Around The World Of Sailing

Water Level Update

Below you'll find water level info that pertains to Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Reference Point- Measurements in Inches

Difference from Chart Datum +14
Difference from last month +1
Difference from last year +13
Difference from long term average for July -9
Difference from Record High -40
Difference from Record Low +23
Forecast for 30 August 2004 +0

Click for information on other lakes.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Commodore's Cup. Portugal Match Cup

News Coutts has plans. Meanwhile at Alinghi

Great Lakes LTYC regatta. Beachcombing ban. Ferry trip lengthended

Percy & Mitchell Update

Skandia Set Sail athletes, Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell, are back in the UK for a well-earned rest before the final lead-up to the Olympic Games in Athens in August.

"We spent three weeks in Athens, one week longer than planned. This enabled us to practice in a range of different wind conditions and has proved to be a good investment of our time. Before we left, we managed to take the day off from sailing to get the boat ready, so that when we get back in a few days it will be ready to go.” (Steve)

“We will be coming back to Athens via Cyprus where will be staying in a BOA (British Olympic Association) holding house so we get to meet the other British Olympic athletes. We’re very much looking forward to this - I think being with all the other sports men and women will really bring home that the Olympics are upon us.” (Iain)

"I've just had a couple of days in Bath visiting the English Institute of Sport which is based here. A couple of guys who work out the team in Athens have been here helping me out: Marcus Church, the strength and conditioning coach and Chris Price, the physio who both work under the guidance of Dr Pete Cunningham, head of the British Sailing Team Sport Science. We’ve just had a big session in the gym with Pete, and now the last thing to do before we leave is to check in with our sponsor, Skandia. We wouldn’t be where we are now without their help and support.” (Iain)

"It's been nice to be back at home for a week but to be honest we feel ready for our event in the Star and want to get on with it. I think right now we are as ready as we'll ever be." (Steve)

Skandia 6th in Leg 1 of Figaro

IN BRIEF:

*SAM SCORES HER BEST RESULT SO FAR IN FIGARO CIRCUIT AS FLEET ARRIVES IN PORTSMOUTH, UK FOR FIRST TIME

*ONLY 8 MINUTES SEPARATING TOP 10 BOATS - the four leg race is based on cumulative time, making this leg less decisive than it might have been

*FAST TURNAROUND, MAXIMUM RECUPERATION REQUIRED, NEXT BIG 463 MILE LEG STARTS TOMORROW AT 1030HRS BST

IN DETAIL:

At 20:15:56 (BST) yesterday evening Skandia, the turquoise boat of Sam Davies crossed the finish line of the first leg of the Solitaire Figaro. Davies finished just 3 minutes 14 seconds behind the winner of this first leg, Yann Elies. The 156 mile leg from Caen to Portsmouth took Davies a total of 32 hours, 46 minutes and 46 seconds.

Sam's ranking of 6th in the fleet of 52 is a personal best for Sam in her Solitaire Figaro career to date (previously her best result was 7th in the 4th leg of last year’s event)

Davies arrived into Portsmouth's Gunwharf Quays wearing her distinguishing smile.

THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE LEG:
"The first night was the most difficult. I was tired and the wind was changing all the time, I had to work hard to maintain my position in the fleet. I was close behind Jeremy Beyou so my focus and attention was set on getting past him. But it was worth the effort - at one stage I closed my eyes to try and get some rest and when I looked up again Jeremy was right at my bow, I never let him pull away from me again."

Beyou, finished the leg in 3rd position, just minutes in front of Sam.

TO ARRIVE IN PORTSMOUTH:
"Sure, I am happy to arrive back at home! Very, very happy! I’m not sure if there was any home advantage for me in the final miles, I have, in fact, only passed here twice before, the last time was for the Round Britain record on the maxicat so that time I definitely wasn’t thinking about solo light wind strategy. I guess the best advantage was that some of my friends came out on the water to greet me, that was great."

THE BEST MOMENT:
"This morning, when I made a good tactical decision and progressed into the leader pack. That, and then managing to stay with them until the finish line!"

