Fleet of mini skeeters taking shape at Lakeside woodshop

A couple of months from now, don’t be surprised if a fleet of miniature iceboats sets sail on Smith Lake or any other area lake where the ice is good.

In addition to its ongoing boat-building programs for students, the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation recently put together a unique class for adults.

A half-dozen local guys, all sailing enthusiasts, are spending their days in the foundation’s workshop in Lakeside, toiling over their 10-foot iceboats with all the finesse of master craftsmen.

They’re building mini-skeeter iceboats under the tutelage of 2014 world champion land sailor and iceboat builder John Eisenlohr.

“We have some talent here in these guys,” said Bill Eisenlohr, John’s father and an instructor with the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation. “It’s quite advanced woodworking.”

Iceboat sailing has been a part of the Eisenlohr family for a long time. Bill, a retired boat builder, and his father sailed iceboats on Wisconsin lakes back in the 1950s. John took to the sport, too, and initially found his niche with landsailing.

“In the winter they had three iceboats they sailed,” John recalled about his father and grandfather. “My grandpa’s was a skeeter; my dad had a DN and they had a two-seater for giving rides.”

A fourth generation of the Eisenlohr family has found a passion for iceboat sailing as well. John’s nephew is building a mini-skeeter and his son, Brian, is involved with the sport.

Iceboat sailing isn’t new to Montana.

Historic photographs of the Kalispell area show the sport on Flathead Lake as early as the 1920s. The sport resurfaced in the 1970s when Carl Harper, a skilled iceboat sailor from Wisconsin, brought iceboats from the Midwest to Montana. At one time there was an iceboat club based in Choteau, and ice regattas are still staged on Canyon Ferry Lake.

Alex Berry, executive director of the Montana Wooden Boat Foundation, said the mini-skeeter builders already have gotten an invitation to sail the iceboats in Calgary. Group members are contemplating where they will sail their new iceboats.

“There’s a good chance we may go to Minnesota for an iceboat regatta,” Bill Eisenlohr said. “Of course it’s always dependent on weather.”

John added: “Land sailing is much warmer, but if you can find really nice ice on a good day, it’s special.”

He has a full-sized iceboat he intends to sail this year, too

In addition to competing in both land sailing and iceboat sailing, John Eisenlohr has developed a set of patterns and instructions for building a mini skeeter, available online at www.woodenboat.com/boat-plans-kits/mini-skeeter-iceboat.

To get the dimensions just right, he built a miniature wind tunnel — “kind of Wright Brothers stuff,” he said — to check for lift and drag.

“It really helped me,” he said about the homemade wind tunnel. “Others would use computers, but this is what I know.”

John delved into landsailing as a youngster in the 1970s, and by the mid-1980s he had built his first boat. Twenty years ago John moved his young family to Montana, where he converted his “dirt boat” to an iceboat with ice runners.

About four years ago a new international class was developed for the mini-iceboat.

“It had three rules, leaving a lot of room for creativity,” John said. “I found in my homemade wind-tunnel testing the importance of reducing aerodynamic drag on the bigger boats I made. I carried that knowledge to the mini class.

“It occurred to me that small iceboats allow for much more iceboating to be done,” he continued. “Most of the local places are too small for a big boat. The mini-skeeter only needs about a half-mile plate of ice. I can transport it in my little truck and set it up in no time.”

Tom Schock, a world-class sailor and retired professional boat builder who now lives in Lakeside, is among the iceboat builders toiling on their mini skeeters in the foundation’s boat-building workshop.

“You hang out with your neighbors and look what happens,” Schock said with a laugh.

He dipped his toe in the sport last year when the ice was almost perfect in Somers Bay.

“I said, ‘Whoa, that’s for me.’ It was so cool I couldn’t believe it,” Schock said. “There was virtually no wind and they were gliding ... the neat thing is John has done such a nice job of planning [the mini skeeter] construction out.

“The key is to keep the cost down and keep it simple,” he added. “With these iceboats you’re talking minutes to rig it and you’re sailing.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.