Boecraft Website
Meet Jared Kaesmeyer, a former Lake Geneva, WI resident and a recent graduate with a Master’s in Architecture. Jared’s thesis project was on iceboating, again proving that iceboating is a highly creative endeavor. Please let me know if you want to see Jared’s remarkable and unique 165-page thesis.
My name is Jared Kaesmeyer. I used to live in Lake Geneva, WI, and grew up hearing about and seeing ice boating. It always intrigued me. Since that time, I’ve gone to college at North Dakota State University and graduated with my Master’s in Architecture. As part of that degree, I had to create a thesis project. My thesis was on ice boating.
I spent 9 months developing a proposal for an iceboat cultural center in Lake Geneva’s downtown. I did research, and worked with Steve Schalk to get a better idea for the history and background. In the end, I designed a destination establishment that featured year-round display of ice boats in a prominent location downtown, with a workshop and event space for hosting year round training and events. The thesis went on to win an award, and in all was just such a fun process!
I have sent this to Steve, and thought I would share it with iceboat.org. Maybe you will find it interesting, or know someone else who may!
Iceboating has attracted dreamers and creators since some guy in Holland first thought about attaching iron skates to a canal boat back in the 1600s. This past summer, David Janzen of Ontario, Canada, achieved his dream of building the biggest iceboat in the world. An iceboat that big needs big ice, and Janzen is hauling it to Thunder Bay, Ontario, this winter to learn how she sails. Tip of the Helmet: Mike Madge
By the numbers:
Mast 53′
Hull 70′
Plank 37′
Sail is under construction. By comparison, the stern-steerer DEUCE, mast 51′, hull 54′- 6″ and plank, 36′.
Minnesota’s Pat Heppert, who designed the C Skeeter cab-forward DRIFTER, has been in touch with Jansen during the project.
I admire David Janzen’s infectious enthusiasm and the extreme commitment to following an extreme dream and making it a reality. Truly impressive effort, and done on an average man’s budget. Follow your own path, and be your own hero. Can’t wait to see the smile on his face after that first sail that makes it all worthwhile.
Pat
From the vast files of ice sailing researcher Henry Bossett, here’s an idea from the 1800s that never caught on, a planned community centered around ice sports and refrigeration. George Newnes originally published the illustration in his British weekly magazine, Tit Bits, “Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books and Newspapers of the World.” Newnes was an “early father of popular journalism”, and Tit-Bits had a surprisingly long run from 1881 to 1984. (I enhanced the iceboat sails with color.)
A short video via Andy Gratton. Minnesota ice sailor Kurt Martinson’s pandemic project was to convert a Bolger Bobcat (an adaptation of the Beetle Cat.)
Via Kurt Martinson: Hoping for enough wind to power thru some snow cover tomorrow. It’s a Bolger Bobcat I converted. 12’x 6’ plus the bowsprit. A pandemic project. Still working on getting the sail plan balanced. Think ice.
Dejope (Four Lakes) is the territory of the Ho-Chunk Nation, the indigenous people who always have and continue to live here. The Whitehorses are Ho-Chunk Nation tribal members and long-time Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club members, including my late husband, Harry Whitehorse. I’ve always thought Native people had the technology to make iceboats. Harry told me that his uncle George Seymour built traditional snow sleds using deer antlers for the runners. Indigenous people could have made an iceboat using deer antlers for insert runners, woven rush mats for a sail, and a dugout canoe for the hull.
Yesterday, November 2, 2021, archeologists carefully removed an ancient dugout canoe from the bottom of Lake Mendota, where it had been resting for 1200 years. Looking closely, one could imagine a mast step and a steering chock hole.
Via Tom Kneubuehl posted on the Historic Madison, WI Photo Facebook page:
“This dugout canoe was pulled out of Lake Mendota around 1:00 p.m. today. It could be the oldest known sunken boat/shipwreck in Wisconsin. It is about 1200 years old and was discovered by a diver in June when it happened to catch their attention. Apparently the diver contacted the State Historical Society and a chain of events happened which led to today. A cache of fishing weights were found in the canoe so apparently it was used by the inhabitants of that time to fish with weighted net. Note how small the canoe looks. They must have had great balance and were obviously smaller. The canoe is undergoing a lengthy preservation process to make sure it survives. I live close to the lake location where it was brought ashore so this information is from conversations with people at the scene. The number of people involved is long. City and state had a lot of archeologists and other key personnel there to direct and help the extraction. The Mayor was there along with other key city department leaders. Divers did the underwater work and brought the canoe to shore including from the Sheriffs Department. Anyone else who knows more details can add to the story in the comments but in summary it was a pretty amazing sight.”
