.”
Two weeks later, the regatta relocated to Lake Mendota. Harry Melges did win a trophy that year, but not in the E Skeeter. He sailed the Lake Geneva A stern steerer, KOL-MASTER, to victory. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that there was a controversy about “ships sailing out of their class”. You can that article here.
1930 & 2002 Northwest Regattas
In honor of the 2016 Vintage Iceboat Show and 4LIYC Annual Picnic, here’s a salute to MISS MADISON, one of the vintage stern stee
rers that will be set up along with MARY B, MENACE, and other iceboats. MISS MADISON, built around 1927, was the last “Madison style” that Bill Bernard ever built. The Hudson River style of ice yacht, such as the MARY B, ultimately proved to be a faster design. MENACE is also a Madison-style stern steerer.
1923 Northwest
1923 Northwest, WW 1, and 5″ Guns
5″/51 cal, possibly on USS Texas
You may wonder what iceboating and WW1 Naval guns have to do with each other but there’s always a way to connect iceboating to anything. (Ask me about Abraham Lincoln and iceboating sometime -Ed.) MISS WISCONSIN won the Northwest Free For All in 1922 and 1923.
In 1918, Madison’s most famous iceboat builder, William Bernard, accepted a commission from the Steinle Turret Lathe Machine Company and built the most expensive iceboat of his career. MISS WISCONSIN cost $1,000, an amazing sum considering that Bernard’s most expensive boat to date had cost $400. Taking her maiden voyage in high winds, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that she broke “all speed laws of Lake Mendota” and picked up an ice fisherman as she swept by him. The man was not severely injured and recovered shortly after his harrowing ride. William Bernard’s son Carl, a young teenager at the time, recalled that there was “no finer ice boat ever built.” George Steinle’s company manufactured 5” guns for the U. S. Navy.
1915 Northwest
1915 Northwest
Ice yachtsmen of the midwest united in 1913 to organize the Northwest regatta to determine which club had the fastest stern-steerers. Read more about their efforts and the first Northwest which was sailed in Menominee, Michigan.
Two years later, the Northwest regatta came to Madison for the first time and was sailed on Lake Monona. The Milwaukee boat DEBUTANTE III won the A class, beating local hero Emil Fauerbach’s PRINCESS III. Madison’s most famous iceboat builder of the time, William Bernard, won the B fleet. Interesting to note that there was a C class champion back then but the C class NIYA records that I have start in 1926.
Madison historian, Frank Custer, wrote an absolutely fascinating story about this regatta filled with the kinds of details that iceboaters love to read, like the fact that the DEBUTANTE III was the first boat to use aluminum runners. Custer’s article is a must read, check it out here.
- A Class champion: DEBUTANTE III, D. Van Dyke, K. Doemel, M. Mackie
- B Class champion: VALIENT, W. P. Bernard, H. Nelson
- Free For All champion: DEBUTANTE III, D. Van Dyke, K. Doemel, M. Mackie
Friday, January 22, 1915 Wisconsin State Journal
FREE FOR ALL TO DEBUTANTE III
Milwaukee Owned Ice Yacht Wins SQUARE PEOPLE’S Cup On Lake Monona
The free-for-all race for the Square People’s trophy for ice boats of all classes, which is always a feature of the Northwestern Ice Yachting association regatta was won this morning by DEBUTANTE III, skippered by its owner, Douglas Van Dyke of Milwaukee. The race went 15 miles and the beautiful Van Dyke craft covered the distance in 59 minutes and 5 seconds. Considering the light breeze and the snow, this is considered fair time.
Nine minutes after DEBUTANTE III crossed the tape, PRINCESS III owned by Emil Fauerbach finished. Followed in their respective order were OLD CRAFT of Menominee, PRINCESS II, and TOOT TOOT, the last two being seconds apart.
DEBUTANTE II, the sister boat of the winner, struck a stake and was disqualified. FLIT, FREAK, and VALIANT withdrew.
The final races for trophies in the B and C classes were run off late this afternoon.
Art Siebke, NJ Skeeter Sailor
We received an inquiry from the nephew of Greenwood Lake, New Jersey Skeeter sailor Art Siebke wanting to learn more about his uncle’s involvement in ice boating.
Above is part of a beautifully illustrated advertisement for Camel cigarettes featuring Siebke. Be sure to click on the image to see the entire panel.
Sailing as a member of the Skeeter Ice Boat Club, Siebke won the International Skeeter Association championship in 1948.
The ISA continues to award the Siebke Memorial Trophy to the skipper who travels the farthest to race his yacht in the annual regatta.
If you have any stories to share about Art Siebke, email to me and I’ll pass them on to his nephew.
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