Recently, Tim Bellerd from Wayfarer Boatworks in Ferrysburg, Michigan, organized an open house event where he showcased his Renegade boat. The windy weather kept the sail from being raised. If you are in the western Michigan area and are interested in building or repairing an iceboat, contact Tim.
Shop dog Mike knows wood is good.
Nite sailors Daniel Hearn, Dave Navin, and Nite Commodore Maureen Bohleber gathered at 4LIYC Renegader Damien Luyet’s shop last Friday to kick off a ten-mast build. Under the watchful eye of Jerry Simon, they spent the day using a table saw, bandsaw, and planer to shape Sitka Spruce boards into mast blanks. Brad Wagner, Jim Lafortune, and Don Anderson dropped in to check on the process of making sawdust. The mast blanks are now at Daniel Hearn’s shop for the next steps of routing for the mast track and production of metal components.
The 2023-2024 ice sailing season officially kicks off this Friday in Madison with a full-on Nite Rager.
The Nite Rager is on for this Friday, June 23 starting at 9:30 AM. We will meet at Damien Luyet’s shop at 9:30 AM. Address is 2618 Industrial Dr., Monona. Tasks for the session are to re-saw and plane all wood to side board thickness. Weigh and deflect all boards for individual mast pairing. Cut all mast halves to correct profile and mark for internals. Cut leading edge pieces to prepare for glue up. Possibly route trailing edges for mast track. All are welcome to join. I imagine we’ll order some lunch delivery.
This week, I received a package filled with iceboating memorabilia, which included what seemed to be magazine advertising proofs for Mead iceboats of Chicago, Illinois.
Since the beginning of this website in 1998, the Buy & Sell page has been filled with vintage Mead iceboats for sale, all of which came out of Ted Mead’s Chicago factory.
Who was Ted Mead? According to a 1937 newspaper article, his father owned bicycle factories in Chicago and England. 
His mother was noted for her exceptional woodworking skills. After graduating from Princeton in 1925, he built houses for a few years; he eventually grew tired of this profession and founded the Mead Glider Company. When the airplane business became unprofitable, Mead moved on to building kayaks, ice motor sleds, and iceboats, and the factory employed 24 people.
Below are links to some of the Mead iceboat memorabilia that’s come my way in the last 20+ years.
Learn More:
Ted Mead Biography Newspaper Article
Announcing Mead’s New Class E Skeeter Racer
Mead Batwing Iceboat Brochure
Mead Iceboat Brochure 3
Mead Iceboat Brochure 5
Mead Archives
Early ISA Video
Previously: “That Will Buff Right Out”
Via Daniel Hearn, Spaight Street Syndicate
Trust The Engineer…Or Else!
Since it was determined last weekend at Lake Pepin that I have a weak spine, this weekend it was time to man up. First I removed the ragged skin to the closest bulkheads, sideboard or stringer. Then I cut out the what remained of the old spine. The original T-beam was constructed of 5/8” Sitka, 2-1/2” wide with triangles underneath. I made the new T-beam out of 1” x 3” White Oak with two verticals on the bottom, triangles underneath and horizontally at the bulkhead joints. For additional peace of mind, I added a layer of 45 degree carbon and a layer of biaxial carbon around the entire beam, plus one more layer of carbon on the top. And finally, carbon gussets at each of the corners were the beam and bulkheads meet. This construction should be dramatically stronger than the previous, which would have been fine, had I just followed Pat’s plans.
Rather than using a traditional top-mounted mast ball track, which would have spread the load out across 14” or so, I used a 6” countersunk style. This required the removal of a fair amount of material directly under the mast ball, when the shorter length was already concentrating the load in a smaller area. The mistake I made was not accounting for these impacts. But the countersunk style looked cooler. (That’s what we call “solid” marketing thinking!)
The spine didn’t actually collapse, rather, the track twisted, blowing out the side of the original beam. It was breezy that day on Lake Pepin, so in addition to carrying a bunch of lead, the stays were slacked off, which caused more side load on the mast ball, hence, the twist.
Hopefully the Northwest will be “On” for the coming weekend, so I can give Lorem Ipsum another shakedown, and try to catch Pat!
National Iceboat Authority Web Page
Location: In person at the Elks Lodge 711 Jenifer St, Madison, WI 53703
Time: 6:30 PM
YOU ARE SKIPPER NUMBER
TO ROUND THE MARK SINCE NOVEMBER 1999.
