“At age 9 he built a model circus. Since then, Bill Mattison’s creative energy has never flagged.”
SAIL: Fast Foward Since Birth
Get your masks on because Day 3 of Bill Mattison week takes us into the dusty lair of the Willy Street Boat Shop in this 1992 SAIL article by Knowles L. Pittman. You’ll learn more about Class A Skeeter development and Bill’s role in the 1986 America’s Cup. Click here to read.
Welcome to Day 2 of Bill Mattison Week at iceboat.org where we revisit the 2001 International Skeeter Association Regatta on Geneva Lake. Josh Adams’ article in SAIL featured interviews and quotes from a who’s who of iceboating at that time. Peter Harken and Buddy Melges were there and though he wasn’t at the regatta, Dan Clapp and his revolutionary Skeeter ATTITUDE were there in spirit. A full page was devoted to Bill’s Skeeter building history and philosophy. Click here to read the article.
Bill Mattison has been sailing iceboats with the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club since he was a teenager. Our club motto is “Home of the Champions” and when I write or say our club motto, I always think of Bill. Congratulations to Bill, Mauretta and your extended family. What an honor!
The Class of 2020 was formally announced on June 23, 2020 and will be inducted in a virtual ceremony September 12, 2020.
When superstar sailor Buddy Melges needed help for his first America’s Cup challenge in 1986 he asked his long-time friend, sailing rival and Korean War veteran, Bill Mattison for some help. The heavy 12 Meter Class was a handful for Buddy and his young crew and tuning the boat was a big challenge especially for Western Australia’s famous afternoon sea breeze known as the Fremantle Doctor. Mattison arrived at the compound and went to work. He had a lifetime of experience making boats like scows and ice boats sail faster and faster. His credo was that incremental adjustments made big differences. Buddy’s “Heart of America” was off the pace of his rivals early in the challenger trials, but week after week his boat got faster as a direct result of Mattison’s hands-on work. When you saw him walking around the team’s compound, he seemed to have a tool in every pocket. Bill Mattison is a product of the Inland Lake region where Scows skate over the water at 25 knots and when the lakes freeze the sailors sharpen their blades and attain speeds of 100 mph on a variety of ice boats. Mattison was a perpetual champion in both scows and ice boats and he quickly adapted his impressive skills to the world of the America’s Cup. Buddy Melges said, “Whatever needed to be repaired, designed or improved, Bill would quickly come with the solution and get it done.”
Consider this partial list of his victories: 14-time International Skeeter Class Champion, three-time Gar Wood Invitational Champion, 12-time Triple Crown Trophy winner, and winner of over 80 local regattas in A, E and C Scows. Most of his sailing was out of the Mendota Yacht Club in Madison, Wisconsin. His secret to success was being a great sailor and discovering innovations to improve performance. Mattison was the first to use a running backstay system and swept back spreaders in the A Scow when he helped revive the class in 1981 along with fellow E Scow sailor Lon Schoor.
Several examples of his innovative work include being the first to use composite construction and the first to incorporate maximum depth foil spar sections to smooth airflow. He was able to create an endplate effect and increase performance. National Sailing Hall of Fame Inductee, Peter Harken says that Mattison had, “Endless generosity” with his time, his expertise and his labor to help others get out on the ice or water. If a boat had a breakdown you could bet Bill would be there to help.”
While Buddy Melges’s America’s Cup campaign came up short in 1987 he was back with America3 in 1992 and signed Mattison up again. This time the team won and Buddy was quick to thank his shore crew wizard. Buddy also called on Mattison to help him win ice boat regattas. One of his fastest creations was “Honeybucket XI” Dave Medaris wrote in 1988, “Bill Mattison has wanted to go fast since he was four or five and hanging on to his first iceboat ride. He wanted to go faster as a reckless youth. He wanted to go faster in 1954 with “Honeybucket I” and even after winning this 11th title in 1986 he still seeks the edge.”
“The design, construction, and handling of an ice boat is an art rather than an exact science.” Herbert L. Stone
Yachting Magazine editor Herbert L Stone, editor of the first ice sailing book in the United States, is being inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame. Stone edited the book “Ice Boating” in 1913 and also wrote the forward to “Wings On the Ice” (published in 1938), one of the best books on the subject ever written.
I can find no evidence that Stone ever owned an iceboat but he had a tremendous influence on the sport by helping to popularizing it through articles in Yachting Magazine. Stone played a big part in reviving the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant (IYCP) when he encouraged the IYCP trustees of the New Hamburgh Ice Yacht Club to pass on the trusteeship to the Eastern Ice Yachting Association.
Read Ray Ruge’s 1950 article about the revival of the IYCP published in Yachting World here.
Stone’s forward in “Wings On the Ice”, written 81 years ago, still rings true today.
Perhaps one of the chief charms of ice boating is the fact that the implements with which the sport is played, just as in the case of sailing yachts, have not been reduced to a fixed, static quantity. The design, construction, and handling of an ice boat is an art rather than an exact science. There is still room for the play of new ideas, for the expression of individual talent, for the exercise of skill, knowledge, and ingenuity. Herbert L. Stone Excerpt of forward to Winds on The Ice, Frederic M. Gardiner
Class A Skeeters with North Sails (created by Henry Bossett at the North Sails New Jersey loft) line up at the 2010 Northwest Regatta on Lake Winnebago. Photo: Joe Terry
There’s been a long tradition of ice sailors who have worked with North Sails. You’ll find some of that history in 4LIYC Nite sailor, Don Sanford’s story about the life of Peter Barrett.
In 1964, Lowell North hired Peter to manage North’s second sail loft in Costa Mesa, California. Peter and his family moved to California in the summer of 1965. Peter would work at North Sails for the next 21 years. Five years later, in 1969, he and his family moved to Pewaukee to manage the new North Sails Midwest loft. Together with his old UW sailing buddies Charlie Miller, Art Mitchell, and Peter and Olaf Harken, they operated North Sails Midwest, Harken Yacht Fittings and Vanguard Sailboats from the basement of an old bottling plant in Waukesha. They all lived on Pewaukee Lake, raced Finns and were members of the Pewaukee Yacht Club.
