A new summer series begins today featuring the original “Short Message Service”, vintage postcards from around the world. Let’s start right here in the Four Lakes area of Madison, Wisconsin with these five postcards.
Bernard’s Fleet recalls the time when the Bernard family kept a rental fleet of Stern Steerers on Lake Mendota. “Princess” World International Racer was a famous Stern Steerer built by William Bernard for Emil Fauerbach (Peter Fauerbach’s great great uncle).
I’ll post more in the coming weeks. If you have any to share, please let me know.
The middle of July signals that we are halfway through the off-season and time for one of the most important soft water races of the summer season, the Chicago Yacht Club’s 109th Race to Mackinac. Follow the race tracking on the website.
Your ice sailing roster this year includes:
DENALI (Turbo Division), owned by Rick Hennig of the DEUCE fame. Fellow iceboaters joining him on DENALI are Dave Elsmo, Todd Knop,and Eric Tobias.
Via Renee Sherry: IMPORTANT UPDATE: due to technical difficulties, Equation will NOT be participating in the Chicago Mackinac regatta. Ron Sherry will be sailing on DYNAMIS. EQUATION (Section 1), with Ron Sherry at the helm, son Griffin Sherry, and fellow Michigan DNer Chris Clark on board.
BANDIT (Section 2), with DNer Chris Berger. BANDIT’S owners Arvid Eiesland and Joe Kestler have DNs, Arrows, and an old Palmer Skeeter.
WINDSONG (Section 8) has DNer Andy Camarda on board.
CHAYA DOIN (Cruising Division) has DNer Marci Grunert on board.
GAUNTLET (Section 5) has DNer Gail McCarthy Turluck on board.
Drop me an email if I missed you and I’ll add you to the list. Good luck and safe sailing to all competitors.
The 4LIYC has a new DN sailor in the fleet. Over the weekend, Ron Rosten picked up a Meade Gougeon DN that won the 1997 North Americans from Ron Sherry for son, Thor. On his way back to Wisconsin, Ron also visited with Menekaunee ice sailors Mike Derusha and Ken Kreider. Thor is sporting the latest Menekaunee baseball cap.
July’s iceboating calendar usually features the ice sailors who are competing in the historic Chicago to Mackinac sail boat race. That post is on the horizon and if you are competing in it, let me know the details so that I can add you to the list.
Don Anderson, a Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club Renegader and also responsible for bringing the MARY B Stern Steerer back to Madison, is competing in the Long Beach to Honolulu ocean race, Transpac. The Transpac ocean race is “the longest of the two oldest ocean races in the world…. first sailed in 1906.”
Don is a grinder on MR. BILL, an Andrews 68. MR BILL is in Division 2 and will leave Long Beach for Hawaii on Thursday, July 6, 2017. You can track Donny and MR. BILL on the Transpac website.
An 18 year old Jerry Simon with his first Skeeter.
Jack Ripp’s Skeeter at the 1952 Northwest on Lake Monona in Madison.
Sailing builds long lasting friendships. 4LIYC Renegaders Jack Ripp and Jerry Simon have known each other for over 60 years. Jerry bought his first Skeeter from Jack back in 1957. Jerry’s first Skeeter was the second Skeeter that Jack built. Jerry explains:
[The] picture is me in my first Skeeter I purchased from Jack. It was Jack’s second skeeter as the first had a deck mounted tiller for steering as seen in the picture [from the 1952 Northwest]. Mine only had a steering wheel mounted under the deck. My first modification was to put in foot peddles, which didn’t work very well.
What is interesting is the sail number on my purchased boat was M8, which is the rig on Jack’s first tillered Skeeter photo [from the 1952 Northwest]. The picture of me standing next to my Par-a-dice boat with the sail number
M14 is off of Jack’s third Skeeter. I purchased it later and took off the number 9 from is famous M149 number.
During this time period skeeters changed every year so lots of cheap used gear available.
