Nite sailors Daniel Hearn, Dave Navin, and Nite Commodore Maureen Bohleber gathered at 4LIYC Renegader Damien Luyet’s shop last Friday to kick off a ten-mast build. Under the watchful eye of Jerry Simon, they spent the day using a table saw, bandsaw, and planer to shape Sitka Spruce boards into mast blanks. Brad Wagner, Jim Lafortune, and Don Anderson dropped in to check on the process of making sawdust. The mast blanks are now at Daniel Hearn’s shop for the next steps of routing for the mast track and production of metal components.
The 2023-2024 ice sailing season officially kicks off this Friday in Madison with a full-on Nite Rager.
The Nite Rager is on for this Friday, June 23 starting at 9:30 AM. We will meet at Damien Luyet’s shop at 9:30 AM. Address is 2618 Industrial Dr., Monona. Tasks for the session are to re-saw and plane all wood to side board thickness. Weigh and deflect all boards for individual mast pairing. Cut all mast halves to correct profile and mark for internals. Cut leading edge pieces to prepare for glue up. Possibly route trailing edges for mast track. All are welcome to join. I imagine we’ll order some lunch delivery.
Daniel Hearn’s mind wanders over to Ikea iceboat mast section… Spaight St. Archives
Ikea Masts
Ingvar Kamprad built a $40 billion per year enterprise selling furniture in boxes. His future took shape when he realized success depended on the simplest, most cost-efficient distribution from factory to customer. The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, figured out he didn’t even have to make anything to become the richest man in the world (never mind the divorce). He just had to have the best distribution system anywhere.
I’m sure our first billion is showing up in the offshore shell company bank account as I type, now that word is out that you can buy a C-Skeeter mast in a box. If you’re looking for my name in the Pandora Papers, however, don’t bother. The Corp will eventually trace to my wife’s name. She’s the smart one in the family!
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Here’s another Bill & Mauretta Mattison home movie proving the point about mast gluing parties referenced in the previous post. This glue party at the Mattison shop on Williamson Street in Madison, WI took place sometime around 1982. The mast is for an A Class Stern Steerer, possibly the MARY B. Clampers and gluers that day were Billy Mattison, Jack Ripp, Jerry Simon, Greg Simon, Lon Schoor, Donna Schoor, Jim Henkel, Don Sanford, Paul Krueger, Ken Whitehorse, Bill Hanson, Bill Mattison, and Ken Schmidt.
Glue parties have been popular within our Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club for many years. (No – not THAT kind of glue party!) Lars Barber’s Nite mast was the guest of honor last night at the Nordhaus Boatwerks. Fast drying epoxy is the life blood of iceboats and many hands and clamps make for quick mast building.
