J/Teams Win Four Divisions, J/109 Wins Mackinac Cup!
(Mackinac Island, MI) – This year’s 109th Chicago Yacht Club Race to
Mackinac will go down in the history books as one of the toughest races
ever, sharply reminiscent of the wild near gale bashing the fleet
experienced decades ago when Ted Turner’s 12 Meter American Eagle won
the race and he later on quipped, “that was the roughest and hardest
race I’ve ever sailed in my life!” How tough was it this year? Just 200
of the 297 starters completed the 289.4 nm course (e.g. about one third
of the fleet dropped out).
A
frontal passage hit the fleet at midnight on Saturday, just hours into
the race, producing a rare “dry front” that looked menacing as it came
over the water but had no rain over Lake Michigan, but was pummeling the
shoreline with rain, hail, and thousands of lightning bolts racing
across the sky, thunder echoing over the water to remind everyone that
Nature was King! As the front passed over the fleet, a blast front of
35-50 knot winds flew across the water that no one could see, other than
the fact that boats just hundreds of yards away from you would suddenly
flip over into a wild broach with spinnakers flailing away and, in many
cases, simply blowing up into a thousand pieces of nylon! Look at the
NOAA Radar Archive.
Shortly thereafter, the front passed by, pulling behind it a far
stronger northerly breeze than forecast, so the fleet settled into a 20+
hour beat to windward in 15-30 knot winds from the N/NE and punching
into a classic 6-10 ft Lake Michigan “chop”- steep faces, no backs and
constant slamming of the bow into the
next
wave. To say it was unpleasant experience would be an understatement.
By the time the fleet reached the famous first turning point at Point
Betsie about 163nm up the track, about a third of the fleet had dropped
out for various reasons- equipment damage, boat damage, sail damage, or
simply human damage (people got sick or hurt and physically could not
take it any longer).
Ironically, after the first trial by fire to get around Pt Betsie, the
winds rapidly shut down between the Manitou Island Straits and the open
waters headed to Grey’s Reef- the next major turning point. In fact, it
was a glass-out for several hours for most boats. Talk about
extremes! From there on end, many felt they could swim or crawl faster
to the Mackinac finish line than drift at “triple naughts” on their
speedo’s!
At the end of it all, the major highlight from J/sailor’s perspective
was the amazing performance by the J/109 TOA owned and raced by Bruce
Danly (Lake Bluff, IL) and Jim Mitchell (Chicago, IL), winning the
Mackinac Cup, the overall win for the smaller boats in the fleet! More
importantly, there’s was a “family affair”, with young sailors, husband
and wife on board!
The race has always been popular with J/Teams. The enormous contingent
of sixty-nine J’s (23% of the entries), sailed in both one-design
classes (J/111, J/109, J/105) as well as ORR handicap classes ranging
from J/88s up to a J/145.
J/111 One-Design Fleet
The nineteen teams in the J/111 class knew it was going to be another
battle for the entire 289nm, from start to finish. After running
through the storm front, the top five boats quickly emerged, sailing
consistently faster than the rest of the fleet and employing strong
overall tactics and strategies up the race course. Once the fleet hit
the Michigan shoreline around Little Sable Point, it was a frenetic game
of playing shoreline shifts versus offshore streaks, the leaderboard
constantly shifting between Marty Roesch’s VELOCITY, Rich Witzel’s
ROWDY, the Brummel/ Henderson duo on KASHMIR, Brad Faber’s UTAH and Dave
Irish’s NO SURPRISE. It was like watching a heavyweight boxing match
for those boats that were behind them. In the end, emerging bruised,
battered and grinning from ear-to-ear was none other than Marty Roesch
and his amazing Annapolis YC team on VELOCITY that consisted of James
Allsop, Camden Bowdren, Andrew Eyring, Jarrett Hering, Paul Luisi,
Derrick Reig, and Chris Teixeira. Taking second after the long battle
was Rich Witzel’s ROWDY crew (Jim Calto, Chris Doubek, Colleen Duncan,
Tom Elliott, Keith Love, and Zac Schramm). The final step on the podium
went to a familiar Chicago crew, Karl Brummel and Steve Henderson
sailing KASHMIR with crew of Ryan Clulo, David Guba, Mark Lyons, Andy
Ray, and Tom Roop.
Of note,
kudos to Dave McCreight’s J/111 DARK HORSE from Annapolis.
It was a scary Saturday night on July 15th, when rough weather rolled
in quickly, as it does on the Great Lakes, and a catamaran flipped.
