(Port Huron, MI)- The Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race proved to be a
fast ride for the 214 boats that started Saturday, July 16, from Port
Huron with all but 14 teams completing the contest in Mackinac Island.
After looking at weather models) most of the top boats stayed to the
west of the fleet.According to one winning navigator, “the first couple of hours were tricky, because the wind didn’t do what it was supposed to, but we still stuck with our plan, hugging the Michigan shoreline. We had some traffic issues in the first 6-8 hours, which cost us- by 7pm Saturday night, we were 3-4 miles behind everyone. But we stayed patient, and as the overnight hours came, we were able to see the rest of our class starting to sail higher and slow because they were being lifted toward the Canadian shore (that is what we wanted to avoid). Once we saw that, we made the effort to sail lower and keep getting the separation on our competition. We made our gains and passed them. There aren’t many passing opportunities on the second part of race, so we just got to the finish as fast as we could.”
The largest fleet of J’s sailed the longer “Cove Island Course”- from the start off Port Huron, the fleet headed NNE to Cove Island just off Canada in northern Lake Huron, then they headed practically due west to the Mackinac Island finish line.
Winning
Class B was Chris Saxton’s J/145 VORTICES from Bayview YC. Class C was
the J/120 One-Design class with eleven boats entered. It was a battle
the entire way for this group, as it usually is! Winning by just 7
minutes overall was Geoff Brieden & Jeff Clark’s SCOUT. Taking
second was Frank Kern’s CARINTHIA, third was Mike & Bob Kirkman’s
HOT TICKET, fourth Ed Vermet & John Hughes NAUTIBOYS and fifth Dave
Sandlin’s JAYHAWKER.Winning Class D by well over two hours corrected was the dynamic duo of Jim Mitchell & Bruce Danly on the J/109 TOA! Third was the J/105 PTERODACTYL (Mary Symonds), followed by yet another J/105- GOOD LOOKIN (Mark DenUyl) in fourth position. Port Sanilac Marina’s J/88 SARALYSIA was fifth place.
Crushing it in Class G- the Level 35 boats- was none other than Bill Wildner’s famous J/35- MR BILL’S WILD RIDE! Second was another J/35- Ed & John Bayer’s FALCON and in fourth was the next J/35- Gregg Whipple’s WHIPLASH.
Four J/teams sailed the shorter “Shore Course”. That fleet started off Port Huron and basically went straight north along the eastern Michigan shoreline until they turned left to the finish in the Straits off Mackinac Island. Taking third in Class I was Brett Langolf’s J/34 IOR- KNEE DEEP. Duplicating their past success, the J/29 PATRIOT sailed by Lyndon Lattie took the silver in Class L Doublehanded Racing! For more Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race sailing information
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