Skeeter Iceboat Club Bestows Honors

Skeeter Iceboat Club Bestows Honors

Skeeter Iceboat Club Lifetime Member, Mary Jane Schalk

Via Skeeter Iceboat Club member Susie Pegel:

On November 12, at the annual fall meeting of the Skeeter Ice Boat Club, four individuals were honored for their support of the sport of iceboating: Bestowed Life Membership included Fritz Button who races a self-built B Division Skeeter; B Skeeter skipper Bob Mereness whose father was a Life Member and a founding member of the SIBC; and Lou Loenneke who began iceboating when a youngster and eventually won Skeeter and DN championships. Mary Jane Schalk was granted Honorary Membership. When help is needed, she is the first to step forward to do scoring, service the chow line. or hold the end of the tape measure.

Iceboat Swap Meet Stories

Iceboat Swap Meet Stories

Dash inspects a DN stay adjuster.

Iceboaters have a cliché: we spend 50% of our time building them, 35% talking about them, and 15% sailing them (your mileage may vary.) Ice sailors gathered at the Southern Wisconsin Iceboat Swap Meet and fulfilled the talking-about-them quota on Sunday, November 6, at the Delavan Lake Yacht Club in Delavan, WI. Veteran and new ice sailors gathered to exchange complete boats, sails, planks, hulls, and runners. It was a lovely sunny and windy day to be back where the iceboat swap meet all began, with the Skeeter Iceboat Club.

Next milestone – who will have first runners on the ice in North America?

Jane Pegel Honored at LGYC

Jane Pegel Honored at LGYC

National Sailing Hall of Fame members and ice sailors- from Left: Peter Harken, Jane Pegel, and Buddy Melges “All kings and queens are not born of royal bloodlines. Some become royal because of what they do once they realize who they are.” Pharrell Williams

Previous: Jane Pegel To Be Inducted into the NSHOF
A celebration to commemorate Jane Pegel’s induction into the National Sailing Hall of Fame was held at the Lake Geneva Yacht Club on Sunday, August 27th.
Susie Pegel reports:

Those in attendance at Jane’s party August 29th at the Lake Geneva Yacht Club included folks from Lake Geneva, Delavan, Madison, Pewaukee and Green Lake. And there was a surprise guest appearance from former DN world champion Mike O’Brien who flew in from New Jersey to say “hi.” Flowers had previously been sent to Jane from former DN world champion Henry Bossett. Mauretta Mattison sent regrets that she and Bill would be unable to attend the party. Many thanks to all the iceboaters who sent messages to Jane wishing her well and congratulations.

Excerpt from email sent to Jane from Dan Heaney:
“I am honored to be invited to the celebration of Jane’s selection to the Sailing Hall of Fame. I will miss the opportunity to hear the wisdom expressed by Jane regarding sailing, both hard water and soft water. Jane’s comments, especially those directed to my attention were always welcome and a positive contribution to my efforts as a race manager for the IDNIYRA. I look forward to the opportunity to see Jane in the future and will make it a priority to contact her and yourself on the occasion I have to be in Lake Geneva….we raise a toast to Jane in congratulations for being recognized for all the contributions made to the sport of sailing and the influence she has had on the sailors who have been lucky enough to meet her.”
Dan Heaney, Neenah, WI

Think Celebrate: Happy Birthday Jane Pegel

Think Celebrate: Happy Birthday Jane Pegel

Jane Wiswell Pegel and her Skeeter CALAMITY JANE

Happy 87th birthday to the Skeeter Ice Boat Club’s Jane Pegel today!  If you are new to this sport, Jane is a national champion iceboat racer. She has also given back to this sport by serving in many different iceboat class governing roles over the course of her career. If you are interested in the sport, make plans to attend the annual iceboat swap meet in Williams Bay, WI that Jane helps to organize every fall. Watch for the announcement on this website.
 Jane Pegel Archives

Jane Pegel in CALAMITY JANE DN.

 

Picture of the Day: Pewaukee Northwest 1973

Picture of the Day: Pewaukee Northwest 1973

Photo by Gary Whitehorse. That’s a lot of horsepower! Stern steerer iceboats start on race at the Northwest regatta which took place on February 2-4, 1973 on Pewaukee Lake in Wisconsin.

UPDATE: The photo was originally taken by Gary Whitehorse and uploaded to the 4LIYC Facebook page.
Peter McCormick (via Andy Gratton) forwarded this picture to the iceboat.org inbox this week wanting to confirm if these stern-steerers were on Pewaukee Lake and when this regatta took place. I started looking into the files and realized that I was there with my brother and dad, Dave Rosten and that my Dad won the Class A Skeeter trophy. Another 4LIYC skipper, Peter’s dad Bill McCormick, won the C Stern Steerer trophy that year as well.
If you have any information on the stern-steerers or the regatta you’d like to share, please drop a line. debwhitehorse@iceboat.org

UPDATE: 30 April:
“I was 16 years old at the time and won the DN junior trophy. Chuck Miller was racing a DN in the regatta called “Chicken Little.” He got a big kick out of racing against me in the regatta. Ever since that time I always felt that Chuck Miller was a really nice guy, someone who really loved his sailing and iceboating.”
Susie Pegel, formerly DN 905

Andy Gratton, WSSA Secretary: “Max Runge sent me this old photo. …There are some boats I don’t recognize, such as the C skeeter, the black mast, the yellow mast, B9, and what appears to be a round backbone second from the far end. V83 is the D skeeter that got turned around and ended up in Fond du Lac in the 1980s with Herb Bankstahl. He named it  FIDDLESTIX, I think it came from Sternkopfs. Who is pushing ROSEMARY?”

Peter McCormick, stern steerer (TWINBEDS) and Renegade sailor: “I remember my dad [Bill McCormick] telling me how he took TWINBEDS to Pewaukee on a lumber truck for either a Northwest or WSSA regatta.”

UPDATE:
Tom Hyslop: “Not sure about the lake or the year as some of the Pewaukee boats were not built until the late 70`s.
B9 was CLANCY owned by John Olson.
V83 was a Sternkoph boat.
Yellow mast with red V is COUNTRY WOMAN owned by me.
Black mast with V is ECLIPSE owned by Ric Sternkoph and Mike Hasse.”

1973 Northwest Results
STERN STEERERS
Class A: No Race
Class B: CLANCY, John Olson
Class C: TWIN BEDS, Bill McCormick
Class D: DEE WHIZ, Bill Osenga

Skeeter Class A: Dave Rosten, PIRATE
FREE FOR ALL: No Race
DN Class: George Timmons
DN Class Junior: Susie Pegel
Renegade Class: Elmer Millenbach RENEGADE III

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