by Deb Whitehorse | Dec 18, 2025 | 2025-2026, Home Page
Proof It Happened
Last March, Daniel Hearn and Pat Heppert went a secret mission to an undisclosed lake in Minnesota. The mission was straightforward. Daniel and his C Skeeter were cast as the talent for a Range Rover commercial. Pat Heppert scouted the lake and when the wind died, stepped in and quite literally provided support, pushing the C Skeeter to keep things moving. Range Rover now joins many automobile manufacturers who have used iceboats as shorthand for speed and control on ice.
I wish I could show you the finished spot. I received it in an Instagram message and cannot find it anywhere online. It appears to be living the quiet life as a paid ad. If it ever surfaces in the wild, I will link to it here.
Until then, it is nice to know that somewhere in a Range Rover edit suite, a C Skeeter stole the show.
Iceboats in Advertising Archives
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by Deb Whitehorse | Nov 1, 2025 | 2025-2026, DN, Home Page
Iceboats in Advertising Archives
Marketing cars with iceboats has a long history. Even the DN itself is named after The Detroit News, and over the years this site has shared plenty of examples from the “Mad Men” era, when Detroit advertisers paired cars with wind power to sell speed and style.
This video came out today from Skoda featuring a well-known Polish DN champion, Łukasz Zakrzewski, who has sailed our own lakes more than a few times.
Video link.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Jun 9, 2023 | 2022-2023, Home Page
Here’s another gem discovered by Henry Bossett, an illustrated ad for Pettijohn cereal. According to Mr. Breakfast, Pettijohn’s was produced by a Chicago company from 1889 until 1893, when Quaker Oats bought it. As was the case in those days, the artists were anonymous.
UPDATE: The artist is Fanny Cory, one the first female syndicated cartoonists. 
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by Deb Whitehorse | Sep 25, 2020 | 2020-2021, Home Page, ISA
Black Ice from Sail Racing on Vimeo.
Explore Black IceIn January of 2020, the Swedish high-performance clothing company Sail Racing sent their crew on an expedition to Lake Pepin on the Wisconsin Minnesota border to film Skeeters for their fall 2020 advertising campaign. They have filmed Skeeters in previous years including the 2013 International Skeeter Association Regatta (ISA) on Lake Kegonsa. Skeeter sailors and the Sail Racing folks had hoped for another ISA but regatta conditions never came together. However, Lake Pepin’s ice provided conditions for C Skeeter sailors Daniel Hearn and Pat Heppert which enabled the Sail Racing folks to complete their mission. Today they released the new line fittingly called Black Ice.
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by Deb Whitehorse | Jun 15, 2020 | 2019-2020, Home Page
This Camel cigarette ad featuring Lake Hopatcong Ice Yacht Club Commodore George J. Seger ran in newspapers nationwide in March of 1939. An internet search revealed that Commodore Seger must have capitalized on his Camel advertising fame and marketed a model ice boat. The shiny red Skeeter model and the box it came in are both lovely works of art. The model was offered for sale at an auction site in 2017. I’ve never seen one of these models before. Maybe someone out there has one. If so, send a picture!
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