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
Triple the Fun at the Nordhaus Boatwerks
4LIYC Renegade sailors are in getting-ready-for-the-season mode. Jim Nordhaus and Geoff Sobering have been recording the progress on the 4LIYC Facebook page of a 3 mast Renegade build at the Nordhaus Boatwerks.
C Skeeters Coming From the East
It’s heartening to see some building activity from out east this summer in the C Skeeter fleet which could make for an exciting ISA regatta. Bill Buchholz has the latest over on the Chickawaukee Iceboat site.
After seeing Drifter race at the ISA last season Keith Kennedy commissioned one to be built here in Maine with the plan to go back to the ISA this season and bring home the cup.
September Runner Tracks Posted
Another sign that the ice sailing season is soon upon us, the September issue of the DN class newsletter, Runner Tracks, has been posted. Read it here.
Burly Brellenthin: Fast Again

Burly removes the cover from his B Skeeter in preparation for the 2013 Northwest Regatta on Green Lake. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
No stranger to going fast, Skeeter Iceboat Club B Skeeter skippper Burly Brellenthin, makes the news as he takes to the skies in a B-29.
Tip of the helmet: Jane Pegel
WWII and Korean vet gets flight in B-29
Though many military men served in World War II from the cockpit of a B-29 plane, few veterans get the chance to fly in one in 2017.
Birdell “Burly” Brellenthin is the exception to this.
Brellenthin served as a navigator in World War II and the Korean War, spending over 300 hours in a B-29 during this time. Continue reading.
Skeeter Iceboat Club Swap Meet: November 5th
Jane Pegel has dropped the flag on the 2017-2018 ice sailing season with the announcement that the Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s 32nd Annual Swap Meet is scheduled for Sunday, November 5, 2017 in Williams Bay, WI.
What: Skeeter Iceboat Club 32nd Annual Swap Meet
Date: Sunday, November 5, 2017
Time: 9AM – noon, followed by a raffle
Where: Lucke’s Cantina
220 N. Elkhorn Rd. (WI Hwy 67), Williams Bay, WI. Map
For more info, email sailing19@charter.net
Download pdf Swap Meet 2017
This is the day to swap, buy, and sell new and used iceboats and equipment. There is no charge for participating.Boat builders & hardware manufacturers will display new products. Breakfast and/or lunch will be available at Lucke’s.
Display area:
Items for sale can be set up on the black top parking area at Lucke’s.
Please do not park your cars in the display area.
Parking:
Please do not park or set up your displays adjacent to neighboring
businesses. A short distance to the north there is a municipal parking lot located at the intersection of Elkhorn Rd. and Stark St. (on the north side of Stark St., opposite Burrough’s Floor Coverings).
Meade Gougeon
Via the National Sailing Hall of Fame:
“Meade Alger Gougeon
September 25, 1938 – August 27, 2017
Fair Winds & Godspeed”
BAY CITY NEWS, BAY CITY, MI — Meade Gougeon, a sailing legend and industry innovator who pioneered the use of epoxies for boatbuilding, all while creating a culture of giving back at his Bay City business, died Sunday, Aug. 27. He was 78.
Read more.
Wish You Were Here: Iceboat Indiana & Pennsylvania
Let’s send up a few more vintage postcards, this time from places that aren’t well known for ice sailing, Angola, Indiana and Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania.
A Note from Ron Sherry: Meade Gougeon
Via Ron Sherry:
Meade Gougeon is about to sail his longest race, where he will join his brother and other great friends in paradise on miles and miles of black ice. Unfortunately melanoma has returned to Meade’s body with a vengeance. Time is short and Meade would like to give everyone the opportunity to send him a note at [deleted] . Meade knows exactly what is going on and is very happy with the life he has led and all the friends he has made. However, the oxygen he is on makes it hard for him to talk, so he would appreciate an E-mail or letter with good wishes and stories of all the good times we have had together.
ECLIPSE on Monona
Celebrating 50 Years of Harken
Class A Skeeter Sighting in Pewaukee
Peter Harken’s Skeeter, the Bill Mattison built HONEYBUCKET XIV, was set up at the plant over the weekend to celebrate Harken’s 50 years in business. Olaf and Peter are long time iceboaters and do much to support the sport.