Frank Trost’s TUSCARORA Lives On

by Deb Whitehorse | Sep 22, 2024 | 2024-2025, Home Page, ISA

TUSCORA, a beautifully maintained vintage Skeeter, once owned by Frank Trost of the Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club, was exhibited at an antique boat show yesterday. Frank Trost’s boat holds a special place in the history of ice yachting, with deep ties to Pewaukee’s ice sailing community. Along with a newly sent photo of the restored boat, we’ll revisit its history and legacy.

Tim Fredman shared the photos and wrote: “I helped Rob Ritter (brother of John at S&R Marine) set this up for an antique boat club gathering yesterday. John is the current caretaker of the equipment, having been given it by Don and Mary Schwister, who were the prior caretakers. Frank Trost was one fine man and a great iceboater. To me, it looks like a survivor. Not much different than the last time I saw it about 45 years ago. Runners, sails, horses, parts, etc are all on the trailer looking as if it just returned from a regatta!”

PREVIOUS: Pegel Slide Collection: Frank Trost & TUSCARORA
by Deb Whitehorse | Jun 4, 2018 | 2017-2018, Bob & Jane Pegel Slides, Home Page, ISA

Frank Trost TUSCARORA III

Frank Trost, along with his neighbor William Perrigo, was another legendary E Skeeter sailor from Pewaukee, WI. Trost and Perrigo captured the 1953 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant the first time the race was held in the Midwest after Fox Lake’s Eddie Rollberg won it out east in 1952. Trost was part of the winning team that went on to win it another 3 times.
Frank Trost gave one of my favorite descriptive quotes about ice boating to a Russian reporter in 1960:

From “Sailing In the Cold Region“, a Russian magazine article published in 1960:
Frank Trost, Perrigo’s neighbor, describes even poetical a ride on his “Tuscarora”:- Iceboat comes alive, he begins to talk to you. Was I somehow on Lake Delavan. Gusts crosswind reached 80 km / h. I didn’t feel under itself, but the “Tuscarora” didn’t obey. It seemed to fly through the air; only the wind howled in the wires and whistled – people standing on the bank told us that the boat roared like a jet plane – and in my helmet was a rumble that I have not heard the creaking of the runners. After the arrival, from flying in all directions icicles Trost’s face was covered with hundreds of tiny cuts. But the little things it did not disturb. As many iceboat sailors, he doesn’t recognize the face masks. He argues that in order to determine the speed of a good sailor should feel the wind on his face and trap slightest changes, skillfully using them to speed up the movement. It is worth and cause injury to the blood!

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