UPCOMING:
It’s Building Season!
Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet: Oct 19, 2025 @ Lake Geneva Yacht Club More information
Midwest Hardwater Sailors Swap Meet: November 8, 2025 @ Delavan Yacht Club More Information
4LIYC Meeting : November 2025
4LIYC Shipstore: Order custom iceboat shirts, hats, and gear. More information.
BURGEE: Order your 4LIYC Burgee
Pay Your Dues Online
Regatta Watch: WSSA Postponed
Joe Terry V36 at the tiller of his Class D Stern Steerer LACINDA MAE at the 2019 Northwest Regatta on Lake Pepin in MN Photo: Pat Heppert
The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to February 23 and 24, 2019. The next update will be Sunday, February 17. Check back here at that time. Too much snow, shell ice, and roughness.
Andy Gratton
WSSA Secretary/Treasurer
Saturday 4LIYC Racing Update
Vice Commodore Tim McCormick checked in to report at 2 PM that some Renegades and Nite gave it a try but determined that the ice on Lake Monona was too rough for racing. With snow in the forecast tomorrow, club racing has been cancelled for the weekend.
Accepted Iceboating Wisdom applies here: A bad day iceboating is better than a good day at work.
4LIYC Racing Called ON for Feb 9-10 @ Monona
We’ve been sailing Madison’s waters since 1860 and are part of what makes Madison unique.
Four Lakes Ice Yacht club racing is called on for February 9-10, 2019 on Lake Monona. Use the Olin boat launch.
Saturday’s races are postponed until 1 PM because of the low temperatures that are in the morning’s forecast.
Ice: Tim McCormick and Don Sanford report 6″+ of ice (They couldn’t drill completely through the ice with a 6″ bit). The ice is very hard and there are some 2″ high sloped humps (no vertical faces) completely covered in ice. .
Launch: The launch ramp at Olin is covered in ice. Please use extreme caution if you drive on the ice to drop your trailer. If you drive on, drop your trailer and drive off the ice IMMEDIATELY. Don’t leave your vehicle on the ice more than 5 minutes. This can’t be stressed enough!
Observe all regulations at the launch including the parking lot permit.
Junior Worlds Complete
Ice Optimist sailor Livia Liszkiewicz P334 would rather be ice sailing! Photo: Olsztyński Klub Żeglarski Facebook Page
DN Junior World Championship: 1st Rasmus Maalen, 2nd Zuzanna Rybicka Photo: Zuzanna Rybicka
The 2019 Junior DN and Ice Optimist World Championships are complete. Congratulations to all who competed including the 4LIYC’s Thor Rosten who kept his DN moving in some sticky, light conditions. The European Championship began today and will be completed on Friday.
It’s heartening to see these kids racing iceboats and gives us all hope for the future of this always fragile sport. North Americans may be wondering how the Europeans can field an 80 boat youth regatta on ice. 4LIYC member and North American Junior Secretary Ron Rosten has written about why he thinks the Europeans are miles ahead of North America in youth iceboat sailing. Read his article, “The State of Youth Sailing” in the September 2018 issue of the DN newsletter, Runner Tracks.
Europeans are also leading the way to encourage more women to compete in the sport. One sailor who has benefited from such a strong youth program is Polish DN sailor Zuzanna Rybicka -she has had quite an ice sailing season. Someday we will see her compete in North America. I took the liberty of posting (with a bit of correcting and guessing on the translation) her thoughts from Facebook today:
Yay! Today ended the junior world championship where I took 2th place in the DN fleet and 1st place in the women’s division. 🏆
It’s a great goodbye with age junior, and at the same time successful year greeting with age
This year I got a lot of support from a lot of people and I would like to thank everyone Awesome starts having such great fans like you guys.Summary of my results in season 2018/19:
🥇 1st Women, European championship
🥈 1st. Women, Polish junior championship
🥈 2nd Junior World Championship
🥇 1st Women, Junior World Championship
[In today’s] European Junior Championship, after the first day I am on lead among women and second place in DN. Open. Keep your fingers crossed, tomorrow decisive races 💪
Previous: Junior Worlds See the World
Previous: 2019 Junior World Championship Begins
Previous: Junior Worlds Ice Sailing Championships Day 1
True Ink On Ice
True
True Ink magazine “…celebrate(s) The Noble Pursuit, a mix of adventure, expertise, and time well spent”. It’s time well spent reading their latest offering about the sport of ice sailing:
COMMODORE OF THE HARD WATER
In Brief:Daniel Hearn, ice sailor of the Gold Fleet, spoke with the editors of True about the magic of the hard water. Read more.
