Via Pat Heppert from Lake Pepin’s Pickle Factory on the 4LIYC Facebook page:
“If it’s less than 75 sq. ft. and less than a 28-foot mast, they’re all Skeeters.”
Parked next to his C Skeeter DRIFTER, this little blue homemade (aren’t they all? – Ed.) iceboat looks like the kid brother tagging along. With enough wind, who knows.
Both commercials have already made the rounds in the ice sailing world. The Range Rover spot filmed in Minnesota last March with Daniel Hearn at the helm. The Škoda commercial shot in Finland in May with Lukas Zakrzewski driving.
This was simply a good excuse to get the two of them in one photo at registration for the 2026 DN World Championship in Sweden.
Green Lake, WI. Photo Jim Stevenson
The wind did not cooperate or obey the computer wind models this weekend (February 13 – 15.) Nobody got chilly, but the DNs and A skeeters got only two races in, and the Renegades, Stern Steerers and B/C Skeeters only got one. The races sailed are discarded, and we start from scratch starting Friday February 27th.
The locations possible range from somewhere on Green Bay, through Madison and out to Lake Pepin.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
Northwestern Ice Yachting Association
Gallery From Jim Stevenson
Photo: Brian Donahue for Red Bank Green
ice sailors never forget! Talk about patience, this is next level. Congratulations to the Hudson River crew on winning back the Van Nostrand Cup after 135 years and for keeping this remarkable piece of ice sailing history alive. And thank you to Red Bank Green, the independent local news outlet, for giving this regatta practically play by play and for their continuing coverage of ice sailing at Red Banks.
As the boat built by 19th-century architect Archibald Rogers came to a stop after their second straight win in the best of three, skipper Luke Lawrence and sheet tender Max Lopez exchanged hugs and gloved high fives with friends and family. One of several drones filming the action crashed into the sail and fell to the ice.
Then, Lawrence paused for a quiet emotional moment, kneeling silently in the basket amid the hoots and hubbub.
“I did this one for pop pop,” he said a few moments later, referring to his grandfather, Bob Lawrence, a boat builder and sailor. “He won a lot of stuff, but never this one. So this one is for him. Read more
Speaking of iceboat frenzy, for a little of our own Four Lakes frenzy, head down to the Edgewater this weekend (February 7 – 8). The MARY B is on display on Lake Mendota at Frozen Assets.
Photo: Red Bank Green
Iceboats returned to the frozen Navesink River and Red Bank, New Jersey reacted like Taylor Swift was in town. Fences were treated as optional, everyone wanted a front-row view.
Our good friends at the historic North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club and the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club are back racing for a Tiffany silver cup first made in 1886, while the public presses toward the ice like it’s the pit at Madison Square Garden. When iceboats appear, winter suddenly has a main event.
RED BANK: ICE BOATING “AMERICA’S CUP” ON TAP, WITH WARNINGS
By BRIAN DONOHUEStay out of the way of the ice boats. And stay off the construction site.
Those are the messages being sent by dual entities as Red Bank gets set to host the Van Nostrand Cup, an ice boat contest the NY Times in 2003 called possibly “the oldest and longest-deferred grudge match in sports history.”
For a second straight weekend, the frozen Navesink River is likely to draw not only ice boat race spectators to see it, but visitors looking to skate, frolic, or shoot selfies. Continue reading.
National Iceboat Authority Web Page
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.
