There have been frustratingly windless Chicago-Mac races before, but few, if any, have been as epically slow as the 105th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac this past summer.
How slow was the 2013 Mac? Four days into the 333-mile event, half the 301-boat fleet couldn’t attend the Tuesday morning prize-giving ceremony on Mackinac Island because they were still out on Lake Michigan.
Tweets posted by some of the roughly 2,400 sailors who took part in the sunbaked war of attrition give some idea how bad it really was…
Sunday: Day 2
Kashmir: Biting flies, multiple sail changes, holes, auto gybes… Sunday funday. #cycrtm
—@RacetoMackinac
Mise En Place: After a long morning in the doldrums, the crew began to lose it. Charades, hand farts, and an alphabet belching contest #cycrtm
—@RacetoMackinac
Imedi: Someone put quarters in the wind machine. 0.3knt of boatspeed is not fun. #CYCRTM
—@RacetoMackinac
Monday: Day 3
@paink_racing the flies, the flies they are eating each other. Oh the horror. #ohthehorror
—@RacetoMackinac
@YaGirlGogo: Day three. Dead wind. Crying. Frying. #CYCRTM
@RacetoMackinac 23h Aegir: Flat water, 1 knot of breeze on occasion, frequent double zeros on the knot meter unbearably hot in the sun, hotter below deck #cycrtm
— @RacetoMackinac
Tuesday: Day 4
@ybtracking: Absolute millpond on the lake this morning. ~35 boats trapped around bridge in sight, not going anywhere! #CYCRTM
@mikesosin: We are stinky and booze deprived #CYCRTM
Mutiny: Crew says “We are in hell, we are in hell!” #mutinymac
—@RacetoMackinac
Photo courtesy of Randy Hull/Chicago Yacht Club
