The Online Magazine of the International DN Ice Yacht Racing Association
September 2021
The 21-22 season is starting to rev up. This month’s newsletter will inspire you to get those runner sharpened for December’s first ice. IDNIYRA and IDNIYRA Europe have combined forces with a new website, dniceboat.org, a portal that will host information common to both continents. The website is also designed to attract new DN sailors and sponsors with the best video and photos that tell the DN story. Thanks to our sponsors for supporting the class and making Runner Tracks possible.
DN class members have been doing a lot of ice thinking this summer. Brian and brother Bruce Jones are making dust, mixing glue, and giving their clamps a work-out while building 2 DN hulls in steamy Florida. The IDNIYRA Facebook community has been following along, asking questions, and giving suggestions.
DNer Mike Miller has been dreaming of Minnesota’s Lake Christina, site of many Western Challenges, the first unofficial DN gathering of the season. Mike posted a short video from Lake Christina on the IDNIYRA Facebook page, reminding us what’s “coming soon.” I can’t embed it, so here’s one from Jim McDonagh US5213.
This website has a new page, the Runner Tracks Library, where you can see all the covers of our class newsletter since it went electronic in 2013. Runner Tracks Library
The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) announced today nine sailors comprising its 11th anniversary class of inductees. The IDNIYRA is pleased to congratulate one of our own, Jane Pegel US805 for this well-deserved honor. More to come.
Jane Wiswell Pegel – a three-time Martini & Rossi (now Rolex) Yachtswoman of the Year and winner of several National and North American Championships in sailing and iceboating.
Giving back to the sport has been a prerequisite for Pegel. Her first service oriented post was as the fleet captain of the X Class in 1948. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Phi Beta Kappa, (1955) and helped organize a sailing team. Up until that time the “Hoofers” as it was called was more of a club sport. During the summers she was a sailing instructor at the Lake Geneva Yacht Club, home of another Hall of Fame sailor, Buddy Melges. In 1972 Melges and Pegel were both named Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year – Melges for winning a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games and Pegel for winning the M Scow Class National Championship and several other regattas that season. When asked if the lessons from ice boating apply to Scow sailing Pegel explains “In high performance boats there is a transfer especially on lakes where the wind is shifty. For those who sail fast boats we came alert to that magical thing that made one boat faster. We were forced to learn about design. Sailors that key into the variables that exist in the sport are what makes it so interesting.”
Continue reading Jane’s biography on the National Sailing Hall of Fame website.
Jane Pegel’s DN Statistics
IDNIYRA Commodore, 1961 IDNIYRA North American Championship Regatta
2 first place finishes in 1960 and 1963
7 second place finishes in 1958, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1978
1 fourth place finish in 1968
1 first place B fleet (Silver fleet) finish in 1981
Northwest Ice Yacht Racing Association Regatta
DN Class
11 first place finishes in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1976, 1984, 1990
41 times highest placing woman 1958, 1961 – 1963, 1965 -1967, 1969-1977
Baikal Ice Yacht Racing Website
2022 will mark the 11th year of Baikal Ice Sailing Week, scheduled for March 26 – April 2, 2022. The organizers have released an informational pamphlet with answers to all your questions. Read it here
Every year we try to upgrade this trip, that’s why we ask you to read this manual carefully! We will sail 3 regatta’s, Asian Cup, Russian Championship and Baikal Cup. Also we probably will have sailors from China who will join us at Lake Baikal. Continue reading.
Via Mihkel Kosk C45 and Ron Sherry US44.
Estonian DN sailor, Tiit Hagma C10, passed away peacefully at home on 28 May 2021. Tiit won the 1984 DN Gold Cup sailed at Krynica Morska in Poland. The regatta is memorable for a field of 240 competitors, certainly one of the largest DN championships in history. Ron Sherry US44 remembers “driving back to the hotel with him in 1984 in Poland to pick up some Boston Sails. He was so calm and matter of fact. I told him if I had won, I would be like a NASA Launch.”
Mihkel Kosk recalls Tiit’s life outside of DN sailing, “The big thing that he was also a great talent in music and in the USSR time a part and member of a band Ruja. Ruja was as popular in Estonia as the Rolling Stones were in the states and very much on the legal line with the USSR officials!” Read more about his music here.
Via the Kalevi Yacht Club:
Tiit Haagma, an honorary member of the club, has left us. Tiit was born on April 5, 1954, in Tallinn. He started sailing in 1961 under the supervision of Enn Metsar. Tiit was brought to ice sailing by another legendary Star sailor, Peeter Leola. For many years, ice sailing became the main area of Tiit. In 1984 he won the world championship title in the DN class as the third Estonian ice sailor; five years later, he won a bronze medal at the European Championships; in 1989, he added a World Championship silver to his medal collection. At the N Union Championships, he won a bronze medal in 1979 and 1980, a gold medal in 1982 and 1986 and a silver medal in 1983, and a silver medal in 1983. Tiit has won silver at the 1991 World Yacht Regatta and bronze at the 2007 ORC World Sailing Championships in sailing. Tiit has once (1986) become the Estonian master in ice sailing and seven times in 1988-2004 in offshore sailing. In 2007, he also became a Finnish champion in offshore sailing. In 1979, Tiit became a champion in sailing and, in 1984, a master in ice sailing. In the same year, he was chosen as the best male athlete in Estonia and an honorary member of Kalev. Tiit was also a renowned musician; he played bass guitar in the bands Varjud and Ruja in 1972-1986. From 1973 to 1986, Tiit worked as a trainer in sailing and ice sailing circles, and for 40 years, he was known not only for his sailing skills but especially as a worthy sailor. His sewn C-sails, WB sails, and HT sails have taken our sailors and ice sailors to both Estonian championship and title medals. Tiit was a nice companion, with whom it was always nice to talk, and every time he had a new anecdote or a nice story to tell. The spinning material no longer scratches under Tiit’s hand, and his ¼ ton Sea Eagle has been standing sadly on the shore for some time. We mourn you and wish you a happy wind on the sea of eternity, Tiit.
The DN is most popular iceboat in the world. Whether you are a racer or cruiser, your $25 membership in the IDNIYRA helps to promote the art and skill of DN ice yacht construction and the sport of ice yachting on all the hard waters of the world.
