The Chicago Yacht Club’s 102^nd Race to Mackinac presented by Veuve Clicquot finished July 27 after historic flooding prevented some sailors from competing in the 333-mile event.

The oldest annual freshwater race kicked off July 24 as 353 boats crossed the start line on Lake Michigan.

The light air on the third day of the race made for very close and competitive conditions all the way to the finish. With 113 boats already in port, the remaining 229 averaged speeds of 4 knots as they made their way across the finish the following day to celebrate at the award ceremony hosted at the Grand Hotel.

DogDayz, a Tartan 4100 TM CB skippered by Dan VandenBossche, was first to cross the line with an elapsed finish time of 52:06:28. However, as part of the cruising division, which starts well ahead of the rest of the fleet, DogDayz was ineligible for the trophy for the “first to finish.”

Lady K, owned by Mike Stewart, won the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Division with a corrected time of 46:53:05 while David Askew’s Flying Jenny VI took home the Mackinac-Cup Division trophy.

“It was just a great race,” said Stewart. “We seemed to sail the boat well, with awesome crew and we just had a lot of fun. It seemed to work out for us. We take the sailing serious and we take the fun serious.”

Other overall winners were Tom Falck’s Intangible, which took first in the cruising division, and Matt Scharl’s Gamera, which placed first in the multihull division.

“This was a fantastic race with our second largest fleet, and every kind of sailing imaginable,” said Greg Freeman, Mackinac Committee Chair and crew aboard Salsa. “With the early arrival of the fleet, everyone is looking forward to celebrating with a flute of Veuve Clicquot today at the awards ceremony and enjoying Mackinac Island.'”

For complete race results, please click here.

Archives