A New First

PIKE an early Skeeter iceboat owned by the Goes Family

From the Skeeter Iceboat Club on Geneva Lake, Jane Pegel sends this photo with a note:

Here is a photo of Chris Goes sailing January 12, 2018, on Delavan Lake in the Beau Skeeter “Pike”. This boat has been owned and given loving care by the Goes family since 1935. With Harry Melges, Sr. at the helm, “Pike” won the Northwest in 1935, the first year that Class E Skeeters raced in the regatta as a separate fleet. This is what the boats looked like when the Beau Skeeter Ice Boat Club (now the Skeeter Ice Boat Club) was organized in 1933.

Jane’s information puts the Skeeters in the Northwest one year earlier than records had indicated, a date confirmed by this Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper article from 2-28-1935. That’s not the end of the story because it appears the Skeeters first sailed the Northwest in 1933 at Oshkosh but that regatta was cancelled for reasons likely related to weather. The Northwest regatta officials must have embraced the new Skeeter class the same year it was organized at Lake Geneva.
Related: Northwest Regatta Winners

Wisconsin State Journal, Feb 23, 1933. The “mosquito class” is now known as the Skeeter class.

Sights at Skeeter Iceboat Club Swap Meet

The rain stayed away for the Skeeter Iceboat Club’s annual swap meet. The swap meet always provides the perfect venue to catch up with old friends and meet new people who are interested in ice sailing. We hope to see all of you out on the ice this season! Thank you Jane and Suzie Pegel for organizing the swap meet and handling the traditional raffle.

Skeeter Iceboat Club Swap Meet: November 5th

You know you want one!

Jane Pegel has dropped the flag on the 2017-2018 ice sailing season with the announcement that the Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s 32nd Annual Swap Meet is scheduled for Sunday, November 5, 2017 in Williams Bay, WI.

What: Skeeter Iceboat Club 32nd Annual Swap Meet
Date: Sunday, November 5, 2017
Time: 9AM – noon, followed by a raffle
Where: Lucke’s Cantina
220 N. Elkhorn Rd. (WI Hwy 67), Williams Bay, WI. Map
For more info, email sailing19@charter.net
Download pdf Swap Meet 2017

This is the day to swap, buy, and sell new and used iceboats and equipment. There is no charge for participating.Boat builders & hardware manufacturers will display new products. Breakfast and/or lunch will be available at Lucke’s.

Display area:
Items for sale can be set up on the black top parking area at Lucke’s.
Please do not park your cars in the display area.

Parking:
Please do not park or set up your displays adjacent to neighboring
businesses. A short distance to the north there is a municipal parking lot located at the intersection of Elkhorn Rd. and Stark St. (on the north side of Stark St., opposite Burrough’s Floor Coverings).