A Brief Overview of Northwest Regatta History
Welcome to the home page of the Northwestern Ice Yachting Association (NIYA) Regatta. This historic regatta was first sailed in 1913 in Menominee, Michigan when the massive stern-steerers ruled the ice. The Skeeters, DNs, and Renegades—staples of today’s ice sailing world—hadn’t even been invented.
Learn more.
The Founding of the NIYA
Dateline: January 13, 1913 – Wisconsin State Journal
“Representatives of Oshkosh, Madison, Menominee, and Marinette met at the Hotel Menominee this morning and discussed the future of the new NIYA… L.F. Porter of Madison, a man who has been connected with several water and ice craft organizations, gave some timely and instructive suggestions in regard to the proper manner of conducting the association. He proposed having two delegates from each club present at a future gathering and form a constitution and bylaws at that time.”
That first year, Menominee skipper E. Peterson won the inaugural Class A championship in Square People. In 1914, Madison’s Emil Fauerbach took the title in the famed Princess II, a boat that would later go on to win the prestigious Hearst International Trophy.
Evolution of the NIYA Regatta
For its first two decades, the NIYA remained a stern-steerer-only championship. That changed in 1933 when bow-steering boats were allowed to compete for the first time. This shift opened the door for the Skeeters, Renegades, and DNs, expanding the competition beyond the classic stern-steerers.
Today, the NIYA remains one of the most prestigious and longest-running ice yachting championships, bringing together generations of iceboaters to compete for some of the most sought-after titles in the sport.
Notable Champions & Iceboat Classes
Class A Stern-Steerers
Some of the most famous names in iceboating have hoisted the Class A championship trophy, including:
- John Buckstaff (Oshkosh)
- Fritz Jungbluth & Carl Bernard (Madison) – FRITZ
- Harry Melges (Lake Geneva)
- Carl Bernard – MARY B
- Buddy Melges – FERDINAND THE BULL
DN Class (First recognized in 1954)
- 1954 – Skip Boston (First DN champion)
- 1956 – William Sarns
- 1960 – Jane Pegel (First win of 10 NIYA DN championships!)
Class E Skeeters (First raced in NIYA in 1933)
- 1936 – Harry Melges MICKEY FINN
- 1949 – Elmer Millenbach RENEGADE II (Before Renegades became a separate class, they raced with Skeeters)
Other Class E Champions: Bill Perrigo, Howard Boston, Frank Trost, Jack Ripp, Dave Rosten, Bill Mattison, Lou Loenneke, Buddy Melges, Bob Pegel, and Paul Krueger.
Renegade Class (First recognized in 1958)
- 1958 – Elmer Millenbach RENEGADE III (Won every NIYA Renegade championship until 1984!)
Other champions: Arlyn Lafortune, Lorne Sherry, Jack Ripp, Tim McCormick, Roger Derusha, Don Anderson, and Mike Derusha.
A Legacy of Competition & Tradition
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta has been a proving ground for the fastest ice yachts and most skilled sailors for over a century. From the towering stern steerers of the early 1900s to the sleek Skeeters, Renegades, and DNs of today, the NIYA continues to celebrate the sport’s thrill, speed, and camaraderie.
NIYA Secretary-Treasurers: A Legacy of Service.
Since 1922, the Northwestern Ice Yachting Association (NIYA) Secretary-Treasurers have played a crucial role in maintaining the continuity and success of the Northwest Regatta. Over the decades, only 11 individuals have held this position, each ensuring the smooth operation of the association, maintaining records, and keeping the regatta running for generations of iceboaters. Their dedication has helped preserve the tradition and history of ice yachting, making the Northwest Regatta one of the most prestigious events in the sport.
NIYA Secretary-Treasurers (1922 – Present)
- 1922 – 1926 C.H. Marquart
- 1927 – 1934 C.J. Meyer
- 1935 – 1940 O. Lyman Dwight
- 1941 – 1953 Frank A. Meyers
- 1954 A.W. Bentler
- 1955 – 1959 Gloria Melges
- 1960 Jim Robinson
- 1961 Gale Bennett
- 1962 – 1974 Cora Lee Millenbach
- 1975 – 2016 Paul Krueger
- 2017 – Present Steve Schalk
Regatta Watch: 2023 Wisconsin Stern-Steerers Regatta Postponed
2010 Northwest on Lake Winnebago. Photo Gretchen Dorian
The 2023 Wisconsin Stern Steering Association regatta has been postponed to February 25 and 26. The next update will be Sunday, February 19. Check back here at that time. The Northwest Ice Yacht Association regatta takes precedence.
