UPCOMING:
4LIYC Spring Social: April 25 @ Breakwater More Information
4LIYC Meeting: November 2026
4LIYC Shipstore: Order custom iceboat shirts, hats, and gear. More information.
BURGEE: Order your 4LIYC Burgee
Pay Your Dues Online
“Madison or Minnesota?”
Madison or Minnesota? Minnesota C Skeeter sailor Pat Heppert posted the photo and question on Facebook over the weekend. Unfortunately, the Madison area must live vicariously through our Minnesota friends for some time. This Wednesday’s forecast of 64F will not help with ice making in southern Wisconsin, but it’s all downhill temperature-wise from then.
The former Jerry Simon boat SIMONIZED IV belongs to Mike Maloney. Pat and Mike sailed on some beautiful ice north of Brainerd, MN, on Round Lake while the MN DN crowd crossed the highway to sail on 4″ of black ice at Gull Lake.
MARY B Film News
Via Don Sanford:
The Ice Boat Foundation is thrilled to announce that our documentary film, Mary B: Madison’s Legendary Iceboat has been accepted into the Green Bay International Film Festival. Plan a trip to Title Town (Green Bay) on Thursday, February 10, 2022. We’re screening the film at the Green Bay Distillery. There’ll be good food, good drinks and plenty of talk about iceboats—what a combination. The filmmakers will be there and look forward to seeing you. More info here.
Meet Lawson Nelson: Ice Sailor
Lawson Nelson is a young man with many interests, including ice sailing. Watch him sail in an iceboat that he built himself. I’m unsure of his location, but he’s definitely out west. Lawson, you are a true iceboater! If you see this, get in touch so we can send you a hat or t-shirt.
Tip of the Helmet: John Eisenlohr
Lawson’s Ice Sailing Videos
How to Make a Small Iceboat
Rescuing Our Iceboats in March
Western Challenge Photos by Sean Heavey
The great thing about the Western Challenge is that Lake Christina is a day’s drive from Glasgow, Montana, home of photographer Sean Heavey.
He sends his apologies for not getting everyone because he spent a lot of time practicing flying the new drones and figuring out to cover the action with them. See the photos here.
Western Challenge Tune-Up Day
Skip Dieball and Chad Atkins get ready to push off.
Bright sunshine, moderately light winds, and reasonably hard ice made for a perfect first day on the ice at Lake Christina. Marks were set, and laps were run. We had just a dusting of snow in Battle Lake overnight, and we expect moderate wind and temperatures. “Father Nature shows up around noon and we’ll go from there.” Photos from Thursday, 2 December, 2021 on Lake Christina near Ashby, MN.
DN Western Challenge Called ON 3-5 Dec @ Christina
It’s on. Picture from Lake Christina near Ashby, MN n Sunday, November 28, 2021.
DECEMBER 1: UPDATE: Final confirmation. Regatta is called ON. Via John Dennis, the Western Challenge is called on for Lake Christina in Ashby, MN December 3 – 5, 2021. The Western Challenge is a an informal tune-up fun regatta for DNs.
What: Western Challenge
Date: December 3 – 5, 2021
Where: Lake Christina in Ashby, MN
Lodging: Recommended nearest Battle Lake, Minnesota
Battle Lake Inn and Suites (almost full, no vacancies for Friday night)
102 Glenhaven Dr, Battle Lake, MN 56515
+12188622500
Bonnie Beach Resort
20341 Bonnie Beach Road
Battle Lake, MN 56515
$175 night 3 bedrooms, (sleeps 4) with kitchen
218-864-5534
The Hideaway at Xanadu Island
35484 235th St, Battle Lake, MN 56515
+12188648096
The Otter
306 MN-78, Ottertail, MN 56571
+12183672525
Wisconsin Stern Steerers Association 2022 Newsletter
The big boats are Thinking Ice. Via WSSA Secretary Andy Gratton, here’s the 2022 newsletter.
Renegade Swing
Iceboaters are problem solvers, and Andy Gratton is one of the best. Based upon his experience at Lake Christina near Ashby, MN, last season, Andy figured out a way to make it easier to ferry a Renegade up and down a steep bank. Having “lifted hulls up and down banks one too many times,” he built a helpful device that easily picks up a Renegade hull.
“The crane will easily pick a Renegade (or perhaps a C skeeter hull.) It has a pick point about 11 feet aft of the trailer axle. I think that will do for getting the hulls over the bank we were using last year. As you can see from the photos, the slings and spreader bar works well for a Renegade hull. Both slings are the same length.”
Spaight Street Syndicate Update: The Other Deuce
And now for something completely different, via Daniel Hearn at the Spaight Street Syndicate.
The World According to Dash
If you’re like me, time always seems to run short when you’re prepping for the first regatta of the season. So, when nature calls, “ain’t nobody got time for dat.” Well, fret no more! Just get yourself a combo rolling work bench/changing station, like my Pappy’s, and do what I do. Drop that deuce right in your pants. Faster than a Struble start, you’ll be back at it before your runner even cools. Critical Hack–Make sure your sanitation engineer clears the bench of any carbon fiber dust. That can be very unpleasant on a fella’s bum.
Vassar Brewery: The First Iceboat Bar
America’s First Iceboating Bar & Club House
The Adventures of Iceboat Ike at Chucks by Harry Whitehorse
Chuck’s on Geneva, the Southside Ice Yacht Club on Winnebago, and Springer’s on Kegonsa, are a few bars that shape the social fabric of iceboating. After a day of good racing, walk into one of these establishments, and you’ll find boots with creepers scattered around the door, helmets, and coats piled on the pool tables. They are places where racers recount the day’s lap roundings and hash out ideas about finding more speed.
It’s not surprising that America’s first iceboating bar was in Poughkeepsie, New York, acknowledged as the sport’s American birthplace. Though he is often incorrectly cited as being America’s first iceboater, Poughkeepsie resident Oliver Booth and Jacob Buckhout were instrumental in sport’s growth. When Booth, Buckhout, and friends were ready for a cold one, they could have sailed their stern-steers up to the Vassar Brewery on the waterfront, which served as the think tank for early American ice sailing. The brewery also served as the start and finish line for Hudson River regattas.
“The Vassar Brewery office was the club house where all the river sportsmen gathered to discuss matters and partake of Mr. Booth’s specially brewed ale. About 1858 the possibilities of the development of the skate-boats was under consideration among the brewery coterie, and experiments of various kinds were tried with steel runners, heavy and light centre timbers and various cuts of sails.”
THE EAGLE’S HISTORY OF POUGHKEEPSIE BY EDMUND PLATT PUBLISHED IN 1905
I’ve stumbled across many odd connections in the sport’s history, and Vassar University is one of them. The name Vassar is familiar because it is associated with the college founded by the brewer, Matthew Vassar. The brewery building no longer exists, but if you are ever in Poughkeepsie, stop by the waterfront park and hoist a cold one to those who started it all.
I am indebted to Archie Call and Henry Bossett for sharing their early iceboating history research with me.
Online Ship’s Store
National Iceboat Authority Web Page
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.
