Via Northwest Ice Yacht Association Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Championship Regatta is postponed to January 24th, 25th and 26th 2020. There are no sailable locations at this time. The weather forecast is snowy, but there are many of our regular sites with open water ready to freeze, hopefully after the snow. Check back on Sunday, January 19 for the next update.
Video: ABC’s Wide World of Sports video from the 1966 Northwest Regatta on Geneva Lake
Bill Mattison visited his old friend, Jack Ripp, for the last time. Jack’s son, Jim, was there and shared this poignant moment and the video on his Facebook page:
Jack Ripp wins the Skeeter Class E National Championship on Wide World of Sports with 2 firsts and a second. Dad is M149 and his best buddy Bill Mattison is M134. Buddy Melges comes in 3rd.
Bill sat and held Dad’s hand at hospice on Friday, talked to him and told us all stories of racing and building iceboats as well as stories of him and Dad in Korea. Made Dad smile and chuckle a few times. Both 90 years old, born a few days apart. Lifelong friendship at it’s finest. One of the most touching moments I have ever witnessed. Thank you Bill.”
Sunday morning’s bitter temperatures and no wind at the Northwest meant the regatta was called complete. Prize giving was set up in the parking lot. My phone’s camera did not appreciate the cold weather as you can see by the quality of the pictures. Congratulations to all who participated and to those who took home some hardware. Thanks to all who made the effort to come to this historic regatta which hadn’t been sailed in 3 years. Well done!
A Stern Steerer 1st & Stern Steerer Overall: Erik Sawyer & crew Rick Hennig
C Stern Steerer 1st: Mike Peters & crew Terry Reynolds
D Stern Steerer: 1st Joe Terry, 2nd John Davis
E Skeeter: 1st John Dennis, 2nd Jay Yaeso
Skeeter Triple Crown for winning both Northwest and ISA: John Dennis
Renegade: 2nd Daniel Hearn, 1st Tim McCormick
DN: 2nd Peter Orlebeke, 1st Daniel Hearn, 1st Junior Soren Hughes
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.”
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.
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.
