The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to February 7 and 8, 2026. The next update will be Sunday, February 1. Check back here at that time. The Northwest Ice Yacht Association regatta takes precedence.

Andy Gratton
WSSA Secretary/Treasurer

Speaking of stern-steerers, Lake Winnebago stern-steerer sailor George Gerhardt shared the above photos a couple of weeks ago. I asked Andy to explain exactly what are we looking at:

Sorry for the delay, I was at my brother’s in Costa Rica for a week. It’s very bad iceboating there, I wouldn’t recommend trying.

Years ago when I first saw the Pirate Boat, as George calls it, I noticed the reefing points at the top of the sail. I have never seen a reef like that. All the other reef points I have seen for gaff rigs have been for taking in sail at the foot. This is the first time I have seen the Pirate Boat reefed  and it is interesting. I wonder if the reef points also allow the upper portion of the sail to fly by rolling up the sail from the reef points down. That would show just the gaff area, even less sail than exposed here. I can see an advantage with the area shown in the photo – there is a lot of sail area remaining down low, which will produce a lot of force to get through rough ice and deeper snow yet not creating a lot of heeling moment to cause a capsize like Jay’s boat “Frosty’ shown below. The reefed sail isn’t a rig that will produce high speeds as it creates a lot of drag, but it will allow sailing more often due to the power.

I have plans to make the original Fritz backbone into a 38′ gaffer. I don’t need it to go fast, it will go fast enough for me, I just want to be able to sail more often.

Andy

Woops!