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4LIYC Meeting : November 2025
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TRUDLE II: Story Behind a Photo
TRUDLE II from the Rosenfeld Collection, Mystic Seaport
Lake Winnebago Stern-Steerer sailor, Dave Lallier, posted this eye catching photo on the 4LIYC Facebook page this morning.
A little research indicates that TRUDLE II was owned by Ernst von Lengerke of New Jersey who served as Commodore of the Musconetcong Ice Yacht Club. He received credit in Frederic Gardiner’s book, “Wings on Ice”, as an invaluable source of information about the sport. The boat is also mentioned in a 1940 New Jersey Register article about a successful iceboat regatta held at Red Banks. If you want to dig deeper, one of the Google search results led me back to this website in the form of an article written in 1947 by Ray Ruge that references TRUDLE III.
UPDATE April 18, 2018: Nels Lybeck posts the following on Facebook: “The Trudle III is currently in the care and hands of myself and Doug MacFarland (ex DN US 2500) here in Red Bank and has been restored with a new sail to fit her Duralum (before aluminum) Marconi rig. We received it from Ernst Von Lengerke’s daughter before she died a few years ago.”
Winter V2.0
Bill Bucholz shared this video on the Chickawaukee, Maine Iceboat Club website. The ice sailing season appears to be holding on in Lac St. Francois, in Lambton, Quebec where they sailed on Sunday, April 15. The weekend snow storm makes the world feel upside down – as if it’s December and we are waiting for first sailing reports. Here in Madison this morning, there’s 4″ of snow on the ground, it’s 24 F, and it’s snowing. Mike Madge reports 4′ of ice in Thunder Bay, Ontario. There could be some more ice sailing to come.
Baikal Ice Sailing Photos
Photo: Jacek Kwiatkowski
If you need something to do while you are cooped up this weekend because of yet another snow storm, peruse these wonderful photos by Jacek Kwiatkowski from this year’s Lake Baikal DN and Ice Optimist regattas.
The Season Marches On
Lake Bakail ice sailing April 2018 Photo: Lukasz Zakrzewski
The fat lady isn’t even in the building yet. DNs and Ice Optimist sailors from 12 countries (including Chicago sailor Chris Berger) have gathered on Lake Baikal this week for the annual regatta. Closer to home, the Chickawaukee Ice Boat Club sailors are making an effort to sail in Maine this Thursday.
Regatta Watch: Renegade Championship Postponed Until Dec 2018
The Renegades have decided to put their 2018 Championship hopes on hold until December. Next update November 2018.
Regatta Watch: ISA Postponed…Until Dec 2018
No fooling!
The International Skeeter Association Championship has been postponed. Gladstone, Michigan, the potential site, received 10″ of snow on Saturday. No sailable conditions exist for the regatta at this time. Check back in November 2018 for the next update. The hope is that the regatta can be sailed in December in Minnesota.
Waiting for December
Menominee Photos & Video from George
Iceboats on Green Bay at Menominee, Michigan on March 24, 2018
George Gerhardt shared some photos and video from the last hurrah at Menominee last weekend.
Video here.
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Final Friday?
The Menekaunee sailors had some ice time under blue skies yesterday, Friday, March 30. Winter’s not done yet though, a snow storm is rolling through the area today.
Tip of the Helmet: Rob McKesson
From The Beginning
Facebook share from Eduard Zilinskiy
Everyone starts in this sport somewhere! This creative attempt at an iceboat brought back memories for ice sailors on the 4LIYC Facebook page. See their comments below.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, kids in Madison used to raid housing construction sites for wood to build their versions of what this represents. Hope they enjoyed the ride, caught the bug, and upgrade to better one for next season.
When I was 12 years old I got the plans for an iceboat out of Popular Mechanics and built it. I took it down to the lake and sailed it across—it sailed pretty good but I had to walk it back—-after about three times I took the boat home and dismantled it—what a dumb sport—-I didn’t know about tacking then !!!!!
Richard Lichtfeld, MISS MADISON stern steerer owner
My first boat was a psuedo-Madison-style stern steerer with a tobacco pole mast and largely rotten cotton canvas sails. Still, it went, and I’d (almost) always end the day smiling and smudged with the oxide of the red barn paint with which she was finished. One major quirk: you had to sail her with an appropriately sized wrench on a lanyard around your neck, as the bolt securing the tiller to the steering runner post would always loosen up underway.
Mark Langenfeld, 4LIYC sailor
Too bad I never got a picture of my 1976, ice boat built at age 12. Runners were free hand ground from ice skates bought for 25 cents at the second hand store. mounting plates welded on at local Shell Station. Half a blown out Snipe sail. Stair banister for a mast with cotton close line rope for stays. Half a broken lawn chair for a seat. 3 or4 cheap cast pulleys, nothing like a harken. Bow Steering was from an FAO Schwartz sail car, the aluminum mast on that rig snapped while luffing at the end of the drive way the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. I had to regrind the runners twice, until I got the right kind of angle. The boat was Oak 1×6’s. They were stacked and nailed together in varying layers to give the right strength and flex at different parts of the boat. Three different lengths for the runner plank bend, thickest in the middle. Loose footed, no boom. It sailed pretty good, once the runner edges no longer looked like steak knives. My brother did figure out the method to screw the runners to the plank in an amazingly well aligned manner.
I rigged a bicycle with screws through the tires and geared it for speed. I could get from home to Norton’s, where naturally all ice boats were parked in those days, in a few minutes. We were blessed with a long ice boating season that winter. I always had a need for wind powered speed.
Drew Zeratsky, Green Lake Ice Yacht Club
A Proper Ice Check
Who knew that a 2 minute ice check drone video could be so hauntingly beautiful? Rick Elrod shot and edited the video March 28th on Little Bay de Noc in Gladstone, Michigan. Escanaba Nite sailor Terry Reynolds, Menekaunee sailors Mike Derusha and Ken Kreider, and a few others inspected the ice for International Skeeter Association regatta. The 2:13 minute mark shows exactly why the regatta was postponed but there’s plenty of ice. Many thanks to Terry Reynolds and friends from Escanaba and Gladstone who took the time to check the ice for the ISA.
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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.
