CHICAGO-MACKINAC RACEThe fleets to follow will be the fourteen J/105s, fourteen J/109s and the J/111s.
Amongst the J/105s you will see amongst fleet leaders teams like Tom Petkus' VYTIS who've won their class before. In the J/109s you'll see Len Siegal's LUCKY DUBIE II, Kevin Saedi and George Simkins' MOMENTUS and Jimmy Mitchell's VANDA III all as contenders since each have won divisions in either J/109s or other classes before and all have very experienced teams sailing with them.
Amongst the new J/111s, sailing in Section 3 will be six very well sailed boats. It's not certain amongst this new group who will factor into the lead boats, but certainly all have amongst their teams crew who've won several Chicago-Macs amongst them, both in class as well as overall!! On MENTAL sailed by Paul Stahlberg (pictured here) you have multiple Mac winners Richie and Lori Stearns and Richie's father Dick Stearns. On KASHMIR sailed by the team of Brummel/Henderson/Mayer you have local J/105 class and Mac champions racing the boat. On NO SURPRISE, you have renowned, legendary Great Lakes offshore sailor Dave Irish from Harbor Springs. Finally, on IMPULSE sailed by George Miz, Peter Dreher, Mark Hatfield you have Stu Johnstone helping on tactics/navigation. Quite an impressive line-up and along with them are also Thomas and Carol McIntosh's team MISTY and Steve Dabrowski's team on NIGHTHAWK who have put together equally strong crews. It should be interesting as all boats are fast enough to take class, if not division or overall.
The Double-handed Division always has J's amongst the leaders and those sailing include three J/105s, GONZO (Ken Ganch, David Pikowitz), OCH! (Brendon Docherty and Patrick Lindenhurst) and PHANTOM (Scott Vukovich and John Kalanik), a J/35 NEMESIS (Timothy Kent and Dana Felton) and the J/29 TFWB RELENTLESS (George and Kimberly Petritz).
In
the offshore handicap category you simply cannot ignore the offshore
J-speedsters in Section 1 like the J/125 and J/145s. Given the right
conditions, the J/125 JEANINE III sailed by Jack Roeser and the two
J/145s, Bill Schanen's bright red MAIN STREET and "newbie on the block",
Chris Saxton's VORTICES will be a very difficult group to contend with
given the mix of conditions one often sees on a Mackinac Race. All
three boats have experienced Mac veterans aboard who've all won
divisions or sections before. In Section 2, the J/133 RENEGADE sailed
by Thom Papoutsis will have their work cut out for them to beat the trio
of professionally sailed Farr 40s. Also sailing in this tough group
are two J/130s, Pete Stott's SALSA and Doug Petter's WILLIE J. In
Section 3, joining the J/11s will be Mitch Padnos' beautiful J/124
SUFFICIENT REASON. Sailing Section 4 will be four J/120s, including Tim
Matheson and Glen Estill's ELUSIVE, Frank Giampoli's JAHAZI, Matthew
Songer's PERSEVERANCE and Robert Klairmont's SIROCCO 2 and also a J/46
WINDRUSH sailed by George Hender. Section 6 seems to be the "J/35
class", led by none other than Larry Schell's TOUCH OF GREY, Larry
Taunt's BAD DOG, Bruce Metcalf's BOZO'S CIRCUS and Jack Andree's HOUQUA;
sorting out who to avoid will be the J/100 JUST MESSIN sailed by Adam
Esselman. Section 7 has the J/110 LADY K sailed by Mike Stewart and the
J/92 CYCLONE raced by John Madey. Finally, in Section 9 are the two
J/30s, INNISFREE's John Nesling from Toronto, ONT and RAFIKI's Greg
& Stephanie Moll from Milwaukee, WI. For more Chicago-Mac Race sailing information
LAKE ONTARIO 300Much farther to the east is the "first Great Lake", Lake Ontario, the last lake to empty down the grand St. Lawrence Seaway into a yet slightly larger body of water, the North Atlantic Ocean. The Lake Ontario 300 starts and finishes in Mississauga, Ontario on a great tour of a very difficult lake to race- the self-proclaimed "Greatest Yacht Race on the Lakes"! This event has evolved to be a summer-time classic on Lake Ontario. Virtually all of the top boats that race offshore on Lake Ontario make sure to put this one on their calendars.
In the IRC Division, there will be three J/109s racing, including past winners BLUE STREAK sailed by Bob Eckersley, LIVELY sailed by Murray Gainer and Denys Jones' CARPE VENTUS. Giving them a run for the roses will be the J/35 JEAGER raced by Leszek Siek. In PHRF Doublehanded, Mark Bowman on the J/29 UNTAMED will be giving fellow classmates headaches as they fly around the course. In PHRF 1, the J/105 CASUAL ELEGANCE sailed by Geoff Clarke's team will be challenged by yet another 35 footer, the J/35 SHORTHANDED raced by Michael Pietz. On a separate, shorter course, called "The Scotch Bonnet", there will be two J/35s engaged in a one-on-one duel in PHRF 1 for all honors. Klaus Noack's ABRACADABRA will be up against Sarah Foscarini's formidably named BATTLEWAGON. For more Lake Ontario 300 sailing information
PORT HURON-MACKINAC RACEFollowing these two big Lakes races is the Port Huron-Mackinac starting on July 23rd. The longest consecutively running freshwater long-distance race since 1925. Of 222 boats entered, J's sailing in IRC B include the J/44 SAGITTA (John Soames/ Larry Oswald), J/145 VORTICES (Chris Saxton); in IRC C there will be THREE J/111s, including NIGHTHAWK (Steve Dabrowski), NO SURPRISE (Dave Irish) and UNPLUGGED (Tim Clayson); in IRC D the J/109 VANDA (Jim Mitchell and Jack Toliver) and the J/33 (Dick & Dan Synowiec); eight J/35s sailing in the Class 35 Class including MR BILL'S WILD RIDE (Bill Wildner); six J/120s including class leader ex-Bayview YC Commodore Frank Kern's CARINTHIA in the J/120 Class; five J/105s in the PHRF C Class; and a smattering of J's in other classes including a J/100, J/42 and J/40. For more Port Huron-Mackinac Race sailing information
