Race Results

We finished late, but finished. Our official finish time was Tuesday at 04:07:10. We were the last boat in the cruising division to finish but corrected above one section 2 and one section 1 boat. We were 15 of 16 finishing boats (18 started) in Section 2 and 35 of 37 (40 started) in the cruising division.

With the radar/genoa problems we had we lost about 5 hours. We lost another couple of hours with spinnaker problems, solved by removing the dousing sock. If we had those 7 hours back we would've finished top 3 in Cruising 2 and top 5 in the division. Such is racing.

The crew is happy with outcome. We sailed well and executed maneuvers (i.e. reefing) without excessive stress. We had a strategy and executed to it. The weather was beautiful and we had some of the best sailing on Donnybrook I've ever experienced. There is nothing like being on a broad reach at 7+ knots with a flat boat and no waves. Cooking below was as smooth as cooking at dock!

Race's Last Sunset

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Mac Race Day 4

I write this 15 miles southeast of Gray's Reef. We are reaching under Big Blue and will gybe shortly for the approach.
We decided to pass west of the Manitou's because of the wind direction. With the light southwest wind and our poor down wind performance, we wanted to keep moving and avoid previous race's mistakes of getting stuck too far east. We also didn't want to have wind blocked by the island.
It was slow sailing around Fox Island. Jake, Megan, Dan and I swam as Mike sailed at 2 knots and Roxray napped.

We sailed north through the night then gybed east at Fox Island. It has been a beautiful spinnaker reach.
If winds hold we should finish around 3:00 AM.

Megan counted 35 boats around us.

Mac Race Days 2 and 3

Friday night was rain, 6 hours work. Jake, Megan, and Roxray's watch was during the rain. They kept the boat sailing well and we continued excellent progress.
Saturday we continuned our strategy of sailing north as soon as possible until the wind shift to northwesterlies. We wanted to broad reach across Lake Michigan, Donnybrook's fastest point of sail.
The wind shifted mid afternoon. It looked like our strategy was perfect until it continued to shift to the northeast. We were beating into winds in the high teens. We settled into a single reef in the main and genoa and sailing about 60 degrees vs. Our desired 30 degrees. We made good speed, low to mid 6 knots.
The wind subsided and we removed the reefs. We continued at 6-7 knots, tacking a few times to find the best angle for VMG and sea state.
During one of the tacks, during a spectacular sunrise, the genoa tore! Thanks to Roxray's quick thinking we raised the storm jib to continue forward progress, this time at 3-4 knots. As the wind subsided we sailed at 1/3 the speed we were capable of.
When the wind neared zero we decided to drop the genoa to investigate. There is a 3 foot tear at radar level. We made plans for Megan to patch with the sail repair kit on-board.
While looking for the cause we found the radome had dislodged and the metal shelf made a very sharp edge which sliced the sail! Jake went up the mast and found only one of 4 screws was holding it in and that was only finger tight.
Jake went up the mast and found only 1 of 4 screws. We went through spare parts and found, mysteriously, the 3 missing bolts! Our theory is the yacht yard failed to install 3 of the bolts. Jakes assessment was that if installed properly there was no way for the bolts to work lose, The ramaining acrew had the washer and lock washer in place but it wan't tight.
The wind picked up and we continued under "Big Blue", our Michigan Spinnaker.
We cointinued at 6+ knots to the Manitous and sunset when the wind dropped. We opted to go ouside the Manitous and, as of Monday morning, passed between North Manitou island and Fox Island.
Our ground support tells us we're 10-20 miles behind the main section 2 fleet,. I estimate we lost 15-20 miles due to the torn genoa. If the forecast is accurate we'll be sailing the rest of the race with Big Blue anyway.

Mac Race Day 1

This is a rewrite of my original message. It was lost in posting.

The race started under idea conditions for Donnybrook! Jake, Megan, Roxray, Dan, Mike, and I left dock around 1:00 after an 11:30 boat call. Winds were perfect for Donnybrook, southwest in the mid teens.

We started with a broad reach and sailed north at hull speed or faster for the first 3+ hours, with a maximum of 8.5 knots.

Late evening we witnessed one of the most awesome sights any of us had seen: a wall cloud form and race over the top of us. We furled the genoa and put in a double reef. Winds were relatively mild but it reinforced our healthy respect for mother nature.

The rest of the night was spent watching amd guessing where the thunderstorns would be. We got rain but missed any direct hits.

The lightning we had was the most incredible I've ever seen. A line of thunderstorns was horizon to horizon south of us--the same storns that caused the flooding in Chicago.

During storms we had several bolts directly overhead splintering out like spider webs. I saw at least one bolt hit the water several miles away. It seemed to leave an orange glow where it stfuck.

This was an incredible start to the race.

Mac Practice Sail

Saturday was an ideal day for our Mac practice sail. I was worried about winds being too light with the forecast--south winds 6 knots becoming variable. Instead, we ended up with south winds in the teens, building to nearly 20, then some sustained 30 knot winds with gusts over 40 in a thunderstorm. Over the 6 hours on the water we experienced about everything the Mac offers except for dead calm.

Here you see part of my crew. From left to right: Jake, our newest crew, Mike, Megan, and Roxray. Brian joined us for the dock-side briefing but had family obligations in the afternoon. Danny is in Florida until 7/20.

We left under clear skies with cumulus clouds building. Several developed rain. We dodged several and only had a few minutes of showers, until we saw this. We watched the rainfall build from a few wisps of rain to the black downpour you see here, to a large black downpour that completely obscured the skyline. This picture was taken from about 10 miles east of Belmont harbor and about 20 minutes before we got rained on. There were as many as 3 storms around us. We could track their movement on the radar as the rain echos were very clear.

This is another storm. When the sun shines on them they're beautiful, certainly not as scary as the previous picture, but just as powerful.

The "funnel cloud" to the right is a closeup of the center of the picture to the left. We could see it twist, grow and shrink.

All of us were admiring the rainbow and clouds. A white haze began to form on the water maybe a mile away. I was thinking it was fog and joked that it could be a "white squall." The worst to that point had passed.

Jake yelled "Very strong wind in 10 seconds!" We were focusing on this view to port but didn't see the wind coming toward our bow. We'd previously taken the main down but were caught with our genoa flying. It took three of us to bring in the genoa. Jake saw 39 knots on the hand held wind meter.

It looks like a rainbow with some wispy white clouds. From our experience we learned that we were seeing the downdraft of the storm spread out. It was menacing and black until the sun shone through turning it white. We let our guard down because it was amazing to look at.

The winds were dangerously strong. In fact a small sailboat, it looked like a J-22, washed against the wall at Montrose harbor.

After it passed we were rewarded by a spectacular sunset!

Seamanship and Safety Skills

The Chicago Yacht Club race to Mackinac Seamanship and Safety Skills Checklist for Prospective Competitors is an excellent list of skills any crusing or racing sailor should have.

If you have mastered the competencies listed, you are ready for about anything Lake Michigan can throw at you.