UPCOMING:
It’s Swap Meet Season!
4LIYC Meeting : November 5, 2025 via Zoom More information.
Midwest Hardwater Sailors Swap Meet: November 8, 2025 @ Delavan Yacht Club More Information
4LIYC Shipstore: Order custom iceboat shirts, hats, and gear. More information.
BURGEE: Order your 4LIYC Burgee
Pay Your Dues Online
The Bubble Expands & a World Champion Joins the Skeeter Fleet
Two Clapp-built Class A Skeeters with deep pedigrees.
The world’s fastest iceboats, the Class A Skeeters, the Formula One of iceboat racing, have grown their fleet this season with two new Clapp-built additions. Both boats come from the shop of Dan Clapp, innovator of the renowned bubble boat design that transformed Skeeter performance back in the 1990s.
PREDATOR Finds a New Home
The Class A Skeeter PREDATOR has a new owner, Fritz Good of Pewaukee, well known in Scow sailing circles from his years sailing on Pewaukee Lake. PREDATOR was most recently owned by Rob Evans, from whom Good acquired the boat. Welcome to the fleet, Fritz, and congratulations on bringing PREDATOR back on the ice.
Clapp shared some of the boat’s storied history:
“PREDATOR was the first bubble boat, COMING ATTRACTION. I won my first ISA with this boat on Lake Geneva in 1991. Afterwards, I sold it to Art Apy, who renamed it GOTCHA. A few years later, the boat was sold to Rick Stavola and became MONA LISA. Rick raced it successfully for many years before selling it to Rob Marsh, who renamed it ILLUSION and modified the rear deck to match the newer slant-back design. Eventually, the boat was sold out West.”
Struble Steps in to the Bubble
Perhaps the biggest buzz of the season comes from the DN ranks. DN World Champion Matt Struble has thrown his helmet into the Class A Skeeter ring, purchasing the bright yellow AMPHETAMINE from Pewaukee’s Tom Hyslop.
Clapp recalls building the boat:
The yellow boat was built for Jack Jacobs. It was the first slant-back-deck bubble boat. I built it alongside BALLISTIC (for Bill Stavola) and MADJAKE (for myself) around 1998. It originally had a 26-foot mast and 22-foot plank. Later, Jack bought my all-carbon MADJAKE and renamed it MERLIN. He wanted both boats to be identical, so I built him a new mast and plank for MERLIN that matched the carbon boat. I then took the original shorter mast and plank in trade, painted them orange, and used them on INSANITY for many years. Tom Hyslop bought MERLIN from Jack and renamed it AMPHETAMINE II or III. He experimented with mast and plank lengths before settling on a setup with a new mast by Jay Yaeso and a 22-foot plank I made for him.
Now the distinctive bright yellow Skeeter returns to the line with Struble at the helm, a DN sailor stepping up to the elite level of A Skeeters. Struble’s arrival in the Skeeter fleet is sure to turn heads and raise the competitive bar.
Dan writes, “Here’s a Gretchen Dorian photo of me at Lake Geneva following Buddy around in the Northwest. I ended up 2nd. No matter what I did, I couldn’t beat him that day….on his home ice. Jack (Jacobs) owned the boat at the time. I was “testing” the new 30’ mast and 25’ plank.”
PREDATOR (Rob Evans) and HELLSBELLS (Mark Isabell) sailing on Lake Monona, a living bubble boat history lesson.
Video by OVJ Photography. Link to video.
Skoda Meets Iceboating
Iceboats in Advertising Archives
Marketing cars with iceboats has a long history. Even the DN itself is named after The Detroit News, and over the years this site has shared plenty of examples from the “Mad Men” era, when Detroit advertisers paired cars with wind power to sell speed and style.
This video came out today from Skoda featuring a well-known Polish DN champion, Łukasz Zakrzewski, who has sailed our own lakes more than a few times.
Video link.
First 4LIYC Meeting: Zoom on Nov 5
The War Room awaits orders from the Fleet.
4LIYC 2025–2026 Meeting Schedule Announced
Pay DuesYour 4LIYC governing group, with help from Renegader Don Anderson, has finalized plans for the upcoming season’s meetings. Our first meeting will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, November 5 at 6:30 PM.
Don is coordinating with Breakwater Restaurant in Monona for in-person gatherings, with the Four Lakes Yacht Club as a possible alternate location. Watch for details about a special meeting on November 19.
Please make sure your 4LIYC dues are paid. We will email the Zoom link to all members on Wednesday, November 5. This is a great opportunity to reconnect, especially with members who live farther away.
2025–2026 4LIYC Meeting Dates
Time: 6:30 PM (in-person or virtual)
- November 5
- November 19
- December 3
- December 17
- January 14
- January 28
- February 11
- February 25
- March 11
Attention Iceboat Clubs: NIYA 2025–26 Dues Notice
2025 Northwest. Photo – Jim Stevenson
Iceboat club secretaries and treasurers, take note! It’s time to send in your Northwestern Ice Yachting Association 2025–26 club dues. Details in the PDF.
The Best Ice Comes Early: 2025 ISA Updates & Dues Reminder
Photo: Rick Myslinski; Class A Skeeter Tom Hyslop and Ken Whitehorse
ISA Home Page
Via International Skeeter Association Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
Greetings everyone,
While the 2024-25 season is still not complete, it is time for the fall dues notice for next season. Dues are $25 and are payable by November. You can send a check or use the on line payment on iceboat.org. There is a Paypal fee for that, so a check is your low cost option. Click here to pay dues online.
Remember that the 2025 ISA is going to happen in December most likely in Minnesota. News on that will come out each week beginning shortly after Thanksgiving.
