Volante in 1973, sailing in a breeze on Lake Minnetonka.
(Submitted photo)
Jade MacRae’s latest book is part history, part memoir
A near death experience, a 140-year-old boat, and the history of Lake Minnetonka. These are the touchstones of “Volante: Spirit of Mní iá Tháŋka,” the third book by Deephaven author, architect and sailor Jade MacRae.
Jade MacRae
(Submitted photo)
Designed by legendary boat designer Ned Burgess, the racing yacht named Volante was built and launched on Lake Minnetonka in 1887. It would become known as one of the fastest and most celebrated boats of its era.
Volante was commissioned by Hazen Burton, a co-founder of the Minnetonka Yacht Club. The boat was built for speed, with a shallow draft, gaff rig and “sandbagger” sloop. Boats of its kind rarely survived long as most were raced hard and intentionally sunk when no longer useful.
“Volante was far and away the fastest boat that was racing [at the time]. … It was considered to be Burgess’ fastest small boat design that he ever did,” MacRae said.
As boats became lighter and faster, Volante was retired from racing but could still be seen sailing until the 1930s when it left Lake Minnetonka to rest next to Burton’s boathouse in Deephaven.
MacRae was seven years old when he remembers seeing the once-celebrated racing yacht covered in snow and collecting pine needles outside the boathouse in 1964.
“My dad [Jim MacRae] and his friend [Maurice (Moki) Lizee] kept driving by Volante. … They finally decided to approach Ward Burton [Hazen’s son] about a week before he passed away, and they got the boat,” MacRae said. “It took them seven years to restore it to where it could be launched.”
Volante had not sailed since the 1930s when it was photographed in 1964 next to a boathouse in Deephaven.
(Submitted photo)
Another restoration
Over the next three decades, MacRae could often be spotted taking Volante out around Lake Minnetonka. “It was fabulous,” he said.
“After my father’s death, Moki and his son Alan took over her care,” MacRae writes in the book. “Without Moki’s old friend by his side, the work felt heavier. Launches came later each spring, then one year, they didn’t come at all. What had once been time spent with a friend became more like an obligation, and finally, something that needed a pause.”
At 40, MacRae suffered a massive heart attack. Doctors told him he likely only had a few more years left to live. He would go on to live 18 years before receiving a heart transplant in 2014.
MacRae writes in depth about that experience in his other two books, “Mandi: A Book of Inspiration” and “We Are the Bridge: A Journey of Healing and Awakening.”
The near-death experience reshaped MacRae’s understanding of life, presence and the nature of God. He said the influence of that experience can be felt throughout his writing and in the way he now listens to the world around him.
Following the successful heart transplant and counseling to help recover from the experience, MacRae approached Alan to ask about taking ownership of boat so that he could restore it to its former glory. Borrowing from his experience as an architect and competitive sailor, MacRae got to work.
“It turned out that everything from the water line down was basically dust. … I ended up rebuilding the entire structure based on the original pieces,” he said. “It was sort of like being an anthropologist being together with these bones.”
Volante, pictured in 2021. After Jade MacRae removed the boat’s bench and floorboards, the rotted-away 1964 C-Scow ribs became visible.
(Submitted photo)
As MacRae undertook the painstaking restoration of the historic yacht, a broader theme emerged. He said the work became an exploration of stewardship and the responsibility each generation bears to preserve and pass on the gifts it inherits.
Five years into the project, MacRae is hopeful that he’s a year away from being able to return Volante to the waters of Lake Minnetonka.
“My goal is to launch it next season, which will be its 140th birthday,” he said.
‘The Big Water’
“Volante: Spirit of Mní iá Tháŋka” is the third book by Deephaven author Jade MacRae.
(Submitted image)
MacRae’s book opens with a history of Lake Minnetonka, which he said was important in his search to better understand Volante.
Beginning with the Dakota people, who knew the lake as Mní iá Tháŋka, or “The Big Water,” the book traces centuries of transformation, from Indigenous stewardship and ancient settlement to the rise of industry, the grand resorts of the Gilded Age, competitive sailing and the communities that formed around the lake.
MacRae said his research uncovered the stories of settlers, entrepreneurs, families and sailors whose lives became intertwined with the lake — all leading the author to contemplate the relationship between people and the natural world.
In the end, MacRae said the book — part history, part memoir and part reflection on place — is a story of restoration and the spirit of Lake Minnetonka.
“Volante: Spirit of Mní iá Tháŋka” is available online, in bookstores and libraries.