Joe Norton our latest profile

Joe Norton: I'm told I was given my first iceboat ride before I could walk! The first ride I remember scared the Hell out of me and I was hooked for life!!! When I was little they would let me (us) take the skeeters and they always went too fast! One light day I couldn't get the boat to go as fast as I wanted it to go and since then they've never gone fast enough! I sailed my first regatta about 1962 in a DN I built myself. Over the years I've won a regatta or two but the important thing is all the friends (crazies) I've gotten to know. We meet in the strangest places St. Michael's, Maryland, Lake Champlain, Vt., Noose Lake, MN., Decatur, Ill. etc.. Green Lake ice boating on the weekends used to draw 25 to 50 people to the ice, and I want to see that happen again! Not enough kids and dogs now! Also not as many cruising boats now. What happened to all the cool junkers that used to occupy any launch site? Back when I was a kid there were always boats to give someone a ride in. generally with quite a character attached to it; ie. Bob Herrmann, Dan Stoneberg, Mike or Dave Jankowski, Jake Woeckner, Dee Dee Carver, Les Smith, Harry Norton etc. I've also built a couple of DN's over the years and restored several larger iceboats, so if you need advice on building one I could probably answer a question or two.