McCreight’s DARK HORSE was one of the boats to stand by to assist when
the Coast Guard showed up to help the five sailors in the water.
Although the crew’s assistance was not needed, we’d like to acknowledge
the team for their sportsmanship, safety consideration for fellow
sailors, and thoughtful conduct.
Here is
the report from J/111 class winner, Marty Roesch’s VELOCITY:
“This was an interesting race because the navigation and strategy
seemed like they were more obvious than in the past two Mac races I've
done. We were looking at SE winds at the start that were forecast to
slowly build and clock to the SW before a gusty front would come through
with NW winds and possible storms, followed by strong northerly winds
with big waves on Sunday, then light shifty winds under a passing high
pressure system on Monday. So the plan was to stay left of rhumb until
the front came in and then get across the lake, then inside at the
Manitous and then see what we had to do to get across the finish on
Monday.
We had a great start, winning the boat end of the line and quickly
transitioning into our Code 0. We peeled to A1.5 and then A2 as the
winds slowly clocked as per the forecast. The sailing was absolutely
fantastic on the first day as we picked our way though the larger fleet
and kept an eye on the competition. We spent a fair amount of time
scratching our heads as No Surprise pulled in front of us a couple
hundred yards up the course (where did those guys come from??) and kept
an eye on Utah and Kashmir while we kept the boat speed up and waited
for the front.
When the sun went down we could see a big display of lightning to the
northwest that was slowly approaching and putting on a huge
cloud-to-cloud light show that was beautiful to watch. When the NW
winds finally hit it, was a very quick transition and we worked to get
our A2 down and our short hoist J4 up. We saw wind speeds build quickly
into the 30s despite not feeling it on the water and in short order we
saw high 30s and low 40s and then it landed. The top wind speed we saw
was 46 knots and we hit 15 knots of boat speed blast reaching under the
J4 in the crazy winds and rapidly building sea state.
The was a lull for a bit after the front came through and we put the
Code 0 back up, but that proved to be the wrong sail after a few minutes
so we switched to the A3 and I got back on the wheel. Due to the
clouds, it was pitch black on the water and very hard to see the waves
so the first 10 minutes or so were very disorienting and hard to drive
in. Luckily, a bright star popped out under the cloud deck and I was
able to use that as a steering reference and get things smoothed out.
We were bashing through big waves at 15-17 knots boatspeed for a couple
of hours as we headed northeast and across the lake to get to the
Michigan side. Once the jib went up, I went down for the night.
When
I woke a couple hours later, we were in pounding conditions
close-hauled and heading up the coast of Michigan between Big and Little
Sable Points. We could see a few other J/111's around us and we spent
pretty much all day on Monday dealing with mild seasickness among
several crew members, trying to stay upright in 20-25 knot northerly
winds and 6-10 foot waves, and chasing boats. We spent a lot of time
crossing and being crossed by Utah on Monday, which was alternately good
and bad for morale. These were some of the roughest conditions that
I've sailed in for the amount of time we were in them and it was very
challenging for the whole team. We did a great job staying in contact
with the leading contingent of 111's and staying in the game that day.
If I were to pick a point where we made a call that put us into a
position to achieve our ultimate victory, I'd say it was very early in
the morning on Monday. We were south of Beaver Island and we knew the
winds were forecast to clock NE to SE and we also knew that we were on
the outside of the pinwheel of leader group and that that was not going
to be a great place to be. We made the call to gybe away to an angle
that took our VMG to almost zero and spent a half hour sailing to the
inside of the pack and much closer to the rhumb line. Shortly after we
gybed back to course the winds did exactly what was predicted and the
move paid off big. As the sun came up on Monday we saw Kashmir about 2
miles in front of us, Utah and No Surprise over near Beaver Island and
not moving very quickly, and Rowdy to the north of us with a group of
boats from other classes.
The
conditions that morning were 0-4 knots of wind and very glassy. As the
sun came up we could see patches of breeze on the water so we played the
"connect the dots" game we play so frequently in Annapolis to get ahead
of Kashmir and pull up even with Rowdy, slowly pulling past both them
and No Surprise. Once we got to Greys Reef, we were in a position to
consolidate and defend against Rowdy and No Surprise and we spent 6
hours sailing the last 25 miles and staying out front through the whole
afternoon.
Once we got to the bridge we felt like we had a very comfortable lead
and the breeze was moving Velocity along very nicely at 6-7 knots with
the lighthouse in sight.
That's when the bottom almost fell out.
