Les Cheneaux Yacht Attitude Wins Mackinac to Manitoulin Regatta
By Karen Gould

Crewmembers of Attitude (from left) Al McInally, Annie Herman, and Mr. McInally's daughter, Sita, all Cedarville cottagers, hold victory flags from the Mackinac to Manitoulin Race, which ended Friday, July 29. The crew also included Mr. McInally's daughter, Hilary, and Scott Graul of Cedarville. Sita and Al McInally cruised back from Canada in Attitude, returning to the Les Cheneaux Islands Tuesday night, August 2.

Winds gusting to 28 knots blew 21 racers from Mackinac Island to Little Current, Canada, in the first leg of the Mackinac to Manitoulin race and Attitude , a 33-foot Hobie owned by Al McInally from the Les Cheneaux Yacht Club, was the first to cross the finish line in just over 15 hours at 1:23 a.m. Thursday, July 28.

Only in its second year, the international island-to-island regatta began just east of Mackinac’s harbor and ended at Gory Bay on Canada’s Manitoulin Island. To accommodate a construction project this year at Little Currant Bay Yacht Club, the race had two legs.

The second leg of the race began the next day and brought weaker winds.

“The Wabuno Channel played its usual havoc with the winds and several boats were stalled for a while in dead air” said Race Committee Chairman Don Gray. “All boats eventually cleared the channel and were off for Gore Bay.”

The first boat to arrive in Gore Bay during the second leg was Night Moves , a 40-foot J120 owned by Henry Mistele of Grosse Pointe, with a finish time of 16 hours 39 minutes 20 seconds. Attitude went on to take the Overall Racing Division prize, however, after finishing the second leg with a corrected total race time of 18 hours, 6 minutes, 24 seconds, beating all other competitors. Night Moves finished second overall in the Racing Division with a corrected time of 20 hours, 6 minutes, 56 seconds.

The Overall Cruising Division was won by the 38-foot Catalina Hiawatha, owned by Robert Porter from Auburn, New York, with a corrected time of 21 hours, 37 minutes, 12 seconds for both legs of the race. The 33-foot Hunter I Can Too of Little Current, owned by Rick Collins, took second place with a corrected time of 24 hours, 18 minutes, 36 seconds.

The first leg involved an overnight sailing east through False Detour Passage to North Channel that ended at Little Current Thursday, July 28. The second leg began the next day and took sailors to the finish as they sailed west through North Channel to Gore Bay.

The 130-mile course requires precision navigation not normally needed in open lake racing. As sailors followed the strict course through the northern waters of Lake Huron to avoid house size boulders sometimes resting just beneath the water’s surface, northern lights brightened the night sky and dominated the vista much of the night.

“It was a breathtaking night,” said David Rowe of the Mackinac Island Yacht Club.

Of the 21 competitors, 11 were Canadian and 10 American. Local skippers included Bart Huthwaite of Mackinac Island sailing Nyna, his 34-foot Catalina 34 MK II, Jerry J. Archer of Mackinaw City sailing Legend, his 36-foot Hunter 35.5, LeRoy Pieri of Cedarville sailing Adagio, his 29-foot Northern 29, and Al McInally of Cedarville sailing Attitude, his 33-foot Hobie.

The race is sponsored by the Mackinac Island Yacht Club, Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, and Little Current Yacht Club.