Andy Gratton
WSSA Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: 2023 Northwest Postponed to Feb 24-26
Renegades at the 2023 Renegade Championship. Photo Will Johnston
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is postponed one week to February 24th, 25th, and 26th 2023.
Steve Schalk
NIYA
Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: 2023 Northwest Postponed to Feb 17 – 19
The 2023 NIYA Regatta has been postponed one week to February 17th, 18th and 19th 2023. The potential sites are Lake Winnebago, Green Bay and Petenwell, with melting making for a number of possible locations.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
NIYA
Regatta Watch: 2023 Northwest Postponed to Feb 10-12
Photo: Will Johnston
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is postponed one week to February 10, 11, and 12, 2023. Potential sites for that date are Green Bay, Green Lake, and Geneva Lake.
Steve Schalk
NIYA Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: Northwest Postponed to Feb 3 – 5, 2023
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta is postponed to February 3rd-5th 2023. We have cold weather arriving to make enough thickness for the Stern Steerers.
Steve Schalk
NIYA
Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: ’23 Northwest Postponed to January 27 – 29
Boehmke B Skeeters on Green Lake in 2013. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
The 2023 Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta is postponed to January 27th, 28th and 29th. The Race Committee is keeping the standard one week window between the ISA and Northwest Regattas.
Steve Schalk
NIYA
Secretary/Treasurer
Mary Jane Schalk: Ready For Some Time Away
Steve and Mary Jane Schalk
Via Mary Jane Schalk, Fontana, WI
Hey Ice boat racers,
I just want to thank all of you for so many years of helping me with one of the coolest things I have ever done. We have all been through so much together.
I think I started scoring ice boat regatta’s back in the 90’s. Remember way back then and I did all the tabulating with a pencil and a very long sheet of paper. There were some interesting stories and memorable situations back then! It took a while but so worth it to graduate into computer scoring.
I had so many great people to work with. First of all many of you sailors were my callers, and then I had Renate Intini, Julie Jankowski, and then Deb to work with. As you know Deb and I had some pretty good and crazy times together. We could figure out ways to entertain ourselves during a postponement, and had way more fun that we probably should have!!! Thanks Deb for all the fun times. I would also like to thank Shari Lundberg for teaching me in the beginning all about scoring and tabulating.
I stopped scoring from the ice to help take care of my mom and then we had so many cats that needed care like insulin shots twice a day, fluid under the skin, and medicine that – that kept me from coming back. But I was then able to do the tabulating from home.
I was still a helper by arranging hotels, banquets, and meetings for regattas. I drew for your starting positions from home and called them into Deb. Deb would take a picture of your finishes and call them in or send them to me. Now with me being able to post to the web page on a good day I could score the race and get it posted before the last finisher got out of his boat. That is way cool.
But I am ready for some time away. I have lots of plans for some fun activities while the regattas are on. Maybe I’ll just go down and visit some other retired ice boaters like Gary and Kenny Kessler. Now that would be fun!!! Deb asked one of the DN tabulators, Ann Foeller of the Toledo Ice Yacht Club, if she would score the ISA and NW regattas and she agreed. I wouldn’t leave without a replacement.
I am so happy to have met so many really cool and fun ice boaters. We have had lots of fun times, and made great memories. I can hardly wait for a regatta to come to Geneva Lake, as then I can hang with you all on the ice, and not be stuck at home in front of the computer.
Have fun everyone, be careful on the ice, and sail fast,
MJ
BTW I am sharing my favorite version of Steve’s iceboat song. I’d say it a pretty good one! LINK
Via Jane Pegel:
Mary Jane was a significant member of the Lake Geneva YC race committee. She also is a competitive sailor. She handled the front end of Steve’s E scow and his J-24.
She trimmed jib on my class M scow and helped me win Inland Lake YA championships and Blue Chips. She is no doubt, an exceptional woman who is happy to be “involved”.