4LIYC Ice Check Friday Feb 8
What will they see?
In one week, the Madison area has seen the temperatures swing from -27F to 40F along with every known precipitation type. It’s raining and sleeting as I type this. What that means is the lakes are in a constant state of change as far as iceboating is concerned.
On Tuesday, 4LIYC members took a look at Mendota, Monona, and Kegonsa with the hopes of finding decent ice for the Nite Nationals. The snow had turned into a rough slushy surface. There were dark patches on Lake Mendota that looked unsafe. Monona looked like it had the best potential but it was rough.
Club members will meet at the Olin Park landing on Friday at noon to assess Lake Monona. Stand by for news.
In The News: Bill Bucholz
Bill Bucholz and Pat Heppert at the 2017 ISA in Battle Lake, MN
Our good friend, Maine iceboater and iceboat builder Bill Bucholz, was recently featured in an article in the Portland Press Herald. Bill made the long drive to the ISA in 2017 with his C Skeeter and we look forward to his next regatta visit.
Maine’s only commercial ice-boat builder has a passion for his craft
In the fringe sport, Bill Buchholz enjoys making boats.
BY DEIRDRE FLEMING
CAMDEN — Bill Buchholz builds ice boats for a living, a trade that sets him apart.
He built his first in 2007, and in the subsequent years turned his Camden company, Apache Boatworks, into a business that specializes in ice boats, sleek usually one-person crafts that can skate across frozen ponds and lakes at speeds of up to 50 mph.
In a boat-building community of some 5,000, Buchholz is the only full-time commercial ice-boat builder in Maine, and one of a small number – some estimate it around 200 – in the country. Continue reading.
Junior World Ice Sailing Championship: Day 1
Photo: Michał Skawiński “Kornik” POL 333 P-339
The 2019 Junior World DN & Ice Optimist Championships got underway today on Lake Siemianowka in light air and sticky ice. Ron Rosten reported that the wind shut off during the day’s last race and they tore down their boats in the dark. Ron also praised Estonian DNer Rasmus Maalen C20, currently in first, who “went out of his way to give Thor [Rosten] advice and offer encouragement.”
Rasmus Maalen, it should be noted, won the first race of the European Championship 2 weeks ago and finished 6th overall. Another junior who competed at the Europeans, Zuzanna Rybicka P119, is in second place just 2 points behind Rasmus tonight.
In the Ice Optimist fleet, Estonian sailor Lisbeth Taggu C1 holds first with Poles Mateusz Gigielewicz P89 and Anielka Graczyk P375 tied for second. Aneilka’s father, Robert Graczyk, won the Polish Championship last Saturday. There are a combined total of 80 skippers registered for the regatta. Youth iceboating is doing well in Europe.
Previous: Junior Worlds See the World
Previous: 2019 Junior World Championship Begins
Regatta Watch: Nite Nationals Postponed
Nites line up to race at the 2019 ISA Photo: Pat Heppert
Nite Nationals has been postponed to the weekend of February 16 & 17, 2019. Ice checkers in Madison and Pewaukee found that even with the recent thaw, ice conditions are not quite ready.
Next announcement will be posted on the Nite class website on Friday evening, Feb 10, 2019
Junior Worlds See the World
Junior DN & Ice Optimist sailors at Lake Niegocin in Gizycko, Poland Photo: Mihkel Kosk
“Double ice [the Europeans’ name for shell ice], not frozen slush, and snow drifts” on Niegocin means the juniors are on the move today to greener iceboating pastures on Lake Siemianowka at Poland’s border with Belarus. Opening ceremonies and racing for the Junior World DN & Ice Optimist championships are scheduled for Wednesday Feb 6th.
Previous: 2019 Junior World Championship Begins
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4LIYC Governing Documents
Click for 4LIYC Meeting Dates
- January 2 THURSDAY Honor Roll Nominations
- January 15 Deadline for By-Law or Racing Rules Amendment Submission
- January 29
- February 12 Business Meeting
- February 26
- March 12 Last Meeting of the Season
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.
