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1976 Northwest Regatta on Lake Mendota
Class E Skeeters line up to race at the 1976 Northwest Regatta on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo: Greg Whitehorse
Greg Whitehorse posted this on the 4LIYC Facebook page.
Mid-70’s Northwest Regatta on Lake Mendota.
You are looking at just one side of the starting line, so I’ll guess there are probably 28, maybe more, Class E* Skeeters in this race. M-54 is Gary Sternberg’s “So What,” but I think Vic Whitehorse is at the helm for this race. That would be Dave Nelson’s M-150, “Tuff Ship” lined up next. Racing in the Skeeter class with 30-40 boats on the line was a blast back in the day.Between the late ’60s and early ’70s, I believe club members helped build ten or more Class E Skeeters in Dave Rosten’s basement. It wasn’t unusual to see Dave, Paul Krueger, Bill Mattison, Jack Ripp, the guy who the boat was being built for, and a host of others all helping out. It was an incredible time.
Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s Sparky Lundberg aced out Paul Krueger for the Class A Skeeter win that year. It may have been the first year for PK’s rear seater.
January 21, 1976, Wisconsin State Journal: Paul Krueger’s first rear-seat Class A Skeeter.
1976 NIYA Regatta Winners:
Class A: No entry
Class B: WINTER BELL, B. Herman
Class C: TWIN BEDS, Bill McCormick
Class D: RED WITCH, Dick Slates
Class E Skeeter: Sparky Lundberg
DN Class: Jane Pegel
DN Class Junior:Mike O’Brien
Renegade Class: Elmer Millenbach RENEGADE III
*The Reason Class A Skeeters are called Class E Skeeters in the Northwest Regatta
The International Skeeter Association designates bow-steering Skeeters Class A as “Single place yachts, or two-place tandem Whose mast, when measured along the mast, does not exceed 28’-6″ from the deck to top of mast, including all mast and deck hardware.” Class A Skeeters carry a maximum of 75 square feet of sail. However, when Class A Skeeters sail in the Northwest regatta, they are listed as “Class E.” (When I was a kid, I thought the E stood for “Experimental.”)
Class A Skeeters turn into Class E because there was already a Class A, B, C, and D in the Northwest, and those designations applied to Stern-Steerers. Skeeters got the left-over E. It reminds us that the Northwest regatta is a Stern-Steerer regatta, organized in 1913 by ice yacht clubs, which only sailed Stern-Steerers at the time. 1936 marks the year that the Northwest recognized Skeeters as an ice yacht class.
Ice Magic
Lake Baikal. Photo by Kristina Makeeva
It’s -5F/-21C in Madison, WI this morning. Oh, and it’s snowing, thus proving that it’s never too cold to snow. Many of us are spending another weekend off the ice. Why not get your ice-science geek on and read DN sailor Ken Smith’s article about ice’s magical properties and learn about peel-outs.
WHY ICE WORKS
Push your boat over ice, and it slides almost friction-free. Why is there no friction? Because ice is magic. Ice floats on water.
Professor, explain why runners are almost frictionless on ice? Well, pilot, most materials live by phase diagrams that display what pressure and temperature does to the material “phases,” liquid, solid and gas. Take a gas, put it under pressure and it becomes a liquid. Take a liquid and put it under pressure and it becomes a solid. Works for lava. Works for steel, works for most anything that has a liquid state. It works for water, too. The magic stuff, ice will become water (or slush) if it gets above 32 degrees F, 0 degrees C. But there is a special condition found in ice where the phase transitions are a little wacky. This wackiness means the solid is less densethan the liquid. Ice floats. Stay with me here.
Continue reading in the February 2021 edition of the DN class newsletter, Runner Tracks, page 8.
4LIYC Racing Update for February 13-14, 2021
The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club will not be holding racing this weekend of February 13-14, 2021. The sign above explains all – too much snow on area lakes. Next 4LIYC racing update is February 19, 2021.
Meanwhile, over in Holland, the birthplace of our sport, they have ice for the first time in 10 years! Every iceboat in the entire country must have been sailing in Holland today.
Steve O Goes
When was the last time you clocked in at 100 mph in your sailboat when the breeze was a steady 15 knots? Not recently? Let’s chat with Harken Director of Engineering Steve Orlebeke. He brought his freaky fast Class A Skeeter and brand new DN into the factory to give you an inside look.
Here’s the link to the full video of Steve racing his Skeeter.
Sail Iowa!
Okoboji or Spirit Lake in Iowa would be a great place to iceboat some day.
Some years the stars align for just one day. Some years for a week or even two. Some years the right conditions never come together at all.
But even just one great outing in an ice boat is enough to keep its captain coming back winter after winter. Continue reading.
Regatta Watch: 2021 WSSA Postponed
Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Via Wisconsin Stern Steerer Association Secretary Andy Gratton
The Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to February 20 and 21, 2021. The next update will be Sunday, February 14. Check back here at that time.
Hudson River Ice
Source: White Wings & Black Ice: Vixen, a lateen-rigger ice yacht, was built in 1885 in Chelsea ( Low Point) by the Merritt Brothers. It raced several times for the Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America. It was owned and sailed by FDR’s uncle John A. Roosevelt for many years.
Ice has returned to New York’s Hudson River Valley, the origin point of American ice sailing, and the historic stern steerers are coming out of the barns. Keep an eye on Brian Reid’s indispensable White Wings and Black Ice website for the next few weeks for the stories and photos.
“Looking Back: Ice boating on Lake St. Clair”
Looking Back: Ice boating on Lake St. Clair
St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published February 7, 2021ST. CLAIR SHORES — In this undated image, three two-person ice boats of the Racing 60s class are getting ready for competition on Lake St. Clair. Ice boating was popular on Lake St. Clair, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s (likely when this photo was taken) and into the middle part of the 20th century. Continue reading.
Regatta Watch: 2021 Renegade Championship Postponed
Ron Rosten R19: Copyright: Gretchen Dorian
Via Renegade Regatta Chair Don Anderson: The 2021 Renegade Championship has been postponed until February 19 – 21, 2021. Next update is Sunday, February 14, 2021.
Eyes on Green
How about a little ice sailing optimism with your coffee this – 14F Sunday morning? Ron Rosten sent this MODIS satellite image showing that the east end of Green Lake in Wisconsin was open on Saturday, February 6, 2021. MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) is a useful tool for iceboaters. Access it here.
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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.
