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Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club (U.S.)

Wisconsin

image by Miles Li, 20 July 2022

Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club

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Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club

The Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club of Madison, Wisconsin, was incorporated in 1921. That's not to say there had been no ice boating before that time - in fact Madison had joined the Northwest Ice Yacht Association in 1913 - but 1921 is when they all joined into a single club.

The type of sailing at the time was with ice yachts. Those are yachts of Dutch descent, with their mast, and bulk, forward and their rudder aft. Those are very good for transporting goods, and milk, on winding rivers and canals. I may have mentioned this before, but on the American lakes ice yachts could reach speeds where ever obstruction potentially was a spin-out. One of the fore gliders would be slowed, and the rest of the craft at full speed would try to overtake it.

In the 1950s, the Skeeters took over. Those had the fore glider for steering and the aft gliders would simply go where it lead, even if they were obstructed for a moment somehow.

I have not found when the burgee was adopted. However, it's a red field, with a white isosceles hoist triangle, slightly less than equilateral. Centred on the triangle is a black circle. Inside that is a big 4 before a stack of four letters "LIYC". It can be seen at https://www.iceboat.org/2019/12/12/merch-alert-4liyc-burgees-now-available.

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 13 July 2022