* Milestones and Miles: The 100th Mac.
Here's a great read for you armchair sailors wondering what it's like
to sail one of the world's more popular offshore classics. Written by
renowned SAIL Magazine contributor from San Francisco, Kimball Livingston
shares his experiences racing aboard the J/122 SKYE on his blog- "I
love Chicago for the sheer vertical audacity of it. An astounding (why
here, but why not here?) confluence of energies sets this place apart.
And when I flew in for the 100th running of Chicago-Mac, the place was
alive. Summer was on. In Millennium Park, the whole world was out .I was on the final leg of my mission to sail milestone editions of America’s three distance classics: Centennial Bermuda, Centennial Transpac, the 100th running of the Race to Mackinac. The opening decade of the 21st century offered that unique opportunity. Now the decade is winding down, and this is my report.
I
sailed Transpac ‘05 on a Cal 40. I sailed Bermuda ‘06 on an Open 50.
The final leg would be Mac ‘08 on a J/122 for a grand total of 3,193
rated miles, which is kinda sorta far, except that I have friends who do
circumnavigations where that mileage is nothing. And of these distance
classics, the Race to Mackinac is the shortest, but it most revels in
how hard the race can be—most of the length of Lake Michigan, Chicago to
Mackinac Island, 333 miles. This signature event of Chicago Yacht Club
has been raced almost-annually since 1898.If you’re a sailor hereabouts you have to go. Youngsters scouting the docks will ask, “Are you going to Mac?” If the answer is, No, they keep walking.
It’s a cult thing. When you’ve racked up 25 races, you qualify to join the Island Goats Sailing Society, an organization that refers to the experience via these pithy active verbs (their words, not mine): endured, survived, suffered.
I get it. When the wind switches off, the flies arrive. For a while in ‘08 we even had a bat in the rigging. And I’ve never before seen that much lightning from the deck of a boat.
But it’s also so damned beautiful.
It occurs to me that I sailed the 50th Ensenada Race, back in the day, and in the spring of 2008 I was on my way to Mobile Bay for the 50th Dauphin Island Race when I was benched by strep. Milestone event is to journo as flame is to moth. And if you’re a sailor in the bargain, it’s a helluva good excuse. Along the way I got fried, frozen, slammed, sore and high on sailing and life. I made friends, and one friend, well, one friend I lost.
Rich Stearns was our core player aboard Bill Zeiler’s J/122, SKYE (now for sale- see below)—in 2009 and again in 2010 Bill and Rich teamed up to win the doublehanded division—and Stearns explains the Mac as not one race, but four races back to back, through changing geographic zones. This was my second Mac (23 to go) and I’ve built up the conviction that it’s not so hard to win. You just have to be fast enough and smart enough and work hard enough to deserve it; then you need to get lucky several times in a row." Read the rest of Kimball's story on BLUE PLANET TIMES.
For more J/122 sailboat information and sailing photos.