A
mile or so past the bridge the winds started to go light on us again
and it looked like the other two boats had connected with some breeze on
the south side of the Straights of Mackinac so we decided to cover. As
we came out of our covering gybe, I looked over my shoulder and saw No
Surprise maybe 6-8 boat lengths back! After 282nm and just 7nm left to
go, we were within seconds of each other and we still had a lot of
battling to do. With me on the wheel and Chris Teixeira trimming the
kite, Derrick Reig and James Allsop managing the tactical picture, we
got back to work and managed to extend on both them and Rowdy, finally
gybing away for the finish after about an hour of dueling in the last 3
miles.
As we approached the finish line there was one last challenge - the wind
completely shut down! With “triple naught” (0.00 knots of boatspeed)
on the B&G displays we found that we had about 0.8 knots of current
pushing us towards the finish line. As I looked around in a bit of a
panic, I saw that everyone else was being shut down as they approached
the line as well. It took us 30 minutes of getting tossed around by
ferry wakes and doing everything we could to get the boat moving to
cross the finish line!
The conditions on this race ran the full gamut from 0-45 knot winds,
flat water to 10 foot breaking rollers, cold to hot temperatures. The
crew of Velocity did a great job of overcoming it all, staying in the
game and capitalizing where we could to win the prize in what was one of
the toughest races I've ever sailed!”
J/105 One-Design Fleet
Another large, very competitive J/Class were the twenty-one boats
sailing J/105s. Like their colleagues in the 111’s, many of their top
contenders in past Mac Races, Chicago NOOD regattas and other offshore
events were quite well-prepared to do battle for the entire 40-50 hours
on the race course. In the end, a familiar crew led everyone home to
claim class honors- it was Mark Symonds and his crew on PTERODACTYL (Tim
Kerr, Michael Morin, Thad Nguyen, John Quinlan, Trey Rose, and Duane
Rose). Taking second after a 15 minutes scoring penalty was Vanessa
Gates crew on STRIKING that included Will and Steven Knoop, Richard
Martin, Patrick Rice, and Leslie Washburn. Third on the podium was
another top Chicago boat, Clark Pellett’s SEALARK crew that consisted of
Shane Montgomery, Russ & Steve Radke, John Schussler, Nathaniel
Sher, and Craig Warner.
Here is the
J/105 class report from the winner, Mark Symonds on PTERODACTYL:
“It was one of the most challenging Chicago Mac races I have sailed.
It started out like a typical Mac Race- a pleasant sleigh ride under
spinnaker. By late Saturday, though, we could clearly see the storm
system coming down the lake. Thankfully, the really bad stuff seemed to
be tracking over the Wisconsin coastline off to the west of us. We
kept our spinnaker up a little too long and suffered a knockdown in a
sudden increase in winds to 40+ knots. It seemed like we were at a
90-degree angle forever, but more likely about 30-40 seconds. We were
able to retrieve our spinnaker (in several pieces) and all the control
lines. From there, the wind turned north for over 24 hours. North
winds on Lake Michigan create big, powerful waves. We slammed upwind
all of Sunday. We were very grateful and probably lucky that no one was
hurt, being tossed around the cabin or deck. We soldiered on trying to
catch Buzz and SeaLark who were launched in front of us.
When we reached the Manitou passage, we had momentary cell coverage and
found that we had caught them, but that Striking had also caught up.
Four of us were bobbing for hours or ghosting along at very low speeds
for quite some time. We tried everything to get going - jib and main,
spinnaker and main, spinnaker only. We constantly worked it to try to
accelerate out of the doldrums. Three of us were neck and neck getting
to Grays Reef. This is the reason I love one-design racing - after two
plus days of racing, we were in a clump of competitors who all had the
same capabilities. When we finally got past the reef and turned toward
the bridge it was a drag race with the wind out of the south. We were
able to barely hang on flying a spinnaker at a tight angle the whole
way.
Kudos to the whole J105 fleet. They are a great bunch of talented and
well-prepared competitors. While many had to drop out, we were very
happy there were no serious injuries. We are looking forward to a
challenging fleet this Saturday for the Bayview Mackinac Race, our
division is nearly all J/Boats, including J/105s, J/109s and the very
fast J/111s!”