…Jane
Mary Jane Schalk has been a crucial part of North American iceboating racing, and she’s decided to take a well-earned retirement. You may have seen her smiling face on the ice of Lake Geneva, but she was deeply involved behind the scenes in every Northwest, ISA, Renegade, and many Nite regattas for 30 years. She took care of numerous organizational details so that you ice sailors could book a room, attend a banquet, see your regatta scores, receive your trophies, and pursue your passion for iceboat racing.
MJ and I share many good memories. One of my best was driving on Geneva back to the Fontana landing towards the sunset. We were singing a silly, fun song at the top of our lungs that we had made up about the late Renegade sailor, Arlyn Lafortune, to the marching chant O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah from the Wizard of Oz. (Yeah, you had to be there…) We both probably enjoyed too much red wine later that night but were always ready for the next day. I know she’ll continue to be the first person I call when I have a funny story to share. – Deb Whitehorse
2023 Northwest Regatta Documents
Stern Steerer ROSEMARY
Northwest Home Page
2023 Northwest Race Documents, via Northwest Ice Yacht Association Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk
The Northwest regatta is tentatively scheduled for January 20, 21, and 22, 2023. Stay tuned for the next update on Sunday, January 15, 2023 by 8 PM.
Ice Yacht classes that sail the Northwest:
A Stern Steerer
B Stern Steerer
C Stern Steerer
D Stern Steerer
DN
Renegade
B Skeeter
C Skeeter
A Skeeter
Iceboat Virtual Hall of Fame: John Buckstaff 1888-1960
Carl Bernard, Camp Van Dyke, John Buckstaff, and Andy Flom sitting on the DEBUTANTE on Lake Winnebago in 1934. John Buckstaff is holding the Stuart Cup.
John Buckstaff Archives
If iceboating had a hall of fame, Lake Winnebago sailor, John Buckstaff would undoubtedly be among the first to be nominated. Buckstaff’s Oshkosh roots go back to his grandfather, who was born in 1799 and came from New Brunswick, Canada, to Oshkosh in 1850 and started a sawmill.
An early mention of Buckstaff in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern newspaper was in 1903, when he was 14 years old and recognized as a skilled scow sailor. “His first experience was gained, when as a boy in knickerbockers, he constructed an iceboat and sailed it on the frozen surface of Lake Winnebago. Here he learned to be quick and certain with the tiller and to handle the sail and tack.”
Buckstaff was in Menominee, Michigan, when the Menominee, Marinette, Wisconsin, and Oshkosh ice yacht clubs formed Northwest Ice Yachting Association in 1913. The morning after a banquet at the Hotel Menominee, where 200 ice yachtsmen gathered for a feast, they organized the Northwest, which they patterned after the Inland Lake Yachting Association, a soft-water scow regatta still going strong today.
In addition to his Northwest victories, Buckstaff won two prestigious stern-steerer titles, the Stuart and Hearst Cups. In 1903, The Kalamazoo Ice Yacht Club in Michigan persuaded F.A. Stuart, maker of Stuart’s Dyspeptic pills, to donate a trophy for ice yachts carrying 850 square feet of sail or less. Later that year, a Kalamazoo club member wired newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, asking Hearst if he would donate a trophy, in his name, for the ice boat race. Hearst complied and deeded a gold-lined silver cup.
Buckstaff was a stern-steerer man and would point BLUE BILL, FLYING DUTCHMAN, DEBUTANTE III to victory on the ice at the Stuart, Hearst, and Northwest regattas. FLYING DUTCHMAN has remained on her home lake of Lake Winnebago with Dave Lallier. DEBUTANTE III is in Menominee with Mike Derusha.
DEBUTANTE III was a Hudson River-style stern-steerer built in the famed Poughkeepsie, New York iceboat shop of Jacob Buckhought. The “DEB” with 600 square feet of sail was considered the most lightweight iceboat in the world per square foot of sail carried. DEB was the first iceboat to use aluminum runners, a much superior material than the cast iron runners traditionally used. The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported that the “DEB” held a speed record of 119 miles per hour clocked on Gull Lake in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
John Buckstaff passed away on the morning of Sunday, January 10, 1960, the weekend when the iceboating community gathered on Lake Winnebago for the Northwest, the regatta he had helped to begin. In a movie-like ending, DEBUTANTE III, skippered by E.W. Stroshine, won the Class A championship trophy that same day.
