Sailing 143 MPH in Wool and Wood
Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2023 12:00 pm
By: Ken Quant
On December 12, 2022, a provisional world wind-powered speed record was set by the Emirates Team New Zealand America’s Cup crew on a dry lakebed in southern Australia. A high-tech and very well-funded effort to set the record using a purpose-built land sailing craft, they managed to reach an incredible speed of 139.4 mph in just 22 knots of wind. As astonishing as that may sound, it only makes the almost-forgotten tale of another record-speed run in 1938 even more remarkable.
In a time long before carbon fiber, CAD design, and Gore-Tex, iceboating became a popular winter pastime on inland lakes around the upper Midwest. Although many of those lakes are too small to really get a lot of speed up before running into shore, Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago stands on its own for usable surface area. Fifteen miles wide and thirty long, its shallow waters form a perfect location to let a large iceboat run on the rare occasion that the ice sets up just right. And that’s exactly what happened in the winter of 1938 when the ice turned glassy smooth.
Greeted by 30-plus knot winds and dream ice conditions off Oshkosh, WI, local sailor John Buckstaff set out to establish a sailing speed record aboard his buddy’s Class-A iceboat called the Debutante. Forty-three feet long and 32 feet wide, this large wooden “stern-steerer” represented the state-of-the-art for its day. No sportscar, the Debutante takes a lot of wind to get her rolling, but once the inertia is broken, she is large enough to handle high speeds and irregular surfaces.
To establish Debutante’s speed, they set up a 2-mile speed trap with a flagman on one end to signal when the boat entered the trap area and a person with a stopwatch on the other side to time how long it took to cover the distance. As primitive as it sounds today, that was about as good as you could do in 1938. During one of the passes that day, they recorded a remarkable timed speed of 143 mph.
That speed was recognized as the world’s fastest wind-powered craft by the Guinness Book of World Records until about 20 years ago when a would-be challenger managed to get the record expunged on technicalities in an effort to lower the bar for his own attempt. He never came close. Expungement aside, the fact that two guys in wool and wood managed to hit 143 mph, in 1938, stands on its own as a remarkable feat that should not be forgotten by the current crop of speed sailors. Thankfully, it hasn’t been forgotten by a small community of iceboaters who still restore and sail the old stern-steerers, including the Debutante, whenever they have time and good ice. Learn more at www.iceboat.org.
About the Author
Ken sails his T10, Eclipse, out of McKinley Marina in Milwaukee. He races regularly with the South Shore Yacht Club and MAST sailing club.
tags: History, Ice Sailing, Sailing
