2020 Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Information
March 13-15,2020
Lake Waconia, Minnesota
Pegel Slide Collection: Elmer & Cora Millenbach
Elmer Millenbach rounds the weather mark in RENEGADE I on Geneva Lake. Note the film crew standing bravely at the mark.
Elmer Millenbach was one of the most influential iceboat builders in North America. Hamilton, Ontario ice sailor, Rob Intini, went so far as to stencil “We All Plays Elmer’s Tune” on his Class-A Skeeter boom as a reminder of Elmer’s iceboat innovations. Elmer designed the bow-steering Renegade and along with his wife, Cora Lee, created a successful one-design class. Cora Lee also served for many years on Race Committees and spent hours on the ice handling scoring duties.
Elmer designed the Renegade because the newly created DN Class couldn’t make up their minds on specifications.
From Renegade Reflections, an interview with Elmer Millenbach:
…. We no sooner got comfortably started when the Detroit Ice Yacht Club rescinded the allowable changes and reverted to the originally modified plans. That was it, as far as I was concerned! The three of us were stuck with sails and material for 3 boats, but I just couldn’t bring myself to build to the original plans. I told my two companions in the project that I was going to design my own boat and left it to their choice to do as they chose.
Read the entire article here.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage
DN Class May Runner Tracks Newsletter
The DN Class newsletter, Runner Tracks, has arrived on the virtual doorstep. Read it here.
Skeeter Iceboat Club Honors
Photo: August Greidanus
Via SIBC member Jane Pegel:
The Skeeter IBC 85th annual trophy dinner took place on May 5th.
Winner of the various completed series were presented their trophies.Boe Craft B Skeeter:
Championship Series – Steve Schalk
Saturday Morning Series – Rick Pappas
Wednesday Series – Steve SchalkDN Saturday Series – Pat Fitzgerald
The Nite fleet did not have a completed series, but Kyle Navin was recognized
as the winner of the races that had been sailed.Two former Commodores were granted Life Membership status –
Chuck Kaye and Steve Schalk. They both have performed outstanding
service to the Club as equipment maintenance men, ice checkers, rescue team, and as members of the sailing committee.
The current existing Life Members who were present to express their welcome to Chuck and Steve included
Burly Brellenthin, Bud Melges, and Jane Pegel. Life Member Spark Lundberg was unable to attend the event.
That’s All Folks…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTOthsZiIvA&ab_channel=DebWhitehorse
A 12 second PSA from iceboat.org. Let the summer building season begin! Check back here periodically for more posts about iceboating history and to learn how iceboaters keep busy in the off-season.
Minnetonka May Day Madness
Hooray Hooray, the First of May, Outdoor Ice Checking Ends Today
The idea sounded like a good one – ice sailing on May Day! The Minnesota ice sailors tried their best to make it happen today but Lake Minnetonka ice had deteriorated. Mike Bloom reported that they walked on the lake and found “lots of sketchy areas. Once again, Mother Nature proves who’s boss.”
Pegel Slide Collection: Classic DNs
690: L. Wohrle, 445 Bob Cave, 378 Eric Sternkoff, 294 Lou Lonnecke
Today’s subject is DN iceboats from the late 1950s to early 1960s. This class has changed with the times and allows for more modern materials such as carbon fiber in the masts.
Bob Cave and Lou Lonnecke, pictured above, remain active racers in the DN class.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage
Pegel Slide Collection: 1970 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant
4LIYC’s Dave Rosten and Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club’s Art Jark on Lake Mendota in Class A Skeeters c. 1970. NANCY E III was formerly one of Bill Mattison’s HONEYBUCKET Skeeters.
These slides date from around the time of the 1970 Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant. The 4LIYC had won ice yachting’s most prestigious title for 6 straight years but the 1970 challenge was a different story. Read Greg Whitehorse’s account of the 1970 IYCP below the fold.
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Pegel Slide Collection Series Webpage
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Excerpt from the BLADE RUNNER NEWSLETTER
HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES: THUNDER JET
The Greatest Name Ever Hung on an Ice Boat
Winter 2001, Volume 6, No. 2
By Greg Whitehorse
“One of Bill Perrigo’s last great ice yachting triumphs came in the Challenge Pennant races sailed on Lake Mendota in March of 1970.
The 4LIYC had won the Pennant in 1964, and successfully defended it for the next five years. Indeed, few thought that the Pennant races of 1970 would produce anything other than a 7th straight 4LIYC victory.
But the Pewaukee Ice Yacht Club had different ideas.
In their bid to wrestle the Pennant away from the 4LIYC, Pewaukee decided to send Art Jark’s lightening fast, ex-Bill Mattison Honeybucket, now named the Nancy E III, to Madison as one of it’s challenging yachts.
And Art Jark promptly tapped Bill Perrigo to steer it.
The Pennant title came down to the last race of the series that year. 4LIYC’s Dave Rosten, expertly piloting his Skeeter, Pirate, appeared to be headed for victory. But as the long, ten lap, twenty mile race wound down the wind began to pick up. The light snow that had fallen on and off throughout the day began to be blown around at the ice surface.
