Here are some of the photos from Saturday’s Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club racing on Lake Monona. I was busy helping Pat Heppert line them up and send them off, so Arden Patton took my camera and was our photographer of the day. I’ll post more later tonight.
Conditions: Winds were 12 – 15 mph with some higher gusts. Ice is hard and black with minimal sticky drifts. We had about a .75 mile race track with 13 DNs and 7 Renegades. Both classes raced four times. More photos and scores will be posted tonight.
Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club racing is called ON for January 7-8, 2022.
Ice checkers found 4-6″ of mostly smooth ice with spotty snow patches. The open spots from yesterday (Thursday, Jan 6) were frozen over but will be marked. Remember, the entire lake is never safe. Review safety here.
Launch is the Tonyawatha landing in Monona. Do not drive on the ice.
First race starts at 10 AM on Saturday, January 8. 2022.
Four Lakes ice sailors have been busy sharing pictures, talking, and thinking Lake Monona ice which has come in with a beautiful freeze. This morning, there are a few goose holes, but most of the lake is glass. It needs a few days to build thickness and then the club can check conditions. Ice cam checkers will want to to keep their browser on Mendota Today for a live look at Lake Mendota.
Lake Monona looking southerly at sunrise on December 29, 2020.
Behold Lake Monona’s beautiful freeze this morning, just in time for 6-9″ of snow this afternoon. If we are lucky, the weight of the snow will sink the ice. Stay tuned.
Lake Monona looking northerly on December 29, 2020.
MARY B draws a crowd on Lake Monona. Photos: Earl W Brown
In January 1952, Lake Monona delivered and the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club hosted the Northwest regatta and the Hearst Challenge. (The Hearst trophy was donated in 1903 by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.) Lake Monona in the 1950s could be counted upon for sailable ice thanks to the soot pollution from the coal burning power plant on its northeastern shore. The downside for the Skeeters was that the coal dust very quickly dulled runners. Perhaps the coal cinders didn’t affect the big iron of the Stern-Steerer runners.
The three majestic Class A Stern Steerers that competed for the Hearst that year were 2 4LIYC boats and 1 from Oshkosh including the MARY B owned by O. T. Havey and skippered by Carl Bernard with crew Norm Braith and Charlie Johnson; FRITZ owned and sailed by Jim Lunder with Beauford Polglase; and FLYING DUTCHMEN owned by John Buckstaff of Oshkosh, WI and skippered by Chuck Nevitt with crew Bud McDonald. MARY B was able to defend her title that year.The excitement of the regatta drew crowds and prompted the 4LIYC to set up a public address system at Law Park. Someone provided a play by play account during the racing.
These historic ice yachts are still with us today. Current owner of the FLYING DUTCHMEN, Dave Lallier in Fond du Lac, reminded me that FLYING DUTCHMEN is the correct name of the boat, not DUTCHMAN. The Van Dyke brothers from Milwaukee commissioned the FLYING DUTCHMEN in the 1930s, hence the plural designation. MARY B is back in Madison and owned by the Ice Boat Foundation while FRITZ is owned by Fred Stritt and is available for sale.
