by Deb Whitehorse | Feb 27, 2026 | 2025-2026, Home Page
Unseasonably warm weather across southern Wisconsin has taken a toll on the ice. Many lakes, including Lake Mendota, are now candled with shoreline loss and unsafe for racing. (Some of our members have had firsthand experience with candling on Mendota recently.) As a result, there will be no 4LIYC ice sailing on February 28 or March 1.
Candling occurs when solid ice breaks down into vertical columns and loses strength, even if the surface still appears intact. Learn more about candled ice here: LINK
In the meantime, here is an ice sailing sighting from an unexpected place.
This video captures the Range Rover campaign featuring Daniel Hearn’s C Skeeter running inside the Oculus at the World Trade Center in New York City. The Oculus serves as the main transportation hub for Lower Manhattan, with thousands of commuters passing through each day.
LINK TO VIDEO
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by Deb Whitehorse | Jan 16, 2026 | 2025-2026, Home Page
There will be no Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club racing the weekend of January 17-18.
We’re seeing a familiar pattern set up again: light snow that keeps accumulating, followed eventually by rain and warmer temperatures that reset the lake. Right now, we’re at the beginning of that cycle with enough fresh snow on the ice to keep us off of it.
If the pattern holds, we’ll get our Zamboni back. It’s already been working overtime this year.
This weekend is officially a shop weekend. Get into the shop, tune the boats, and be ready when the ice comes back.
Iceboaters remain, as always, hopelessly optimistic.
Speaking of shops…
A crew out of Damien Luyet’s shop has been busy building six mini skeeters, boats that are equally happy on ice or converted for land sailing.
The only unresolved issue is branding. The group is currently split between Midwest Dirt Dudes and Midwest Dirt Devils.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Dec 31, 2025 | 2025-2026, Home Page
There will be no club racing on New Year’s Day. (Jan 1, 2026)
Lake Kegonsa ice conditions are currently too marginal, and the light wind forecast doesn’t improve the risk–reward equation.
We’ll check ice conditions again on Friday January 2, with the hope of calling club racing for Saturday and Sunday if things line up.
Updates will be posted once we’ve taken another look.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Dec 26, 2025 | 2025-2026, Home Page
There will be no 4LIYC racing this weekend, December 27 and 28.
With rain in the forecast and recent warm temperatures, we’re taking a break to protect the Kegonsa landing and the racing track. That gives us more racing later. To be clear: Lake Monona looks good but has many holes. We still have Lake Mendota is still in the bank as well.
It’s also a good weekend to slow down and watch Wizard of Zenda, the Buddy Melges documentary. The full film is now on YouTube.
The screenshot here shows Buddy with 4LIYC’s Bill Mattison at an ISA regatta in Lake Geneva, around 1999 with other familiar faces in the background.
As Buddy would say, keep your runners sharp.
Winter looks ready to return Sunday night. We still have a big season ahead. If things line up, we may even be able to race the historic Bloody Mary Eye Opener on January 1, a long-time 4LIYC favorite. Stay tuned.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Dec 21, 2025 | 2025-2026, Home Page, Renegade
Aerial Photos: Jim Stevenson
Day one (Saturday, December 20) of the Grand Slam Open brought Renegades and DNs to Lake Kegonsa. The Nite fleet chose to race locally and when your home club has ice, that’s the right call. That’s how clubs survive and grow.
Ice was hard and bumpy. Everyone agreed with Daniel Hearn’s call of a 6 or 7.
Pat Heppert brought his C Skeeter and spent all of Friday working her around the lake. On Saturday he set the course and ran the races. Pat knew the wind would build. He set the Skeeter up for a 25 mph blow, figuring the day would end with a few extra laps just for him. Those of us still near the leeward mark were in awe when he came around. Fastest many of us have ever seen that boat go. He was clearly having fun.
We ran five races in each fleet.
Renegade highlights came early. Damien Luyet won his first race ever. The fleet opened with a missing man formation in honor of Tim McCormick. Fittingly, cousin Greg won that race. The Renegades mixed it up all day with tight racing. Runner to runner at the leeward mark more than once. You didn’t know who had it until the line. New member Matt Critchley jumped straight into racing. He started the day hanging back and watching. By the end, he was making moves. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
View through a bar window.
In the DN fleet, Chris Berger dominated. So much so that he finished a race early enough to grab the flags and hold the checkers as the rest of the DNs crossed the line while Pat went to move the weather mark. First time I’ve seen that.
There was drama at one DN finish when Frankie Hearn lost a runner just before the finish line. (Pro tip. Always check your bolts.) Frankie kept it together, finished the race, and pointed hard at his plank to get his dad’s attention.
The wind came up hard in the final DN race. The fleet handled it well, turning it into a lesson on managing big downwind pressure and avoiding spinouts. Best part for me was seeing new DN racers out there. With a small fleet, it’s the perfect place to learn. Congratulations to all of you.
As I write this Sunday morning, it’s 10°F. Windy says we may see 6 mph. Enough to move the boats? We’ll find out.
Thanks to everyone who came out. One of the best parts of the day was ending it at Springers, some arriving by iceboat, replaying the races and warming up with a hot meal and a beverage.
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