Three-Peat For SKYE, FLYING JENNY VI Romps Again
(Chicago, IL)- The Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac (aka 'The Mac') is unquestionably the world's pre-eminent freshwater distance race. Boats travel from near and far (this year's globe-trotting award goes to BEAU GESTE, a well-campaigned Farr 80 hailing from Hong Kong) for this storied race, which just completed its 102nd running. With a dramatic starting line off of downtown Chicago, its Gothic-inspired architecture and soaring skyline providing the backdrop, to the race's decidedly bucolic finish at lovely Mackinac Island, a place where cars are banned, horses and bikes rule the roost and fudge is the local currency. The Mac is full-on sailing for its 333 miles."This was a fantastic race with our second largest fleet, and every kind of sailing imaginable -- calms with flies to 25 knots on the nose," summed up Greg Freeman, Mackinac Committee Chair. "These conditions rewarded well rounded boats that were well sailed," said Ron White, Chief Measurer. "The physical conditions were also spectacular. We saw a full moonrise with a simultaneous sunset in the Manitous."
In a demanding, challenging race, it took well-sailed boats that could sail easily in a wide variety of wind and wave conditions to win- indeed, weather that was well-suited to J's of all sizes in all classes. There was an impressive line-up of J's sailing the race, 69 of 355 boats, nearly 20% of the fleet and certainly the largest single brand participating as a whole. The range of J's included the new J/97 HIT GIRL to the offshore speedsters like the J/145s MAIN STREET and VORTICES. In between were highly competitive fleets of J/105s, J/109s and J/120s pushing one another hard for every last boat-length. Tossed into the mix fighting for every inch against their stablemates were J/30s, J/35s, J/122s, J/130s, a J/124, J/125, J/44 and J/92.
The J's had an impressive showing. Winning 3 of 5 major trophies for the race! A feat unequaled by any major sailboat brand in the history of the Chicago-Mac Race. As they say, "veni, vedi, vici"- they came, they saw, they conquered. The only two J/122s sailing in this year's "Mac" trounced all comers, from the maxi 80 BEAU GESTE to last year's IRC National Champion, the 52 foot VINCITORE. In fact, J/122s have won their division in "the Mac Races" five-for-five times! Fresh off winning not just the IRC C Class in the Bayview Mackinac Race, but first in class in the IRC Great Lakes Championship was David Askew's J/122 FLYING JENNY VI (Annapolis, MD), winning both their section as well as the Mackinac Cup trophy (overall winner) over 152 Boats. In fact, J’s took 15 of the top 33 slots (45%) overall!
Coming back for a very rare "three-peat" was the J/122 SKYE, duplicating their Mac Double-handed Race win last year, it extended their streak to a third win in a row (having won class/fleet the previous year with a full crew). Richie Stearns and Bill Zeiler (Wilmette, IL) sailed fast, made few mistakes and won by hours over their tough double-handed competition. Interestingly, of 13 Boats racing in the Double-handed division, J’s took 5 of top 10 (50%) overall! In fact, SKYE sailing doublehanded would have finished 10th on corrected time behind her J/122 sistership among the 152 boats in the fully crewed Mackinac Cup.
The third major trophy winner was Mike Stewart's (Muskegon, MI) J/110 LADY K, winning the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy over 137 Boats overall and winning Section 7 class. In fact, in this division as well, J’s took 12 of the top 30 slots (40%) overall! Quite a remarkable demonstration of the importance of designing easy-to-sail, easy-to-handle sailboats that can excel in all conditions on all points of sail.
In the other handicap divisions, the two J/145s reveled in the conditions and sailed well to get 4th and 5th in Section 1/ Mac Cup with Chris Saxton's VORTICES (Plymouth, MI) beating past Mac Race winner Bill Schanen's MAIN STREET (Port Washington, WI). Tom and Beth Ann Papoutsis (Winnetka, IL) sailed their J/133 RENEGADE to Section 2/ Mac Cup class win, beating a slew of custom racers and the hard-charging group of Farr 40s and also getting 6th overall! Mitch Padnos' J/124 SUFFICIENT REASON (Holland, MI), finished second in class to Askew's J/122 FLYING JENNY VI and was 4th overall! In the Section 6/ Chicago-Mac "J/35" division, Bruce Metcalf's BOZOS CIRCUS (Burr Ridge, IL) led all J/35s, getting 2nd in class. Following them in 3rd was Bill Newman's AFTERSHOCK (Muskegon, MI) and 5th was Tim Kent and Dana Felton's NEMESIS (Elm Grove, WI). In Section 8/ Chicago-Mac division, the new J/97 HIT GIRL sailed by first-time Mac racer Paul Stahlberg and Dana Underwood finished second and was 14th overall! Good show for a "virgin" Mac sailor! In Section 9/ Chicago-Mac division, the J/30 FALCON sailed by Greg and Stephanie Moll finished third.Rounding out the top ten in the Doublehanded Division, Brendon Docherty's J/105 OCH! was fourth, George and Kimberly Petirtz's J/29 TFWB RELENTLESS was fifth, John Hoskin's J/30 MADCAP was seventh, and Anton Devcic's J/105 ADRIA was tenth.
The J/105s had a very competitive fleet, with only 3 minutes separating the leaders. Winning the J/105s was Mark Nichols (Lake City, MN) on CERTARE. Second was Clark Pellett (Chicago, IL) sailing SEALARK. And, third was Tomas Petkus' (Chicago, IL) VYTIS.
With nearly a similar sized fleet, the J/109s with fourteen boats had an incredibly competitive race once the third "parking lot" compressed the top seven boats abeam of Beaver Island in the middle of the Manitous late Sunday night, early Monday morning. After ghosting by early race leader VALOR (sailed by previous year's Overall Mac Winners George Miz, Peter Dreher and Mark Hatfield), Len Siegal and Don Cameron sailed LUCKY DUBIE 2 to a well-deserved, hard-fought win. After a gybing duel in Grey's Reef Passage slowed down both VALOR and MERENGUE, Jim Murray's CALLISTO slipped by to finish second. Third and fourth, respectively, were Jack Dau's and David Southwell's MERENGUE followed by VALOR. The J/120s again had a strong class showing with nine boats from both the Chicago and Detroit fleets. This time, the Detroit boys showed their colleagues how to get it done. Class leader Frank Kern from Detroit sailed hard and fast in the difficult conditions to win aboard his highly traveled J/120 CARINTHIA (pictured above). Bill Bresser's green FLYIN IRISH was second and David Sandin's JAY HAWKER was third. For more Chicago-Mackinac Race Sailing information.