Big Boats on Geneva Part 2

Here’s the last “missing” installment from this series of videos. In this video, you’ll see how to wrangle a stern-steerer through the open water at the shoreline, typical of spring ice sailing.

Many thanks to 4LIYC Nite sailor Don Sanford for taking the time to find the nuggets in old movie footage and editing them into something worth watching.
Previous: Big Boats on Geneva Part 1.
Big Boats on Geneva Part 3

 

Big Boats on Geneva Part 3

More thrills and spins from the Class A Johnson Stern-Steerers on Geneva Lake. On Facebook, Fond du Lac sailor, Dave Lallier, commented that “According to what both Chauncey Griggs and Sid Morgan told me, there were several new Johnson Class A boats delivered to Lake Geneva by train. They were a gift for Christmas. These could be from that batch.”

Many thanks to 4LIYC Nite sailor Don Sanford for taking the time to find the nuggets in old movie footage and editing them into something worth watching.
Previous: Big Boats on Geneva Part 1.

Throwback Thursday: 8mm Memories

Michigan’s Bill Parker converted his grandfather’s 8 mm ice boating films and uploaded them to YouTube. Take a look.

My father, Bill Parker, and my Grandfather, Howard Parker, built, sailed, and raced iceboats in the Battle Creek, Michigan area. These 8mm films are from the WWII era, primarily after the war. They were scanned from very neglected originals, and the quality is really bad. The original “cinematography” wasn’t great, and Dad was good at taking film of rig or boat details. Much of the footage is relatively static in nature, but there are action shots of iceboats here and there.

The most common iceboats shown are C-class, there is an A class boat or two, and also Skeeters. Grandpa owned an A-class boat for a few years called the “Gossoon”, and later, a Skeeter named “The Duchess.” Dad’s C-Class boat was “Valkyrie”.

I am sure of the Gouguac and Crystal lake venues, but unsure if the other venue is Lake St. Clair. I know they raced there, but also in Wisconsin venues. If you have any information about the venues or the boats, please feel free to comment. [On the YouTube page.]

Ephemera Friday: The Capital of Vacationland


Another reminder that iceboating has been around Madison for a long time (since the 1860s to be more precise). Here’s a detail from a map published in 1950 by the Madison Chamber of Commerce  titled “Visit Madison Wisconsin the Capital of Vacationland”. Note that the Skeeter doesn’t have a springboard!  See the full map on the Wisconsin State Historical Society website.