Chicago to Mackinac Island Race

[Bob Kuba]

One of our own is racing again this year. Kyle Ewing on Donnybrook.
I was on the starting line and took these photos of Kyle and his crew.
He is racing in Cruising Division 2.
Chicago had torrential rains last night causing many crew transportation problems due to flooded streets.

Severe weather causes racers to change plans
In the 102nd Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, presented by Veuve Clicquot

July 24, 2010 (CHICAGO) – The 102nd Running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, presented by Veuve Clicquot, kicked off today despite the torrential rain that plagued the Chicagoland area for the last 12 hours.

"The Mac will sail on rain or shine," explained race spokesperson Christie Denson. "Crews prepare for these conditions by having proper foul weather gear, layers made of synthetic performance fabrics made to dry fast, as well and proper footwear and a change of socks."

Despite having the right gear, sailors still scrambled to make their boat calls amidst flooded streets.  Many boats had to register last minute crew changes with race officials, as sailors were trapped due to the havoc of the weather.

"Several boats had crew due to arrive from Michigan via train this morning. Due to flooding on the tracks, trains were shut down and they were unable to make the race," explained Chicago Yacht Club's Race Coordinator Amanda Matta.

This means many boats will be sailing lighter than anticipated, which can make for an added challenge to the 333 mile adventure up Lake Michigan.

353 boats made the starting line, and we will continue to monitor how weather impacts their race over the next several days. To track the boats, go to www.cycracetomackinac.com.

[tommyt]

Bob, I saw on the CYC website that Donnybrook posted as a late arrival at the Island. Anything out of the ordinary happen to cause that?

[Bob Kuba]

Not sure why that would be, I haven't heard from Kyle.
I did notice his track favored a more westerly course up the lake...

[tommyt]

I never looked at his track as I was so frustrated with CYC's IonEarth tracking. I just looked at finish times and thought they may have had some issues. There are not many Catalina's in this race, but the C400 finished in 61 hrs., the 36 in 65 hrs., a 320 in 65 hrs., and Donnybrook in 85 hrs.. With all the varied weather I thought maybe they had some equipment failure.

[Kyle Ewing]

Bob,

Thanks for posting the pictures!  I was meaning to post info here but I didn't make it to that part of my list before I left.  I started a Donnybrook blog (www.saildonnybrook.com) with details of the race and my 2010 sailing season. 

We did have problems costing an estimated 7 hours.  5 hours from a torn genoa caused by a displaced radome on the mast, including time to send someone up the mast to fix.  We replaced it with our storm jib so we went from sailing 6+ knots upwind to 2 knots.  We lost 2+ hours total because of problems with the cruising spinnaker sock.

It looks like the yard attached it with only 1 of 4 bolts when they stepped the mast.  It was offset during a tack then the base of the mount tore the sail. 

We used our cruising spinnaker more than ever and had problems with the sock nearly every time we doused or gybed.  The fix was to remove it.  My sock doesn't have an internal sleeve for the line.  Previously we didn't gybe with it.  I guess we should have doused before gybing.

We stayed farther west than other boats.  A wind shift to the Northwest was forecast.  We sailed north as fast as possible hoping to ride the northwest shift across the lake and to the Manitous without tacking.  The C34's fastest point of sail is a reach and for comfort didn't want to beat into waves.  We got a northeast wind instead.  We were still sailing fast then we had the genoa problems.

We also had 4+ hours of very light wind Monday morning.  Boats we stayed closer to shore had more wind.

Overall it was a fantastic race!  We stayed on Mackinac Island until this morning and are now in Petoskey.

[tommyt]

Kyle,

Thanks for the explanation. I tried to follow you on the IonEarth website but it became very frustrating. Congratulations on completing the race once again. It sounded as though there were lots of issues on many boats this trip.
Enjoy your trip south. If you get into Traverse City, Northport, or Leland give me a shout and I will buy you a drink.

[Kyle Ewing]

Thanks, Tommy.  We're at South Manitou Island tonight and tomorrow.  We'll figure out our next stop Monday.  Maybe Frankfort.

For those who haven't been, it's the quietest place in the world.  It's an uninhabited island 20 miles northwest of Leland, Mi.  We're anchored 200 yards from shore and can hear footsteps in the rocks.  There are 4 other boats anchored around us. 

The water temperature is about 75, the same as the air.  We're anchored in 21 feet of water and can see the bottom clearly with mask and snorkel.  I checked the anchor and it's a perfect set.

We'll be boiling pasta with homemade meet sauce in a little while while watching the sun set.

This falls under the category of "Can it get any better than this?"

[tommyt]

Actually, in this part of the world we have many places that are just as quiet, but not quite as remote. Thank the National Park System for your current anchorage. There are still some in Leelanay County that resent the park from pushing people out, but the result has become a jewel.

Monday looks like a brisk day from the SW, but a nice sail to Frankfort.Thanks for representing the C34's in the Mac race. I think that there were a couple in the PH to Mac, but were you the only one in the Chi-Mac?

Have a great trip home.

Tom