Holua Is First To Cross Finish In Chicago Race
Retriever, Kutty’s Ark
Take Division Race Trophies
By Karen Gould

Light winds came to life Monday, July 18, to push Chicago racing sailboats up to Mackinac, but not before an early morning thunderstorm capsized the trimaran racer Emma just south of Gray’s Reef in Lake Michigan. All three crew members from Emma were rescued and brought to the Island by the crew on board the chase boat for the Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM, which was filming the race and ended up filming the rescue as well.

The first yacht to cross the finish line beating the storm and all the other racers to the Island was Holua , a 70-foot Great Lakes 70 skippered by Chicago Yacht Club member Peter Thornton from Hinsdale, Illinois. The boat finished in 36 hours, 54 minutes, 23 seconds, but her corrected finish time, allowing for her handicap, was 42 hours, 28 minutes, 45 seconds, too much to make her the winner of either division race trophy.

Earning the Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to Mackinac Division race trophy was Retriever, a 52-foot Alden from Grand Rapids. Though finishing the race in 47 hours, 12 minutes, 2 seconds, the boat’s corrected time of 41:15:11 gave her the edge.

Capturing the Mackinac Cup Division trophy was Kutty’s Ark , a 36-foot Pearson from Oak Lawn, Illinois, with a finish time of 50:48:52 seconds and a corrected time of 40:29:56.

Corrected times, not elapsed times, set regatta placement, said Adrienne Lebatino, a spokesperson for the Chicago Yacht Club. Boats are given a handicap based on weight, length, modifications, and a number of other factors. A computer program computes the handicap, along with the boat’s elapsed time from start to finish to calculate a corrected finish time.

The race had been predicted to be slow because of low winds that have plagued the Great Lakes region since the beginning of the month.

“Winds were light, but we had good speed and we could sail where we wanted to go,” said Tony Orlebeke of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, who sailed on the 70-foot boat Evolution.

Ben Biddick of Petoskey, who was sailing his first Chicago-to-Mackinac race, agreed.

“The wind was pretty constant,” he said. “The only time we didn’t have any wind was a couple of times for only about an hour or so. The wind was pretty constant until we ran into the storm.”

Mr. Biddick, aboard the 70-foot Pied Piper from Evanston, Illinois, said that during the storm, the crew spent about two hours on deck trying to communicate with each other, but the rain and thunder were so loud, they had to scream and holler to be heard. He said lightning was within a half mile of the boat and they all stayed clear of the mast, since it acts as a lightening rod.

Despite the storm, Mr. Biddick said, “I had the time of my life.” This week he will be crewing on the Pied Piper during the Bayview Yacht Club’s Port Huron-to-Mackinac race.

The storm also was pretty intense for Chicago sailor Darius Barkauskas, who crewed on Thirsty Tiger . He said they hit the storm south of Gray’s Reef and thought the storm was intensifying while they were caught in it. The rough wind, he said, forced them to make three sail changes in 15 minutes.

“I’ve never seen lightening like that,” Mr. Barkauskas said. “The air was so staticy, there were lightning fireballs overhead.”

Following the storm, a southwest wind on Lake Michigan settled down to approximately 15 to 20 knots for much of the day.

Family, friends, and race enthusiasts were able to track the race on the Internet. FlagShip Integration Services Inc. of Palatine, Illinois, outfitted 73 of the 299 starting yachts with a global positioning transmitter, said Jean Velazquez of Flagship. Each transmitter tracks the boat’s location and speed and it is plotted on a race map. The information was made available on the Chicago Yacht Club’s Web Site.

Crews were required to report into the Chicago Yacht Club race headquarters at Windermere Point when nearing the Mackinac Bridge, which helped the club to track the progress of the race. As the boats crossed the finish line, which was marked by the Round Island Lighthouse to the south and a flag on the headquarters roof, an air horn similar to those used to keep birds off airport runways was sounded.

Of the 299 boats that started the world’s longest fresh water race, at 333 miles, eight dropped out, including the capsized Emma. The last boat to cross the finish line was Nantucket from Chicago, arriving Tuesday, July 19, at 8:57 a.m. with a time of 68:57:34 and a corrected time of 51:34:53.

“It was a beautiful race,” said Tom Murray of Chicago, who sailed aboard the first boat to finish, Holua.

Tactician and navigator for the vessel, Stuart Johnstone, who has sailed in 20 Chicago to Mackinac races, eight of them on winning boats, said, “This race was slower than some, but no less challenging. The Mac race always is challenging.”

Unlike ocean races with one or two challenges, he said, “The Chicago-to-Mackinac race is so much more.” It can be broken into about six separate races, he said, with each one offering unique challenges and requiring different sailing skills.

The start of the race, including positioning of the boats, could be considered race one, he said. Next is the open lake to Point Betsie. Sailing techniques used in the Point Betsie area can make or break a race, he said. From Point Betsie to the Manitou Islands, the course offers sailors interesting challenges because there is an area where the lake current changes and pushes south. The Manitou Islands to Gray’s Reef demands skilled navigation through the rocky area. From Gray’s Reef to the Mackinac Bridge can offer interesting conditions with winds and weather sometimes affected by Lake Superior. Finally, from the bridge to the finish, on the race’s last three miles, he said, conditions and the geography changes.

“I’ve seen racers lose it in those last three miles,” said Mr. Johnstone.

Enhancing the challenge of the race is what Mr. Johnstone calls, “The race within the race.” This is the psychology of the race where leadership and teamwork come together, and where some teams break down, he said.

Mr. Jonhstone said they thought they already were beaten shortly after the race started, as they were off shore of Evanston, Illinois, but they did not give up.

“It’s a question of perseverance,” he said.

Mr. Murrary agreed. “You have to keep the goal in mind of winning.”

Race results are posted on the Chicago Yacht Club Web site www.chicagoyachtclub.org/racetomackinac/results.cfm.

First In: Peter Thorton, owner of Holuo, the first boat to reach Mackinac, along with several crew members, takes a break to visit the Island. From left are Bogdan Ogorek, Dan Knight, Peter Thorton, and Gary Marino. Thirsty Tiger: Rob Almaida (second from left), the offshore sailing coach at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, crewed on the 70-foot Thirsty Tiger from Chicago, along with Jeff Balsin (third from left), who celebrated his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering by making the trip. With them are Ed Marshall (left) and Chris Welsh. Hung Up: The 46-foot Quintessence III from Wisconsin got hung up in the yacht harbor. Sailors took the incident in stride, sending one crew member up the mast and another out on the boom to help tilt the vessel to free it.