“Wisconsin’s Frozen Legacy”


Here’s an article written for the Wisconsin Maritime Museum’s magazine about the history of ice sailing in Wisconsin and the champions, innovators, and legends who have shaped the sport. Read it here.

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc is absolutely worth a visit. A few years ago, they hosted a fantastic exhibit dedicated to the Inland Lakes Yachting Association, featuring scows, trophies, and a wealth of history. Perhaps one day, they might consider creating a similar exhibit for ice sailing.

“I Just Wanted Some for My Iceboat” – Sailing Stories: Peter Harken


SAIL Magazine checks in with Peter Harken. Read the article here.
Sailing Stories: Peter Harken
At 86, Peter Harken remains as excited as ever about the company he and his brother, Olaf, founded.
WENDY MITMAN CLARKE SAIL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

And of course, in our smaller one-design type boats, the scows and the iceboats, we needed blocks that reacted very fast. They were light. And so we were always searching for that. I went home with the idea in my head and made some sketches and came back the next day at work and made some blocks. And then I started using them on my own boat. I wasn’t planning to to sell them or make them for anyone, I just wanted some for my iceboat. And they really worked. Continue reading.

In the News: Peter Harken in Seahorse Magazine


Peter Harken Archives
Via Sailing Scuttlebutt:
Carol Cronin on an article she wrote about Peter Harken for Seahorse Magazine:

Just like his name, Peter Harken’s life story is so intertwined with the company he helped to build that I gave up trying to separate the two. And the fifteen-month delay between writing and publication meant I was enchanted all over again when I read through Part I. So many Hall of Famemagaz inductions… yet the humble Peter seemed quite surprised that I (and Seahorse’s readers) might actually be interested in his life story The editor has graciously given me permission to share the PDF with you, but that only covers up to the 1980s. To read Part II, you’ll have to subscribe. Well worth it for all the Rod Davis lessons! Thanks for following along, and let me know what you think of ‘Plodding along dropping white plastic balls‘.

Excerpt from Plodding along dropping white plastic balls by Carol Cronin for Seahorse Magazine:
The most famous of those ideas solved a classic iceboat problem: how to get enough purchase on the mainsheet without adding so much friction that the boom had o be pushed out downwind. ‘Iceboating, your reactions have to be really fast. When you let the sheet out a little bit it has to happen right away – or you’re going over!’ Read here.

In the News: “Sailing Through the Doldrums of Winter..”


Via Annual Lakes Edition – Covering Southern Wisconsin Lakes:

The race course is simple enough, three laps around one windward buoy and one leeward buoy. Now imagine that same race travelling across sheer ice in the open air at 60 miles an hour with no brakes. That in essence is the allure of ice boating. Continue reading.

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