Not much to report for today because snow ended sailing on Lake Mendota. However, Saturday was one of the most memorable days spent on the ice in Madison in years. There were a few thousand people introduced to iceboating at the Frozen Assets Festival at the Edgewater. Around noon, the Nite fleet and 4LIYC Renegades sailed up to the Edgewater and served as the backdrop for the MARY B stern-steerer which was on display at the festival. The boats were immediately descended upon by festival goers and sailors spent a few hours explaining our sport to the curious. Andy Gratton and Mike Kroll gave gave some rides to and from the launch area on Andy’s beloved red stern steerer (complete with the plank-riding bear) WISCONSIN. The Nite banquet was a rousing good time at the German restaurant and beer hall, Essen Haus. Nite skippers embraced the tradition of passing around glass boots filled with beer. What an exceptional day!
No funnel? No problem.
Loretta Sherry Rehe uses the MARY B plank as a scoring desk.
Catching a ride back to the pits.
WISCONSIN in the rear view mirror Sunday morning.
Here are some shots of the festival from the crowd.
INSTAGRAM PHOTOS
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.
If you are wondering what the ice conditions are on Lake Winnebago, Andy Gratton sends the not so good news. Someone told me last week that Winnebago looked like “Armageddon ice” and it’s easy to see why. But, as we know, ice is always changing so maybe Winnebago will come in for some good spring sailing.
Via Andy Gratton: This area was about 10 acres of 2′ to 3′ tall chunks like this. There are many areas on Winnebago that look like this. I would call ice in this photo a zero, maybe even a negative number. It’s a rough ride even when the chunks are only 4″ tall.
Many thanks to stern-steerer skipper Michael Kroll for posting a link to Andy Gratton’s story from this website on his Facebook page. Andy’s story about the legendary Oshkosh stern-steerer skipper, Don Ward, gets better with every reading. Michael writes, “I have read it many times, and when I see it, I can’t help but read it again because I’ve been in the back cockpit of this iceboat.”
George Gerhardt shot some leeward mark rounding videos at the recent Wisconsin Stern Steerers Association regatta. This is the compilation with added bonus footage of Rosemary from the 1992 Northwest regatta. I needed another clip to fill out the soundtrack and it dropped in the timeline perfectly. Andy Gratton is sailing Rosemary in both videos. Read his story about the day in 1992 when Rosemary tipped over here.
