Iceboating is a bit like Goldilocks; we need conditions to be just right. Right now, we have too many ice holes.
Last weekend, snow on Lake Kegonsa kept us off the ice. This week’s rain and warm temperatures cleared much of that snow, but the same weather also created too many drain holes for safe sailing. Saturday’s forecast includes some snow, followed by colder temperatures. A few club members plan to check the lake again early Sunday morning to assess conditions and determine whether scrub racing is possible. Next update for 4LIYC racing is January 16.
Here’s the ice report straight from Damien:
The Zamboni has done a good job on Kegonsa snow cover. If not for iced drifts 1-1.5” tall, the surface would be an 8-9, but the inclusions bring that down to a roughish ride likely so 5-6. The landing is still good. The main issue is the holes! Any ice fishing hole from the last 2 weeks is open and growing. There are series of them that would eat a whole iceboat runner.
While we wait for Mother Nature’s super Zamboni to finish its work, with rain turning to snow over the next couple of days, there is time to look backward. A dive into the Daily Cardinal archives turned up an unexpected addition to Madison’s iceboating story.
The recent post about the UW student film Not Responsible led me into the University of Wisconsin newspaper The Daily Cardinal archives. While looking for references tied to the film, I started poking around more broadly to see what the paper had written about iceboating.
Iceboating appears in the Daily Cardinal from the late nineteenth century onward, and by the 1920s it was treated as routine winter life on campus. Boats were raced, rented, and rarely explained to readers. The paper assumed its audience already understood what iceboats were and how they fit into life on Lake Mendota.
One of the things I found along the way was a small but important addition to the Charles Lindbergh story in Madison.
For years, Lindbergh’s connection to iceboating here has been told through a story that centers on the motorized ice craft he helped build on Lake Mendota in 1921, powered by a motorcycle engine geared to an airplane propeller. That account is well documented, and it still stands.
What the Daily Cardinal archive adds is one more fact. In a 1929 article reflecting on Lindbergh’s Wisconsin years, the paper notes, without emphasis, that he owned an iceboat while he was a student. Iceboating was part of ordinary winter life on Lake Mendota at the time.
Lindbergh’s motorized iceboat looks like an extension of something he already understood well, speed on ice.
Family context helps explain why. Lindbergh’s maternal grandmother was a Lodge from Detroit, and his cousin Joe Lodge (part of the trio who designed the DN) was an active iceboater there. Detroit, like Madison, was a center of iceboating and mechanical experimentation in the early twentieth century. Iceboats there were not just raced but modified, tuned, and pushed. Lindbergh arrived in Madison already comfortable with machines, ice, and speed.
A later source adds more to Lindbergh’s connection to iceboating. In Evolution of Modern Sailboat Design, Meade Gougeon notes that Lindbergh is said to have assisted his cousin Joe Lodge with the design of a highly advanced rig installed on the Class A stern steerer DEUCE II in the mid 1930s. The boat featured a rotating wing mast believed to be the first of its kind. Although DEUCE II suffered repeated rigging failures, the concept carried forward, and Lodge went on to win the Stuart Cup and Hearst International Trophy in 1938 with the rebuilt DEUCE III. The account suggests that Lindbergh’s interest in iceboating did not end in Madison, but extended into later experimentation at the highest level of the sport.
Daily Cardinal, February 22, 1929
Joe Lodge, holding an iceboat runner, with Fritz Jungbluth in Detroit, 1937. Lodge was a cousin of Charles Lindbergh. Photo from the Bernard scrapbook collection.
Motorized iceboat likely powered by a Ford Model T engine. This is a separate experiment from Lindbergh’s motorized ice craft.
A brief glimpse of a mention of an iceboat movie, shared by a University of Wisconsin–affiliated Facebook account, sent me down the rabbit hole again. The link vanished almost immediately, but the fragment was enough to send me looking.
The Varsity Movie
The program belonged to a University of Wisconsin student silent film titled The Varsity Movie: “Not Responsible.” It was produced by the Edward Booth Dramatic Club and screened publicly in Madison theaters. It was shot on location around Madison, involved dozens of students and faculty, and was promoted at the time as something new. Link to program.
An Iceboat at the Center of the Story
What caught my attention was the plot.
YELLOW KID
According to multiple 1921 newspaper articles and the program text itself, a central element of the story is an iceboat race. When the male lead is unable to compete, the female lead takes his place, sails the race, and wins.
They did not have to search far for iceboats. William Bernard’s Lake Mendota iceboat rentals were a short walk from campus. The program indicates that filming used two Bernard stern steerers, PROM QUEEN and the better-known YELLOW KID.
Looking through the iceboat.org archives, YELLOW KID appears repeatedly, including in accounts of a race against an automobile. I have not been able to find an independent record of PROM QUEEN. It may have been renamed for the film, or it may have been a lesser-documented Bernard yacht.
What Survives and What Does Not
At that point, the question stopped being whether this was a serious production and became something else. Where does this sit in the history of iceboats on film?
