ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION – FAKE NEWS – CLARIFICATION
CLARIFICATION #2: UPDATE: Upon further consultation with the Renegade board, the 2025 Renegade Championship is postponed until March 28 – 30, 2025. Stay tuned for the next update.
I want to clarify a mistake in the previous post regarding the ISA and Renegade Championship postponement. While the ISA has officially postponed until December 2025, the Renegade class is still keeping their options open for a regatta at Boulder Junction this weekend, March 21-23, 2025.
A final decision will be made tomorrow, Thursday, March 19; and there’s even a possibility of postponing for just a week rather than all the way to December. The regatta site, Trout Lake near Boulder Junction, currently has 28 inches of ice, so conditions are still under consideration.
Stay tuned for updates.
Mattison’s ISA fleet: Just six of the many Skeeter iceboats that Bill built. From the Bill & Mauretta Mattison collection.
The ISA Championship Regattas are postponed to December 2025.
The main snow is forecast to miss Trout Lake, but little or no wind on Saturday followed by snow all day on Sunday looks like a single racing day on Friday, and that is if 47 degrees does not soften the ice too much that day. The long term forecast is for temperatures in the 40’s and a normal melt off.
4LIYC Skeeter guys Paul Krueger, Bill Mattison, and Dave Rosten with a pile of hardware. From the Bill & Mauretta Mattison collection.
Mark your calendars! The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Let’s celebrate the incredible season of 2024-2025.
William Bernard’s YELLOW KID at the 1913 Northwest Ice Yachting Association Regatta in Menominee, Michigan.
While checking out archive.org for new iceboat-related content, I came across a striking February 1926 cover of Ainslee’s Magazine illustrated by Ethel McClellan Plummer. The artwork depicts two elegantly dressed women aboard a stern-steerer, the boat in a bit of a hike—yet they appear completely unfazed. Naturally, they’re improperly dressed for iceboating, and not exactly sailing the boat—but that’s artistic license of illustration.
Plummer was a well-known illustrator during the Golden Age of Magazine Illustration. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1888, she later lived in New Jersey, where she may have seen ice yachts firsthand. Her work for Ainslee’s Magazine connected her to a publication with an incredible stable of writers—W. Somerset Maugham, P.G. Wodehouse, O. Henry, and more. But there’s a deeper iceboating connection hidden within the history of this magazine.
Ainslee’s Magazine began as a humor publication called The Yellow Kid, named after the famous cartoon character in the first-ever comic strip published by Hearst newspapers. This character, created by Richard F. Outcault, appeared in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World before William Randolph Hearst lured Outcault away to publish the strip in his New York Journal paper. This newspaper war led to the rise of sensationalized tabloid reporting, which became known as “yellow journalism”—all because of a comic strip.
Now, the Madison iceboating connection: In the early 1900s, William Bernard, Madison’s well-known ice yacht builder and sailor, owned a stern-steerer named YELLOW KID, no doubt named after that very same cartoon. And let’s not forget Hearst’s own link to ice sailing—he sponsored the Hearst Trophy, one of the most prestigious ice yacht races.
So, from a 1926 magazine cover featuring an iceboat back to a Madison stern-steerer named after the magazine’s original namesake and circling back to Hearst’s own involvement in iceboating, it’s all connected. From here to there—or there to here.
Steve Schalk sailing a B Skeeter on Lake Kegonsa at the 2023 ISA. Photo: Will Johnston
The 2025 ISA and Renegade Championships are on for Friday March 21st-23rd at Trout Lake Wisconsin, just south of Boulder Junction. The final call will be made by noon on March 19th .
A weather system has just been forecast that may snow out the location, but if we dodge that we will know by noon on Wednesday. Stay tuned. Next update is Wednesday, March 19th.
The Whitehorse family invites all ice sailors, past and present, to celebrate Walter Whitehorse’s 100th birthday on Friday, March 28, 2025, at the Ho-Chunk Branch Office in Madison, Wisconsin. Date: Friday, March 28, 2025 Location: Ho-Chunk Branch Office
4724 Tradewinds Parkway, Madison, Wi Lunch Served: 11:00 AM Grand Entry Honoring Walter’s Military Service: 12:00 PM
A Grand Entry is a Native American tradition that marks the opening of a gathering with an honor procession and will honor Walter’s WW2 military service. Veterans are encouraged to wear military attire for the event.
Walter and his brother, Harry Whitehorse, were long-time Skeeter sailors in the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. In the late 1960s, they helped build the “Red & White” feet in Madison, spearheaded by Bill Mattison, Dave Rosten, and Paul Krueger. Walter sailed on lakes across the Midwest and beyond, including Lake St. Clair (Detroit), Lake George (New York), Pewaukee, and many others. One of Walter’s fondest memories is the ISA regatta at Pewaukee, where he recalls sailing in a pack of boats arriving at the top mark—20 deep and 10 wide!
Join us to celebrate and honor Walter Whitehorse!
1975 ISA in New York: The usual suspects – Left to Right: Harvey Witte, Gary Sternberg, Susie Whitehorse, Greg, Gary, Barb, Sandy Witte, Ken and Wally.
