UPCOMING:
It’s Building Season!
4LIYC Meeting : November 2025
4LIYC Shipstore: Order custom iceboat shirts, hats, and gear. More information.
BURGEE: Order your 4LIYC Burgee
Pay Your Dues Online
Youth Movement
ICE SAILING 101
Current UW students Soren, Will and Jonathon; and recent college east coast college graduate, now Epic employee, Clark, workin’ it in the Spaight Street Syndicate lab. New steering posts and plank attachments, runners shimmed, sharpened and aligned…ready for first test of the semester at the Great Western Challenge. Tip of the helmet to Steve Duhamel at Northwind Iceboats for the donated parts to resurrect P154.
News From the National Iceboat Authority
The National Iceboat Authority Releases Updates to the Racing Rules and Launches a New Web Page
National Iceboat Authority
Via NIA Secretary/Treasurer Tim McCormick:
With the help of Deb Whitehorse, the NIA now has its own web page to make it easier for sailors to find information related to the racing rules. The page is pretty simple but it meets the following goals:
1. Share the purpose of the National Iceboat Authority which is to advise sailors on how to conduct iceboat races through an established set of racing rules and to provide a venue for appeals and rules interpretations.
2. Provide a location for the current version of the Constitution & Racing Rules of the NIA.
3. Provide a contact email for inquiries.
4. List current and former Directors of the NIA so sailors can easily associate a name with a face.In addition, the Racing Rules of the NIA have been updated to clarify:
1. When and how to ABANDON a race.
2. The compensatory points which may be awarded to an assisting yacht. We’ve also added appeal decision #9 related to filing a protest in a timely manner. A detailed list of the changes can be found in the revision history on the last page.We hope you find these updates useful and that we’ll all be a part of iceboat racing which is safe, fair, and fun!
Thanks,
Tim
Western Challenge @ Battle Lake
Dust is being made and runners sharpened in preparation for the first unofficial fun DN regatta of the season, the Western Challenge. Stay tuned to the Minnesota Ice Sailing Association website for the latest. Battle Lake has been chosen as the site. Look for final confirmation on Wednesday. The ISA regatta was sailed at Battle Lake 2 years ago and the town was very welcoming to all the sailors.
Centennials

From a recently published book commemorating the Toledo Ice Yacht Club’s 100th Anniversary. ‘Unknown” is Lorne Sherry from the Detroit Ice Yacht Club.
Our friends at one of the most active ice yacht club’s in North America, the Toledo Ice Yacht Club, are celebrating 100 years of iceboating in 2019. They’ve published a book edited by Ken Dickson commemorating their history. Be sure to have a look at their book if you are lucky enough to sail on Maumee Bay this winter. 4LIYC members who attended the Renegade regatta there over 10 years ago still talk about the good times they had with the TIYC.
Black Friday Ice
Stern-steerer fanatic Michael Kroll assembled his first video of the season from yesterday’s sailing highlights on White Potato Lake in northwestern Wisconsin.
Iceboating White Potato Lake with Andy Gratton, Dave Lallier, Mike Peters, Mike Derusha. Also Robbie and Bob Everhard from Oshkosh showed up with a Nite. We had DN’s, a Lockley Skimmer, and my small Stern Steerer. The wind came up quit nice and See if you can guess who was sailing the stern-steerer Sunshine when only 2 runners were on the ice. Fun time had by all. Great day of sailing!
College Syndicate
Silver Potato
The ice line is creeping south. The Minnesota sailors opened their season over the weekend on Silver Lake, 20 miles west of ‘Tonka. Mike Bloom reported, “4 inches of ice with 1/4 inch dusting of snow. Short course racing. Multiple races. 7 boats.Great day.” The Menekaunee sailors also opened their season on White Potato Lake, 30 miles west of Menominee/Marinette in Wisconsin. It won’t be long before the runners hit the ice here at Four Lakes!
First Meeting of the Season Tonight Nov 14
Please join us tonight for the first meeting of the 4LIYC ice sailing season. Same place (Angelo’s Italian Restaurant), same time, and same great all you can eat pizza buffet for only $10.
Location: Angelo’s Italian Restaurant
5801 Monona Drive
Monona, WI
Time: 6:30 PM alternate weeks
We meet downstairs and all are welcome.
First, Eh!
Thunder Bay, Ontario DN sailor, Mike Madge is once again the first to ice sail in North America (as far as we know). Last year, he was sailing on November 9. Another box ticked!
Just back from Whitefish Lake
4″ of Black ice with maybe 1/4″ covering of Snow.Wind 15 gusting to 20 made for a fast ride
Meanwhile in Minnesota, lakes are coming online in the usual places near Alexandria and with tonight’s low at 10F, it will only get better! Stay tuned to the Minnesota ice boating website for the latest.
Steve Arnold
Some sad news to share, Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club member Steve Arnold passed on over the weekend. Steve served as 4LIYC Commodore for several terms from the late 1980s to early ’90s. He started racing in the DN class, then moved onto Nites and Skeeters, and was very competitive in club races. Steve also helped run our club races and regattas. He was an avid pilot and in the last 20 years, we’d see him circling above us in his plane while we raced and often landing on the ice for a visit.