Another notable development in the J/105 class was the confidence of
women owners to assemble top-notch teams and pursue top-level
performance with great teams. Perhaps inspired by the likes of J/88
owner like Iris Vogel’s champion team on DEVIATION, Vanessa Gates’
STRIKING team is forging new paths for women owner/skippers, as well as
Nancy Glover’s TEMPEST crew, the Petzold gals on GREEN FLASH, and
Barbara Dael’s Y-NOT!! Add in four husband/wife teams and there is no
question the easy-to-sail J/105 with a nice, easy to manage wheel, is
less intimidating and easily managed by women sailors in all extremes of
weather conditions!
J/109 One-Design Fleet
With ten teams, the J/109 class will always be tough and competitive and
this year was no different! Taking class honors after a long battle
through the Manitou Straits to Grey’s Reef was Robert Evans’ GOAT RODEO
with his Chicago crew consisting of Lorna Bath, Brian Evans, Christian
Goebel, Michael Kearschner, Daniel Rylance, Cameron Rylance, and Keith
Stauber. Taking the silver was a nearly all-family crew- Woody, Max,
John & Will Hansmann’s BLOODLINE, adding in Jim & John Lynch as
well as Will & Katie Wells from Newport, RI! The third spot on the
podium was taken by Scott Sims’ SLAPSHOT II crew of Melanie Derleth,
Matt Gartner, Ashley Hunsader, Preston Scruggs, John Stevenson, Rich
Vedder, and Kurt Wittenberg. What was notable about the J/109 fleet??
All of the top three had women sailors on board as part of their winning
teams!
Level 35 Class Fleet
The Level 35 Class of eight teams included a trio of J/35s, such as Rick
Stage’s ALPHA PUPPY, Larry Taunt’s BAD DOG J, and Mitch Weisman’s THE
FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER. Needless to say, they all did well. In the
end, bragging rights went to Rick Stage’s J/35 ALPHA PUPPY team of Gene
Benedict, Justin Kalb, Kristian Kobernus, Steve Krasowski, Kevin Starr,
Aimee Strittmatter, Jon Van Norman, and Andrew Winter. While it was an
“almost sweep” of the podium, the bronze went to Larry Taunt’s J/35 BAD
DOG with crew of Bruce Bustin, Denny Dryer, Brad Fisher, Jeff Fuller,
Timothy Graham, Dan Nikesch, Philip Wujkowski, Jim Wujkowski.
The class make-up for
Section 2
was rather diverse, including a half-dozen Farr 40s plus the J/145 MAIN
STREET sailed by Bill and Jean Schanen of SAILING magazine fame from
Port Washington YC. In the end, the Schanen family’s pretty red
speedster took 5th in class with a crew that included most of the
Schanen family (Bill 3, Bill 4, Bill 5, Erin, Greta, & Jean) plus a
cast of characters from “da hood” of Milwaukee to Sheboygan (Dan
Branson, Mike Burt, Scott Fruechtl, Nick Hayes (famous writer on all
things sailing!), Dale Peters, and Richard Reichelsdorfer).
For the
Section 3 division, it was a battle of the J/130s versus
the J/133s. In the end, taking J/crew honors was Tom & Beth-Ann
Papoutsis’ RENEGADE in third place; their crew consisted of Paul Bader,
Devin Bader, Steve Curtis, William Dooley, David Galen, Larry Kwiat,
James Lowe, Joey Papoutsis, and Matthew Pinsky. Settling into 4th place
after a tough thrash was Doug Petter’s WILLIE J, with crew of Brendan
Hagman, Todd Labaugh, Andrew Lauten, Doug/ Andrew/ Juli Petter, Dell
& Amy Todd, Brian Turuta, and Bert Vanderweele.
Fighting for brand and class honors all by themselves in
Section 4
was Randy Kuhn & James Richter’s J/44 CHEAP’N’DEEP, a proven winner
based on their performances off the Chicago waterfront this summer.
For a tough Mackinac Race for a completely family crew, there’s was a
notable performance to take 5th in class- their undoing was the classic
“black hole” known as the Manitous to Greys Reef “depression”.
Otherwise, as contenders to win class going past Point Betsie, it was an
awesome performance. The crew included Alex Bott, Jay Butler, John
Conway, Dylan Hahn, JJ Kuhn, Chuck Norris, George Richter, Pete
Robinson, and Justin Theodore.
Crushing the
Section 5 class was the J/122 GOTTA WANTA skippered
by Bob Mampe, from Grand Traverse YC. To say this was a veteran team of
a few dozen Mac Races would be an understatement. Perhaps Dick &
Doug Devos would wish to have this “all-star” team of amateurs and
friends on board instead of their payroll of pro’s aboard WINDQUEST.