Soon the swirling snow built to almost surreal white-out conditions. All you could see of the boats racing around the course were the top four or five feet of the mast and sail. Finding the marks in these unbelievably dangerous conditions was next to impossible. On the last lap of the race Rosten could not find the top mark.
Somehow, Perrigo did.
A few minutes later the race scorers and other on-lookers were shocked to see Jark’s V-69, with Bill Perrigo at the helm, streaking toward the finish line.
The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant of America went to Pewaukee.
Yeah… under the toughest of conditions Bill Perrigo proved how tough he was.
And damn good too”
By Greg Whitehorse
T Bay’s Not Done
DNer Mike Madge remains in ice sailing mode up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. On Tuesday, Mike sailed for 3 hours on “mostly black, textured ice.” There’s 39 inches of ice there!
Iceboaters Skills at Land Sailing – 1984 and 2018
4LIYC Renegader Jim Nordhaus, Bill Petsch of New Zealand, and Hobie Alter competing at the 2018 Blokart North Americans at Ivanpah. Photo: Gary Terrell
4LIYC Skeeter sailor Gary Whitehorse sails his converted iceboat on the Ivanpah dry lake near Las Vegas in 1984.
Ice sailors have been making the spring pilgrimage to the “cathedral of land sailing”, the playa at Ivanpah, for several decades. Pewaukee Skeeter skipper Bill Dale has been at it the longest, sailing in NALSA events for 40 years. 4LIYC members Jim Nordhaus, Geoff Sobering, Scott Geotz, Kyle Metzloff, and Wayne Schmeidlin have been competing in Blokart regattas there for the past several years.
At this year’s Blokart North Americans, Jim Nordhaus’ iceboating skills helped to take him to second place overall in Performance (think Gold fleet) and first in his fiercely competitive division. A Blokart speed record of 77.7 mph was set by Scott Young and Dave Lussier on the last day of competition. Read more about that on Scuttlebutt.
Gary Whitehorse recently shared photos and memories on Facebook of the time he sailed his iceboat ENTERPRISE at Ivanpah.
Gary Whitehorse posted the following on Facebook: “1984, we thought we would try our skills at land sailing. Ivanpah Dry Lake was not far from where we lived in Lake Havasu, AZ. I finished 4th in Class 2 (the fastest class at the time) at the World Land Sailing Competition. There are many good stories on how this all came together.
The race course was announced on the starting line. A yellow paper taped on the hull were filled with maps of the various courses. Being a novice at this sport, I had not memorized them. I never lead a race, although got up to 2nd a few times. The boat was very fast, but the big, sticky tires scrubbed off to much speed when changing direction.”Gary’s brother, Greg added to the story: “I remember you called me from Arizona and asked if Bob Kau and I could convert the Enterprise into a land sailor. Paul Krueger had all the stuff, it would be easy you said. Well, Bob and I worked late into the night for a few nights to get it ready. (Some of the late nights may have been more to do with a well stocked fridge at Bob’s shop now that I think of it). Ron Rosten was going to tow it out there for you. A few weeks prior to sending it out West, I had tipped it over on Lake Kegonsa. Although damage was minor, I neglected to fix the steering pedals and all that you had to push on were the pipe ends. You weren’t thrilled about that.”
Pegel Slide Collection: FROZEN ASSET
Bob Pegel Class A Skeeter FROZEN ASSET
Bob and Jane took meticulous care of their iceboats. Bob’s Skeeter, FROZEN ASSETS, had different color schemes which is unusual in my opinion because up here at Four Lakes, the most of the Skeeters in that era were red and white, period. Jane writes about Bob’s boats:
Bob had many different boats. Each boat had a different paint scheme. I don’t recall the sequence or how many boats there were. He had conventional under the boom cockpits and also rumble seaters. Originally Bob’s number was I-117. The number 9 had been assigned to Cora Millenbach and she gave 9 to Bob and he then had I-9 on his Skeeters and then also on his Renegades. After he got tired of the color blue, he had green boats. Bob raced in A Division and also in C Division (which was a varnished boat with a white deck). He won C division ISA and also Class E in the Northwest. The brown skeeter with sail I-117 was actually the boat with white sides and dark blue deck. The hull broke in half and was rebuilt. It was rebuilt and back on the ice and rigged to sail before it could be repainted. I have a photo of that boat under sail hanging in my hallway. In that photo It it obvious the hull is getting ready to break.
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The Summer Slide Series: Bob & Jane Pegel Collection
Jane Wiswell Pegel of the Skeeter Ice Boat Club with trophies.
Several months ago, an envelope arrived in the mail with 177 slides. I finally got around to converting them and am pleased to announce that iceboat.org’s off-season series will feature the Pegel family iceboating slides. I’ll try to post a few each week with commentary and context from Jane and Susie as their schedule permits.
I don’t have any information from them yet on these photos, but will update if it comes. Before she was a DN sailor, Jane sailed a Skeeter, CALAMITY JANE. In the above photo, Jane holds a plaque that appears to read “Women’s Skeeter Champion.” ISA regatta records indicate that Jane won the Women’s Championship in 1955, 1956, and 1957.
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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
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