The best ice in Minnesota is always in December!
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
International Skeeter Association
Swap meet on!!! 10 am at Lake Geneva Yacht Club tomorrow!!! Oct 19
Lake Geneva Swap Meet — Sunday, October 19, 10 AM
Lake Geneva Yacht Club
1250 S Lake Shore Dr,
Fontana-On-Geneva Lake, WI
Via our southern friends at the Skeeter Ice Boat Club in Lake Geneva:
Hey Iceboaters!
Weather forecast just keeps improving! Rain should be gone by 8am followed by an awesome NW breeze to dry things out.
1250 S Lakeshore Drive, Fontana is your address. PLEASE PLAN ON ARRIVING NO EARLIER THAN 9AM! Folks will be on the grounds to help you get parked and unloaded. Mary Jane Schalk has, as always, been invaluable. She has arranged food and beverages for the event and sent me a photo of where we intend to set up things.
A special thank you to fellow ice boaters and LGYC leaders, Tom Lothian and Maru Urban. Tom has helped us get use of the club and supplied beverages while Maru has worked his butt off moving boats and clearing space for our event. Thanks, guys! Maru is cleaning up building storage and moved several of our member NItes down to the pad. If you store your Nite at LGYC come use the event as a tune up. SR Marine and Dave’s Machining will be on hand so come get your boat ready to sail this season.
Nites on parade.
Incidentally, I saw that Maru posted a picture on the Nite page of the aforementioned boats he lined up. Be advised! These boats may not yet be for sale?? ( but slipping your business card into the cockpit with an offer might be worth the trip).
We like tacos.
Again, come hungry! The food will be awesome as will the bloody bar… See you all tomorrow.
Jason Thompson
Past Commodore SIBC
A Captain for All Seasons: Erik Sawyer
From Great Lakes freighters to iceboats on Lake Monona, Captain Erik Sawyer keeps the season going year-round aboard MICHIGANDER. Photo by Gretchen Dorian.
Erik Sawyer likes big boats, whether he is at the helm of a Great Lakes freighter or behind the wheel of his magnificent modern Stern Steerer, MICHIGANDER. Fellow Stern Steerer sailor and WSSA Secretary Andy Gratton recently toured the Soo Locks and was surprised to spot a photo of his friend Erik, recognized as the captain of the first ship to arrive at the Soo Locks for the 2025 shipping season on March 21. Perfect timing, right around when the ice went out. Andy and his wife Ann left a note for all to see, proudly pointing out that this captain also commands on the hardwater.
Swap Meet This Sunday, October 19 @ Lake Geneva Yacht Club
Via Skeeter Iceboat Club’s Jason Thompson, a friendly reminder to save your Sunday morning for one of the biggest and best iceboat swap meets in the world!
Find a swap meet in your area here.
Lake Geneva Swap Meet — Sunday, October 19, 10 AM
Lake Geneva Yacht Club
1250 S Lake Shore Dr,
Fontana-On-Geneva Lake, WI
Iceboaters,
COME HUNGRY! 10am this Sunday kicks off our iceboat season with the SIBC swap at LGYC (1250 S Lakeshore Drive. Fontana).
Oh, we got a good one for you… Breakfast and lunch burritos with a bloody bar on demand! Been awhile since you have been to LGYC? Come tour the place to check out what has changed. We are pulling out a lot of iceboats from deep storage at the club– should be fun.
Got a Nite to sell? You will do it if you come to the swap. The hottest fleet going at SIBC is our Nite fleet and sailors are looking for boats.
Got a trailer that fits a Nite? You can sell that too.Two B skeeters, DN sails, skeeter sails helmets, track spikes are some of the items we have heard about. Send items you are looking to buy or sell TODAY.
Cozzens’ Hudson River Stern-Steerers
I’ve seen this watercolor many times over the years, but never gave it much thought until Greg Whitehorse brought it to my attention after he caught an episode of Antiques Roadshow where someone brought in a Fred S. Cozzens painting and mentioned they also owned one of his iceboat scenes.
Frederic Schiller Cozzens (1846–1928) was an American marine painter and illustrator. Among his works is this 1884 chromolithograph, Ice Boating on the Hudson, published as Plate XXV in American Yachts: Their Clubs and Races. The scene doesn’t just show iceboats in general, Cozzens carefully depicted some of the Hudson River’s most famous stern-steerers of the time: AVALANCHE, GYPSIE, ICICLE, HAZE, WHIFF, and ECHO.
A version of this image is attributed to the Ray Ruge Collection at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. For more information on these boats and their history, visit Brian Reid’s invaluable White Wings and Black Ice website, which documents the Hudson River fleets in remarkable detail..
Tribute to Elmer Millenbach – Archie Call
Elmer Millenbach Archives
Renegade Home Page
Elmer Millenbach (1912–1996) was a Detroit iceboater and who worked for the automotive industry whose inventive spirit reshaped the sport. Elmer combined his automotive know-how with his passion for iceboating. In 1947, he designed and built the Renegade, a sleek one-design iceboat larger than a DN but more manageable than the Skeeters and stern-steerers. The Renegade has become a modern classic, still actively raced today. Elmer’s craftsmanship and leadership created not only a new class of boat but also a tight-knit community that carries his legacy forward.
Read Archie Call’s Tribute to Elmer Millenbach here.
Online Ship’s Store
National Iceboat Authority Web Page
4LIYC Governing Documents
Click for 4LIYC Meeting Dates
- January 2 THURSDAY Honor Roll Nominations
- January 15 Deadline for By-Law or Racing Rules Amendment Submission
- January 29
- February 12 Business Meeting
- February 26
- March 12 Last Meeting of the Season
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.