Needless to say, this crew knew what to do, where to go, and played all
the nuances of the Michigan coastline to just crush their class. The
crew included Tom Babel, Andrew Berge, Michael Burns, Mark Clark, Jim
Elvart, Eric Geiser, Karen Nemecek, and Scot Zimmerman.
Then, crushing the
huge Section 7
was a past winner of both the Bayview-Mackinac and the Chicago-Mackinac
Races. Winning the Mackinac Cup overall was the extraordinary crew on
the J/109 TOA. A slightly modified J/109 it was, with masthead massive
spinnakers, giant squarehead main with dual running backstays. They
flew up the course in what were arguably perfect J/109 conditions;
beating upwind into giant waves, big winds, knife-like bow chopping
through the waves. Not convinced?? Ask anyone in the UK or the
Netherlands why the LOVE their J/109s. Plain and simple, it can go
uphill in nasty conditions when nothing else can— except, maybe a J/122
or J/111!! Therefore, to no one’s surprise, that is what Jimmie Mitchell
and Bruce Danly did with their J/109 TOA. Equipped with awesome sails
from Rodney “Dangerfield” Keenan at Evolution Sails in New Zealand, they
just sent it. They crushed their fleet by hours; beating the next boat
by seven hours elapsed time and nearly five hours corrected time- e.g. a
“spanking” of the fleet! The TOA crew included Mike Beasley, Rodney
Keenan, Dirk Kruger, and Richie & Lori Stearns. Six hours back on
corrected time to take 2nd place was another classic J/Boat, the J/35
BOZO’s CIRUCS sailed by the Metcalf family (Bruce, Chris, Eric, Chris
Jr) and Ally Haramia, Eric Larsen, Tim Lathrop, Glenn & Christina
McCarthy, and Brendan Walsh.
Here is the
first-hand
account of why TOA managed to do what they did by two of the crew-
Richie & Lori Stearns (the J/Boats dealer in Chicago):
“The 2017 race to Mackinac had just about every condition you could
imagine. We were not sailing in the 109 section because “Toa” was
sporting a new black square top main which was more than noticeable to
everyone sailing around before the start. Co-owner Jim Mitchell started
the race with the east-northeast wind a bit heavier than forecasted. We
started with a code 0 with a genoa staysail under it. Once we got away
from the line we began to slowly pull away from the fleet. Our
sailmaker, Rodney Keenan from Evolution sails in Auckland New Zealand,
was quick to want to change to our other code 0 for more speed. Yes, we
had two code zeros, one sheets to the stern and one sheets about two
thirds aft. They are both spinnakers and are tacked to the end of the
pole. With the larger code 0 up, we then launched the genoa staysail,
which is a very small sail but really fits in the slot nicely. Soon the
wind shifted to more of a broad reach and Mike Beasley, Clay Danley and
Dirk Kruger put up the A2 spinnaker. The genoa staysail was already up
so we decided to add the spinnaker staysail. WOW! Talk about slots for
directing wind! I have sailed all my life and had to go below to get my
camera… four sails flying perfectly and the boat just kept pulling away
from the fleet.
The
storms forecasted for later were coming from the northwest so we just
sailed north instead of rhumb line. The VMG was faster to track north
than to point at Point Betsie over 100 miles away. Also, the wind was
forecast to swing to a beat and we wanted to get north as far as we
could.
The wind had shifted before the storm and when it hit we just had the A2
up. The wind kept building, but the J/109 was perfectly under control,
and we continued to track north. There was some discussion of how to get
the sail down and a letterbox takedown won. We were seeing high winds
but the boat was still under control, we got ready for the take down and
then the spinnaker was “gone”. The front tape and part of the sail
jumped forward and wrapped around the head stay and the rest of it was
torn/ blown-off somewhere on the other side of the main in 35 knots of
breeze. However, we were still going 11.5 knots in a very good direction
so even though it took quite a while to get the sail down, just sailing
the right direction under main was perfect.
As forecasted, the wind shifted to the north and we set in for 20 hours
of heavy beating. The waves built all night and increased to 10 to 12
feet. Before daylight, we were on the Michigan shore and although we
were having to short tack up the beach there was much less wave action
on the shore. We were with faster boats so it was hard to keep up when
we were in waves, but in smoother water we hung in there much better.
Rail meat was everything at this point, so anyone trying to get sleep
had to change bunks every time we tacked (which was a lot). The upper
bunk was hard to get into so it was really better to be on deck.
