Hull design is often the key to a vessel’s success. Highly distinctive designs evolve out of a local need and no two are exactly alike, but successful elements are borrowed and imitated by others.

Such is the part vessel, part vehicle known as the windsled, created and improved upon by the pioneer builders and mechanics of Madeline Island, Wisconsin.

On Thin Ice is a wonderful book which will win the admiration and nod from anyone who has ever faced creative solutions to an operating challenge- and that’s just about everyone in the passenger vessel business. Can you recall pouring over those well-turned pages of Popular Mechanics during study hall in the high school library? Nelson’s book takes you back to those wistful days when every bright idea was an invention waiting to happen. It also reviews current and future windsled efforts.

Curious cousins of the airboats found in southern swamplands, windsleds remain a proven answer to Madeline Island’s unique winter transportation challenges. TEA-21 funding is currently providing support for 21st century travel, with two new windsled versions now under contract.

But, why a windsled? Loss of life crossing the ice from La Pointe to Bayfield on this sheltered arm of Lake Superior drove early experimentation. Using their considerable skills, ingenuity and surplus of time to tinker, Madelines Island’s backyard mechanics were visionaries who cobbled together light hulls driven by airplane engines, with skis or wheels attached, and wire and fabric and the odd piece of scrap to hold the frame together.

Author Charles R. Nelson, island resident and descendent of windsled builders and operators, combines easy to read text with beautiful illustrations. It’s a package of pure reading pleasure. If your time is limited, thumb through sketches, photos and plans of early windsled versions. For a more leisurely read, immerse yourself in the background of the windsled pioneers:

"They had loaded the windsled with supplies for the local grocery store, along with several old tires and two new ones that were for Leo’s brother Arvid. Shortly after leaving the Bayfield shore Leo noticed that the propeller blade was hitting the ice. Leo yelled to Jimmy that they were sinking and to jump out right away, which they did and the windsled went down with it’s load of supplies. It was quite an experience for the crew that helped hook the tires out of the lake. Leo said the two new tires were the last to be retrieved. Of course many of the grocery items were soaked and ruined, but we were thankful our husbands got out in time."

We hope this important and entertaining work will be updated with the most recent windsled designs now under construction. Meanwhile, in his spare time Nelson is building an Island windsled and aviation museum where he’s recreating or restoring early windsleds. If he manages this task with as much skill and enthusiasm as he has the book, we predict people will travel far and wide to see his displays.

This review is copyrighted by the PVA

Dick Purinton holds the position of President on the Board of Directors of the PVA. Dick is affiliated with the Washington Island Ferry Lines, Washington Island WI.

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