Ice

Sep 04, 2008 3 Comments by skiff

Greetings yachties, I have collected a few land yacht pictures and stories of Ice, Snow and Sand.

Enjoy

This shot of Emil Fauerbach’s Princess II is from the first Northwest Ice Yacht Regatta sailed in Menominee, Michigan in 1913. Note the Fauerbach pennant which always flew on the Princess boats.
HISTORY OF THE FOUR LAKES ICE YACHT CLUB

By Debra Rosten Whitehorse
February 14, 2004

Madison, Wisconsin has been regarded a hotbed of ice yachting since the 1800′s. Set atop an isthmus, Madison is bracketed by Lakes Mendota and Monona. A few miles south Lake Waubesa and Lake Kegonsa complete the foursome.

Our four lakes have seen a myriad of ice boat designs throughout the years, from rustic, home-made boats, to high-tech carbon fiber creations worthy of an art museum. In 1878, Harper’s Bazaar Magazine recognized Madison’s prominence in the sport in an article with a now famous engraving that depicts ice yachts and the scenic isthmus.

ICE BOATING: The City of Madison, Wisconsin is built upon an undulating
isthmus between Mendota and Monona, two of a chain of four beautiful lakes.

The Dutch are the grandfathers of ice boating. They were the first to add cross planks and runners under sail boat hulls for moving cargo over the icy canals of the Netherlands. Dutch settlers of New York’s Hudson River Valley brought their custom of ice boating to the New World and ice yachting spread across North America wherever there was ice to be found.

Like the Dutch, resourceful Madisonians took advantage of the frozen lakes to convey men and construction materials from outlying areas to the city by the means of iceboats. Carl Bernard, a famous Madison ice boater, recalled in an interview that his father William transported stone from Governor’s Island and Maple Bluff for the rebuilding of the state capitol in the early part of the twentieth century. Similar to an old fashioned mortar box, the boats were constructed of three cornered platforms set upon plow-share steel runners. Two of the runners were bolted to the wood, the back third corner held the steering rudder.

The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition was the catalyst for a new style of iceboat. Visiting Madisonians viewed a newly designed iceboat built by George Buckhout of Poughkeepsie, NY. The rig was built with a cockpit, sloop rigged, and the runner plank extended beyond the sides of the boat frame which gave the boat more stability.

In the late 1800′s, commissioning the construction of ice boats became a fashionable pastime for wealthy easterners like the Roosevelt family. Their crafts came to be known as the Hudson River Style and were usually piloted by paid skippers. In the early 1920s, ice breakers clearing the river for commercial shipping made conditions difficult for ice boaters. Today the New York Hudson River stern-steerers are making a come back thanks to the efforts of their dedicated sailors.

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De Oudste no zeilende ijsschuit ter wereld is de ATALANTE van Theo Mollers.

Type : Hudson gebouwd in 1834 !!

1996

Iceboat history.

This is the “Debutante” holder of the world speed record. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It was officially recorded in 1938 by a class “A” stern-steerer on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. It lists the record as 143 mph (229kmh) with a wind speed of 72 mph (115 kmh). It was set by a man named John D. Buckstaff who lived in Oshkosh at the time.

Close up of the “Debutante”.

The “Deuce” will hold 4 people. It takes 3 to sail it, one run the jibsail, one the mainsail and one to work the rudder.

Close look at the “Deuce”.

This yacht was built in the 1930′s by Don Ward the founder of South Side Ice Yacht Club , Oshkosh Wis.

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Ski Sailing On Mount Hood

An excerpt from Mast High
Story by Michael Hildreth / Fascination Photography

Jan. 15, 6 a.m. — I was awakened from a dream of snowboarding endless deep powder turns and radical aerials by a telephone call from windsurfing’s world speed record holder, Mike Delehanty. He asked me if I wanted to go photograph some great sailing. In a sleepy voice I told him to call me later when it warned up a little. He insisted that if we were going to do it, we needed to start getting ready now. This just didn’t register—here in the Gorge in January, the water temperature is bitter cold and I didn’t really want to be hanging out on a frozen beach with the wind shill below zero, hoping to get a shot of someone deranged enough to go windsurfing. Mike informed me that we (he and Carl Meinberg) were not going to sail on the water, but on snow at the Timberline Ski Area…I poured a cup of Joe and prepared to documend this new adventure….

Timberline’s upper lifts were closed because of winds gusting to 40+. Carl was the first on the mountain. He made it look so easy. Everything flowed and look effortless. With his Rushwind/Budweiser sail, he used ziqsagging reaches to climb up the mountain. He would sail up and then come flying down, doing unreal bottom turns and banking off-the-wind lips as if they were waves at Hookipa. As I set up to start shooting, Mike sailed up and the two of them raced up and down the mountain. The harder it blew the straighter up the mountain they would sail. The maneuverability of the rigs could only be compared to sailing on ocean waves….

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Sirocco land sailers offer incredible performance in one small package. Ruggedly engineered for long life and high performance yet small and nimble enough for a high school parking lot or soccer field. Sets up from and easy to transport package in under 10 minutes with no tools for adrenalin pumping fun. Add the blade pack or studded tires and you are ready to tackle that frozen lake.

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Landsailing in America

By Nord Embroden

I remember a non-successful attempt at landsailing in 1956 with a bed sheet for a square sail and a push car. A puff of wind came and my whole rig went over the front. 1958 I installed a dingy sail on a Soap Box Derby car. This car would sail with two kids at dangerous boardwalk speeds. I remember that the torque of the mast would lock up the steering bar during gusts adding more excitement. Nord and his friends were the terrors of the peninsula in Long Beach.

Two years later at age 10 I built a yacht called the Fly that was four feet wide and six feet long. Originally a dingy sail powered this yacht but later I increased the area to a ridiculous 79 square feet. This yacht had large enough tires to sail up and down the beach at low tide or over the entire beach when it rained. By the time I was 16 my dad would take the Fly and myself to El Mirage to sail. When I graduated from High School I purchased my first car, a 1960 Rambler station wagon. I made sure the Fly could be transported in the back. I remember one trip to El Mirage with the Fly around 1969. I decided to see how fast the Fly would really go. I started off on a broad reach with sail reefed. My friends were chasing the yacht with my car to clock the speed. Somewhere beyond 50 miles per hour the solid front wheelbarrow tire centrifuged off the rim. The steering vibration was tremendous but I eventually brought her into the wind. Looking back I am lucky I survived these early experiments.

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Since 1994, kite buggiers, skaters and landboarders have gathered on Ivanpah Dry Lake Nevada for a week of kite-powered buggying and racing. The event was known as the Spring Break Buggy Blast (SBBB) and introduced formulated kite traction races to the American desert.

In 2004, a new organizing team changed the name to reflect the more international aspect of this event as well as to promote a more global culture and help foster a community of cooperation among kite buggiers from around the world. Now entitled the North American Buggy eXpo (NABX), this proud, environmentally conscious event plans to combine an abundance of fun while putting an emphasis on sharing knowledge, encouraging education, and supporting the kite traction movement.
The Future of NABX

The NABX plans to preserve the best elements of this long standing desert event while continually adding new exciting features. An inspired mixture of growth and tradition is projected for this groundbreaking event including new races, impressive drawings/raffles and a gourmet banquet under the desert stars. NABX also hopes to extend the buggying time on nearby dry lake beds in the Mojave Desert.

So if you are a beginner or avid kite traction enthusiast, motivated sports spectator, intrigued journalist or interested sponsor, come join us in the open desert for a fun-packed, high speed, kite powered adventure.