Keeping with the projected forecast, the wind continued to blow hard
from the northeast until Sunday around 4:00 PM when it shifted and
moderated. We rounded point Betsie at 5:30 pm Sunday night, and we felt
lucky that the wind was still blowing as we got into the Manitou
passage, giving us a direct shot though the passage. Early Monday
morning the wind dropped under 5 knots. It was a very light, tight reach
and really was hard to say where the wind was coming from. We put up
the small code 0 and really got the boat going. I had never steered a
sail like this on a beat. With no light on the tell tails and using the
compass and speedo and feel as a guide, we started to really go fast. As
the sun came up, I realized I was sailing better in the dark than when I
had things to look at, generating your own wind is an odd edge to sail
on. This sail caught us back up to the larger boats that had passed us
the day before! However, true to the forecast, the wind completely
died. Even cigarettes couldn’t find any wind and the boat at one point
did a 360. With the help of the wind seeker, which is a fairly large
light jib that has full battens, we were able to get going again. Once
we got going, it was the A1 Spinnaker in light air, jibing to Greys
Reef. Co-owner Bruce Danley did a great job steering through this
stretch with Lori Stearns trimming the spinnaker. Looking at the tracker
after the race, we noticed this was an area we really extended our
lead. After Greys Reef, the A1 was still the sail and it took us under
the Mackinac Bridge to about one mile from the finish, where the wind
died. Thank goodness for the wind seeker, it kept us going and we
crossed the line with no one behind us in sight. The door had shut and
now we just had to wait to see if anyone corrected over us.”
Finally,
the Section 8 class of 28-33 footers
that often produces huge surprises in the Mac Race nearly delivered,
yet again! Nevertheless, on “digital” based YB Tracker, the J/88s were
crushing it up to Saturday midnight’s squall. Thereafter, it was a long
20+ hour slog upwind in massive, breaking, cliff-sided waves. While 29
feet with a knife-like bow can go fast most times, it’s a tall order of
fries for a J/88 to beat a J/122 or J/111 upwind based on handicap
time! Nevertheless, the tables turned rapidly in the glass-out in the
Manitou Island straits going to Grey’s Reef. The J/88s flew in their
conditions and nearly pulled off the mother of all upsets overall…just
wishing a few more miles left!! In the end, winning class was Tim
Wade’s J/88 WINDSONG with crew of Todd Anderson, Andy Camarda, Kristin
Olson, Tripp Wade, and Andrew Waters. Leading the J/88 sweep with their
colleagues was Ben & Amanda Wilson’s J/88 RAMBLER crew that
consisted of Mark Ewing, Peter Fray, Rj Mills, Ed Montano, and Jim
Nachtman. For
more Chicago to Mackinac Race sailing information
Add to Flipboard Magazine.
(Port Huron, MI)- The “slowest race in decades” implies and defines the
light winds that plagued the 2018 edition of the Bell’s Beer Bayview
Mackinac Race, which began on Saturday, July 14. Over fifty boats had
dropped out of the race, many due to the consideration they wanted to
complete the delivery all the way to Chicago for the start of the
Chicago-Mackinac Race!
(Port Huron, MI)- One hundred ninety teams are confirmed for the 2018
Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race, scheduled for July 14. With 93 years
of tradition behind it, this unique distance race, with two courses
(204 or 259 nm) that start on lower Lake Huron and finish at Mackinac
Island, has a knack for bringing back regulars and reeling in newcomers,
each year weaving new interesting stories into its tapestry of racing
fun. One of the largest brand contingents happens to be J/sailors from
across the Great Lakes- thirty-three crews in total.
Division I- Cove Island Course
(Mackinac Island, MI)- Bob Mampe, owner of the new J/122E GOTTA WANTA,
sailed an amazing Chicago to Mackinac Race and won their class going
away. Here is Bob’s account of their experience in this year’s wild and
woolly Mac Race:
We
worked our way out of the start with the Code Zero and, as the wind
built, we debated A1.5 or A2 spinnakers, ultimately we went with the A2
and never looked back, the symmetrical chutes were no match. As we're
getting close to midnight Tom was on the helm and we saw the weather to
the west we knew it would hit soon! So, we got the J3 heavy weather jib
on deck ready to go. We also discussed “letter-boxing” the kite and
untied the knots in tack and sheets. We didn't get the lazy sheet over
the boom but we got a hold with several people when all hands on deck
was called out. The take down went with out incident when we were hit
with 40+ knots. Tom was on the helm at the time and let out a Hee Haa
and we were going 15 knots boatspeed “bare-headed” under full main
alone!
