15 Yachts Participate in Manitoulin Race
By Bernie Nguyen

Boats jockey for position at the start of the Mackinac Manitoulin Sailboat Race. (Photograph by Jeffrey Dupre)

Stardust, a 54-foot Willington skippered by Jeff Van Alstine of Ann Arbor, and Adagio, a Northern 29 skippered by Leroy Pieri of Cederville took top honors among 15 boats entered in this year's Mackinac Manitoulin Race, which took place between the Port Huron and the Chicago racing classics, from July 19 to 21.

Stardust won the Cruising Division with a time of 20 hours, 56 minutes, 3 seconds, taking home the Manitoulin Transport Cup. Adagio won the Racing Division and the Mackinac Island Yacht Club Cup in 23:20:48.

"It was triumph over adversity," Little Current Yacht Club Vice-commodore Margaret Van Camp said of the race. Much of the Canadian fleet encountered a severe storm Monday, July 17, as they sailed to Mackinac Island for the start of the race.

"It was a challenge for the racers to even get to Mackinac Island," said David Rowe, treasurer of the Mackinac Island Yacht Club and one of the organizers for the Mackinac Manitoulin Race.

In addition to the pre-race storm, weather conditions at Manitoulin Island made the race start uncertain, with a severe storm that struck the Canadian island two days before the race and caused damage as well as power outages. The town of Gore Bay was in the dark until the night before the fleet was due to arrive, nearly causing race officials to rewrite the sailing instructions to direct racers to another port.

"We did not know on Tuesday afternoon whether the race was going to go into Gore Bay," Ms. Van Camp said.

Both the towns of Little Current and Gore Bay rallied, however, and welcomed racers cheerfully to the finish. Gore Bay's Rotary Club even managed to put together a successful fish fry, despite the difficulties of getting fresh fish and working without power, Ms. Van Camp said.

New finger piers were installed in time for the race at Little Current's downtown waterfront as part of a renewal project to help give the waterfront a new image and assist in making it a destination for North Channel boaters. Local dignitaries, including Little Current's mayor, were there to help welcome the sailors into port, despite many late arrivals that delayed the awards ceremony until 10 p.m.

"It went through, and it was wonderful," Ms. Van Camp noted.

In addition to the problems Manitoulin Island faced, Ms. Van Camp said that sailors were battered by severe weather as they sailed from Mackinac Island to Gore Bay. Rain and rough seas made for an especially challenging race.

"A few of the sailors were still pretty groggy when they got here," Ms. Van Camp added.

Local sailor Jerry Archer of Mackinaw City, whose yacht, Legend, flies the Mackinac Island Yacht Club burgee, won the Gertrude Hibbard Cup, which is awarded to the oldest skipper to win any leg of the race. Mr. Archer is 77 years old. The Cup was donated by Bill Hibbard, who dedicated it in memory of his late wife and, at age 82, just sailed his third Mackinac Manitoulin Race.

The Mackinac Manitoulin Race consists of two legs, and the combined time for these two legs serve as each boat's overall time for the race. The first and longer leg, which started at 1 p.m. on Mackinac Island Wednesday, July 19, took sailors north and east from Mackinac and into the entrance of the North Channel to Gore Bay, on Manitoulin. The second leg, which started at 9:30 a.m. Friday, July 21, brought sailors carefully through the North Channel. They traveled east around the smaller islands surrounding Manitoulin to the town of Little Current, where the race ended.

This year's course was changed from the last two years to make it a fresh challenge for returning yachters and help keep navigation skills sharp. Leg one of the race is approximately 108 nautical miles, and leg two is approximately 28 nautical miles.

"Without a doubt, it's a navigational challenge," Ms. Van Camp said. "They sail at night. They have to navigate very, very carefully, because there are shoals and rocks."

Mr. Rowe agreed, adding that the weather conditions for the race made it slower than past years.

"It was slower because of the amount of beating that was required," he said, explaining that "beating" is a boating term for sailing into the wind. The wind also dissipated toward the latter half of both legs of the race, making it difficult to keep boats moving, especially in the narrower passages that do not allow a great deal of tacking room.

"Consequently, it was a slow race on both legs, but it was a fun race," Mr. Rowe said.

In addition to the cooperation that went into making Manitoulin ready for racers, sailors also displayed good sportsmanship throughout the race. Cruising division winner Stardust received a time credit after it turned around to help out another boat, Full Tilt, which had run aground on a shoal just off Amedroz Island, said Ms. Van Camp. The setback, which may have lost Stardust a half hour, was negated as the Race Committee allowed a redress and Stardust turned out to win its division.

The Mackinac Manitoulin Race qualifies as an international race, taking boats from Mackinac Island to Canada's Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater Island in the world. U.S. Customs was set up in St. Ignace to help ease the transition of border crossings for Canadian crews, who were required to bring permit immigration forms and identification. American crews went through Canadian customs at the town of Gore Bay.

The Little Current Yacht Club was formed in 2003 to create a community of boaters dedicated to promoting yachting. Since that time, it has sponsored and coordinated three international races, as well as several educational sailing programs.

All proceeds from the race go to support the Little Current Yacht Club's youth recreation, including the Youth Sailing Program and the Cardboard Boat Race. The race is sponsored by the Mackinac Island Yacht Club, the Bayview Yacht Club, and the Little Current Yacht Club.