Only paper appears to survive from the UW film. The program, cast lists, production credits, reviews, and newspaper coverage all exist. So far, no film elements have surfaced. I have contacted the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research to determine whether anything survives off catalog.
Even if the film itself is lost, the documentation is clear enough to establish that iceboat racing was used as a narrative device in a motion picture by 1921.
Looking for the Earliest Iceboat on Film
That discovery led to a larger question. What is the earliest filmed iceboating we can actually identify?
Rather than start from scratch, I reached out to iceboat historian and sailmaker Henry Bossett. He pointed me to an Edison actuality titled Ice-Boat Racing at Redbank, N.J., filmed in 1904.
This makes historical sense. By 1904, the Edison Manufacturing Company was actively producing short actuality films, with operations based in West Orange, New Jersey. Red Bank was nearby, and the region was a well-established center of ice yachting.
That Edison film now appears to be the earliest documented motion picture depiction of ice yachting that we can identify with confidence, at least in North America. Link to video.
Narrative Versus Actuality
Seen in that context, the UW film occupies a different and still important place because it may represent the earliest known narrative use of iceboat racing in a motion picture.
Henry also reminded me of a later silent feature, Fascinating Youth from 1926, which is sometimes mentioned in discussions of early youth or collegiate films. Fascinating Youth is a full Hollywood studio production, filled with established stars and directed by Sam Wood. There is no personnel or production connection to the UW film.
Thematically, it belongs to a popular 1920s genre of college stories, not to the experimental, institutionally supported student filmmaking seen at UW in 1921.
Why the UW Film Still Matters
The UW film appears to have been exactly what it looks like. A serious student production, endorsed by faculty, ambitious in scope, and willing to put people and equipment out on winter ice to get the shots.
One participant was Carl Russell Fish, a nationally known historian and senior faculty member. His involvement underscores that this was not treated as a joke or a stunt.
So Far, the Picture Looks Like This
In 1904, iceboat racing is filmed as actuality by Edison. By 1921, iceboat racing is embedded in a narrative student film in Madison. By the mid 1930s, Wisconsin ice regattas are being filmed for international newsreels with clear terminology and context.
The UW film tells us that iceboating was visually compelling, culturally familiar, and narratively useful far earlier than most people assume.
The 2026 ISA Regatta and Renegade Championship are postponed one week to January 16-18. 2026.
There is no suitable ice available for a Championship regatta for January 9th.
The next scheduled weekend is concurrent with the first possible date for the Northwestern Ice Yachting Championship. If the Northwest is held on those dates, the ISA will be postponed. Next update is January 11, 2026.
The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to January 17-18, 2026. The next update will be Sunday, January 11. Check back here at that time. The Northwest Ice Yacht Association regatta takes precedence.
LINK TO VIDEO
Lake Kegonsa has seen serious traffic this week.
Skeeters or DNs, no matter what, alignment is key.
Multiple DN World Champion Matt Struble arrived Monday to get acquainted with his new Class A Skeeter, recently acquired from Tom Hyslop. (Previously: The Bubble Expands) The boat is a Clapp build with a solid pedigree. Matt spent two long days in Daniel Hearn’s shop learning the boat inside and out, and quickly learned that sharpening Skeeter runners is heavier work and a much longer commitment than anything he’s used to with DN runners.
On Thursday, the Skeeter fleet welcomed him on Lake Kegonsa. Ken Whitehorse and Mark Isabell set up under the watchful eye of Paul Krueger, with pit help from Daniel Hearn and Damien Luyet. Conditions weren’t ideal, but they managed a few solid rides. For Matt, it was exactly what he needed, time on the boat, learning how it behaves. Ken Whitehorse sent in this report from the day:
New Year Eye Opener – Wisconsin Skeeter Racing
Results:
1st – M197 (Ken Whitehorse)
2nd – Matt Struble (sailing with an “M” on his usual DN number for now)
Mark Isabell – DNS
Two races were sailed. M197 finished first in both. Matt followed, with Isabell DNS. Speeds were good.
M197 carried 50 pounds of lead in the trunk, a winning setup that helped punch through the drifts. Tried to keep that quiet.
Excellent hard ice under the snow. A great day of tuning and racing. Best of all, the boats are safe and back on the trailers.
Huge thanks to Daniel Hearn and Damien Luyet for organizing the day. We’re lucky to have club members like them.
Matt was offered $100, a wheel of cheddar, and a Packers hat to put an “M” on his sails. Mostly kidding. Mostly. Also trying to stack our roster for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. Ken Whitehorse M197
“Now listen up, Enzo and Dash—if anyone tries to port-tack you…”
Midweek also brought a visit from the Geneva Nite gang. Olympic sailor Paris Henken, Harry Melges IV, Kyle Navin, and RJ Porter were among several Nites that rolled in on New Year’s Eve and ripped it up on Lake Kegonsa. Two future 4LIYC members, Dash and Enzo, made their debut on the ice, sailing all day with their grandfather, Daniel Hearn. Geneva Nites pushing off on Lake Kegonsa (short video)
