J/120s Top Cove Island Race, J/29 Doublehanded Champ(Port Huron, MI)- The Bayview Mackinac Race, hosted by Bayview YC, had a strong field of 239 boats that sailed in Doublehanded, PHRF and ORR handicap divisions. The fleet was split between the two courses on offer to the sailors, with a small fleet of boats sailing the longer "Cove Island course" (which takes teams up onto the Canadian side of Lake Huron up north near a buoy to the entrance of the North Channel in Ontario, then head nearly due WNW to Mackinac Island for the finish) and the balance of boats sailed the so-called "Shore Course" (a direct shot, mostly up the eastern Michigan shoreline directly to Mackinac). The popularity of the Shore Course has risen dramatically in recent years at it's primarily a reaching course, so teams get to Mackinac Island faster and happier (for the most part!). The Cove Island course takes teams due north and often when turning left to head for the island, it turns into a fairly rough beat to windward (not good for Mom and the kids).
This
year's race was a relatively fast one with teams starting in good
breeze on Saturday and many finishing late Sunday and early Monday
morning. Taking the overall crown in the Division I Cove Island Course
were two J/120s, Tom Lewin's SLEDGE HAMMER in 1st followed by classmate
Bill Bresser in FLYIN IRISH in second, both finishing just after 3am
Monday morning. The third J/120, Dennis Dettmer's PERVERSION took 9th
overall. Sneaking in between these offshore cruiser-racers was the
J/111 KASHMIR sailed by Tom Roop, taking 7th overall. J/120s as a whole
did well in this race, taking seven of the top 17 places overall. Add
in the top J/111's and results show J/Teams took nine of the top 20
places (not bad, to have nearly 50% of the top 20!).Looking at the Shore Course overall, the J classics sailed well with two J/35s finishing 6th (MR BILL's WILD RIDE) and 8th (MAJOR DETAIL), the J/145 VORTICES in 7th and the J/44 SAGITTA taking 10th-- like their Cove Island colleagues, also a great showing for J/Teams taking 4 of the top 10 overall.
In
the Doublehanded Division on the Shore Course, the J/29 PATRIOT
skippered by Lyndon Lattie took first overall followed by the J/111 NO
SURPRISE sailed by Dave Irish in third place. A fantastic performance
for both boats.Sailing Cruising A Division on the Shore Course was the J/42 DOS MAS sailed by Gary Gonzalez, taking both 3rd in class as well as 3rd overall! Yet another feather in the cap for this cruising offshore classic!
The
highly competitive fleet of eight Great Lakes J/120s proved beyond any
reasonable doubt they know this Bayview Mac race quite well! Behind the
top three boats (SLEDGE HAMMER, FLYIN IRISH, PERVERSION) the balance of
the class top five included Bob Kirkman's HOT TICKET in 4th and the
team of Ed Vermet and John Hughes's NAUTI BOYS in 5th. Good show for
this mostly Detroit, Michigan crowd-- the exception, of course, going to
"long distance award" travelers SLEDGE HAMMER from Buffalo, New York!The J/105's saw a "two-peat" take place in their midst, with past race winner PTERODACTYL skippered by Mary Symonds finishing late Sunday night to win by only two minutes! Chasing them hard the entire race was GOOD LOOKIN sailed by Dean and Lana Walsh. Just seven minutes back from them in third position was SNAKE OIL skippered by Don Harthorn. The rest of the top five include WINDSHADOW sailed by Jim Murphy in 4th and RAMPAGE led by Matt Haglund in 5th. Amazingly, the J/105s must have had the "best performing boat in class" award, as the spread for the top five was only 22 minutes!! And, for the entire class, just 45 minutes! Fun, close racing for all.
The
J/35's in the Great Lakes had nine very competitive teams sailing in
the Level 35 Class and without question, many of them had the potential
to win class as well as overall in the Shore Course race. In the end,
the J/35s swept the top four positions, with past Bayview-Mac champion
MR BILL's WILD RIDE sailed by Bill Wildner taking the crown again!
Second was MAJOR DETAIL skippered by Bill Vogan just eight minutes
behind. Third was TIME MACHINE sailed by Robert Gordenker and fourth
was FALCON sailed by the trio of Bayer/ Bayer/ Barbes.
The
Cove Island course PHRF C class saw the two J/111s simply dominate
their competitors. Leading the fleet home was past Chicago-Mac winner
KASHMIR sailed by Tom Roop, winning by over 22 minutes corrected.
Second home was Tim Clayson's UNPLUGGED, 41 minutes clear of the boat
that took third!The Shore Course PHRF D class had a few offshore greyhounds in the crowd. Sailing well to take 2nd position was Chris Saxton's J/145 VORTICES, showing again that their excellent sailing in the Chicago-Mac Race two weeks earlier was no fluke-- a solid offshore team they are!
The Shore Course PHRF E class saw the J/44 SAGITTA sailed by 
past
commodores Jon Somes and Larry Oswald take a well-deserved 2nd overall,
finishing as first boat in class on elapsed and second on corrected
time.First in the Shore Course PHRF F Class was the J/33 SHENANIGAN sailed by the team of Dick & Dan Synowiec.
The Shore Course PHRF G class had the J/100 BLUE JAY skippered by John McVeety taking 10th in class and the J/92 KOHATSU sailed by John Stromberg was 12th. Sailing photo credits- Martin @ ELEMENTS For more Bayview Mackinac Island sailing information
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