Northwest Class A Stern Steerer
1923 BLUE BILL, J. D. Buckstaff
1926 BLUE BILL, J. D. Buckstaff
1939 BLUE BILL II, John Buckstaff, Owner; Tom Anger, Skipper
Hearst
1932 (December) FLYING DUTCHMAN, OIYC, J. C. Van Dyke, J. D. Buckstaff (skippers)
Stuart
1920 DEBUTANTE III, OIYC, J. D. Buckstaff
1939 DEBUTANTE III, OIYC, J. D. Buckstaff
Wisconsin State Journal. February 14, 1935. A time when sports columnists followed the stars of ice yachting and rooted for the home team. The 4LIYC’s FRITZ with Carl Bernard at the helm won the Stuart that year.
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Cancelled
Stern Steerers line up to race
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is cancelled for 2022. We have no viable locations left.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasure NIYA
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to March 25-27
Via NIYA Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is postponed to March 25-27, 2022. Possible locations will be identified and announced Sunday., March 20.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
NIYA
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to March 18-20
Jay Yaeso and Steve Orlebeke in Class A Skeeters hiking around the weather mark at the 2016 Northwest on Lake Monona, Madison, WI. Photo: Joe Stanton
Via Northwest Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is Postponed to March 18-20, 2022.
There are still locations with thick ice that just need smoothing out of old drifts and bumps. Next update Sunday, March 13.
Steve Schalk
NIYA Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Called On for March 11-13
2013 Northwest on Green Lake in Wisconsin. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Via Northwest Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The 2022 Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta is on for March 11, 12, 13, 2022. Potential locations are Green Lake, Madison, and Petenwell Lake.
The final call will take place Wednesday March 9, 2022 before noon CT.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to March 11 – 13
Via NIYA Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk
The Northwest Regatta is postponed to March 11 – 13, 2022.
We have 20 to 24 inches of ice in several locations. Mother Nature’s Zamboni is taking over the ice for this weekend and may leave us with regatta conditions for March 11th. Next update is Sunday, March 6, 2022.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Called ON
DN fleet at the 2010 Northwest on Lake Winnebago. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Via Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The 2022 Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta has been called on for March 4-6. Locations under consideration are Wisconsin or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Final confirmation with location will be on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 by noon CT.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
NIYA
The Northwest is a 3 day regatta for A,B,C, and D Stern-Steerers, DNs, A, B, and C Skeeters, and Renegades.
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to March 4-6
B Skeeters on Lake Monona. Photo: Will Johnston
Via NIYA Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta is postponed to March 4-6, 2022. Next update will be on Sunday, February 27, 2022
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Called On for Lake Monona, Madison, WI
2010 Northwest Regatta on Lake Winnebago. Photo: Gretchen Dorian
Via Northwest Secretary/Treasurer Steve Schalk:
The 2022 Northwestern Ice Yachting Association Regatta is called on with the primary site in Lake Monona, Wisconsin, February 25 – 27. Secondary sites are Geneva Lake and Green Lake Wisconsin.
The first race is scheduled Friday, February 25, 2022.
Final confirmation will be made by noon Wednesday, February 23, 2022.
Northwest races will be held for Class A, B, C, D, E, Renegade, and DN.
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to Feb 25-27
The 2022 Northwestern Ice Yachting Regatta is postponed to February 25 – 27.All potential sites too rough for DNs.
Steve Schalk
Secretary/Treasurer
NIYA
Regatta Watch: Northwest Postponed
The Northwest Regatta has been postponed until February 18 – 20, 2022. Next update is February 13.
Regatta Watch: 2022 Northwest Postponed to Feb 11 – 13
2010 Northwest on Lake Winnebago. Photo by Gretchen Dorian
Via Northwest Secretary Steve Schalk
The 2022 Northwest Ice Yachting Association championship regatta has been postponed until February 11-13, 2022. There is not enough space for the Northwest at Marinette/Menominee. Next update is Sunday, February 6, 2022.
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