In the News 2: Bill Mattison in Dec Seahorse Magazine

Bill Mattison and his 75%

The second part of Carol Cronin’s Bill Mattison article in Seahorse Magazine has been published.  “Carol Cronin continues her look back at the extraordinary life of a very extraordinary ‘yachtsman’… though such a plain description does not begin to touch the sides.”
The magazine is subscription based and you can purchase the December edition in print or digital format here.

Decades of continuous improvement
An unattributed quote in the book that Bill Mattison’s daughter Lynn produced for him puts the whole sport of iceboating into perspective. ‘It has been rumoured that iceboating is 75 per cent building them, 10 per cent talking about them, 10 per cent waiting around on the ice for the right conditions and five per cent actually sailing them.’ And her father enjoyed all of it. Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY
In The News: Bill Mattison in Nov Seahorse Magazine
A Life that Dreams Are Made Of
Eight Bells
Home of the Volleyball(?) Champs
Nothing Fickler
Bill’s Circus Life
The Icing On The Lake”
“Fast Forward Since Birth”
“The Hard-Water Gang” with Bill Mattison at the 2001 ISA
Shooting the Breeze with Bill Mattison
Bill Mattison Inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame
Iceboaters Fingerprints
Willy St. Iceboat Shop Archives

In The News: Bill Mattison in Nov Seahorse Magazine

Bill Mattison in SNAPSHOT

The November issue of Seahorse Magazine has published the first of a two-part article about Bill Mattison written by Carol Cronin. Despite never meeting him, she genuinely shares her awe about Bill’s unique talents and conveys a real sense of him through Peter Harken.
The magazine is subscription based.

You can purchase the November edition in print or digital format here.

Circus minimus – much adventure, little drama – Part I

After hearing so much about Bill Mattison’s amazing ability to ‘engineer and build anything’ I would have loved to have met him. And since he never just sat around maybe I could have watched those big meaty hands working away at one of his many skills. Scarfing a damaged iceboat plank. Repairing a carbon mast. Welding up a replacement piece for a photo developing machine. Or decorating a tiny wagon wheel for the model circus he started as a kid and continued to add to for the rest of his very full life. How could one man achieve so much success in so many different mediums, on so many different scales, from larger-than-life America’s Cup boats down to half-inch-to the- foot scale models?
-Carol Cronin

PREVIOUSLY
A Life that Dreams Are Made Of
Eight Bells
Home of the Volleyball(?) Champs
Nothing Fickler
Bill’s Circus Life
The Icing On The Lake”
“Fast Forward Since Birth”
“The Hard-Water Gang” with Bill Mattison at the 2001 ISA
Shooting the Breeze with Bill Mattison
Bill Mattison Inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame
Iceboaters Fingerprints
Willy St. Iceboat Shop Archives

Jack Ripp Interview

Jack Ripp Archives

In 1999, Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club member Greg Whitehorse sat down with ice sailing champion Jack Ripp (1928-2019) and discussed Jack’s involvement in ice sailing. The interview originally ran in the club newsletter, Blade Runner. We are fortunate that Greg saved the cassette tape. Jack’s son, Mike, converted it to an electronic format and I added photos and some classic 1960s 8mm film from Bob Clemens.

Karol’s Winning Moves

No matter what type of iceboat you race, watch and listen closely to this interview with 12 times DN World Champion Karol Jablonski. Karol breaks down every racing move he made on a short course with shifty winds.

Below is the original video Karol and Mike are discussing.

“I’ll Tell Ya About Iceboating Around Here”

In his internet travels, Henry Bossett came across a library site of oral histories from Liverpool, New York. The interviews with Ken Wentworth prompted Henry (a now retired North Sails New Jersey sail maker) to recall an old boat builder “who would come in to show me his hand-designed and built model boats… I asked him about the North Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club… He replied with a story of how he used to hang out there as a kid and listen to the “Captains” sitting around their potbelly stove, spinning yarns of days gone by, and impressing him with wild tales. Anyway, this guy obviously knows how to spin a tale also, but he does have direct knowledge of some interesting iceboat history.”
Each video runs about 3 minutes and are an entertaining listen.

White Wings and Black Ice: ICICLE Archives