OVERALL REVIEW OF THE FIRST LEG:
"I am mentally pretty tired but the light winds mean I am physically in good shape. We never had more than 11 knots of wind throughout the leg. I have been working on the boat throughout so I have slept a minimal amount and have eaten almost nothing. I did keep drinking though, water, coke, yoghurt drinks – there was a lot of talk on the radio between the skippers about guys getting sore heads from the dehydration but, I think I had enough
fluids, I physically feel fine."

"I am really pleased with my position, I would love to head out and celebrate but this is just the first of a four stage event so, as soon as the boat is safe I am heading to get some sleep and then work on the weather and strategy for Friday start of leg two."

Sam was in 19th position on rounding the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse and gradually edged her way up the fleet reaching 5th position at the Owers buoy mark, 19 miles from the finish.

HOW IT FEELS TO BE BACK ON THE SOLENT AND DOES IT HELP KNOWING THESE WATERS?
"Great, I have not seen England for a long time, but it is strange because I do not normally sail near these coasts. The last time was when we made a Round Britain and Ireland attempt on a fast catamaran and tactics like these do not really matter. A lot of tactical decisions are dependent on meteorological situations, but I do hope it is a little bit of an advantage! I am feeling very good, happy with my boat Skandia, my plan is not to make too many mistakes, its nice because I made a good shift this morning, it is nice because I am back up with the leaders"

A race that is fought for on a one design boat means that the first over the line wins, Sam’s tactics are clear:
"I do not want to take any risks, just get a good result, not a first yet, that will be next year, and if I am in first place when the finish comes I will take it!"

It has been a short but tough leg for the skippers competing in the 35th edition of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro race. At the mercy of light and changeable winds, currents and tides, the skippers have had to fight nail and tooth throughout the 156-mile course.

After a 30-minute delay to the start on Tuesday, due to the light winds in the Bay of Caen, the skippers all set off on the first leg to Portsmouth under 4 knots of breeze.

LEG 1 POSITIONS
1 ELIES Yann Groupe Generali Assurances 21:13:32
2 KOCH Antoine Nobody +1'00''
3 BEYOU Jérémie Delta Dore +1'10''
4 PETIT Benoit Défi Santé Voile +1'54''
5 CHABAGNY ThierryLe Caennais B'M +2'18''
6 DAVIES Samantha Skandia +3'14''
7 LE CLEAC'H ArmelFoncia - TBS +3'26''
8 TABARLY Erwan Thalès +4'03''
9 NELIAS Jean-Luc Chauss-Europ +7'17''
10 ATTANASIO RomainPort Trebeurden 8'48''

The Figaro fleet is now at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. The second leg of the race, 463 milles from Portsmouth à Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie, starts tomorrow (Friday 30th July) at 1030BST with boats leaving Gunwharf between 0830-0900hrs BST.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Coutts still winning after axing

TP 52 Trader is afloat

News California rescue. Match race rankings

Trader's Bow

Great Lakes Medivac. Hook Race photos. Dreyer adds running to swimming

Catamaran returning from the Mac race anchored off the resident beach cats in Muskegon

Syrena is 1st to Finish in Slow HOOK Race

Sixty-eight racing boats left Racine on Saturday morning expecting a quick sail up the lake under bright skies and moderate winds. It wasn’t to be. By the time the last finish reports were handed in at Sturgeon Bay Yacht Club on Monday night at 10pm, most racers had averaged 50 hours on the water, much of it in frustratingly light air. Forty-one boats completed the race within the time limit. Taking line honors and the Overall HOOK trophy was Syrena, a B-32 owned by Nicholas & Angela Hayes of the Milwaukee Yacht Club, racing in Division 1. Her elapsed time on the course was 42 hours and twenty-nine minutes.

This was the 21st running of the annual race up the lake, through Death's Door and down the bay to finish at the west entrance to the Sturgeon Bay canal. Sponsored by Racine Yacht Club, it is open to all boats capable of offshore passage and is scored under PHRF. It is traditionally run the same weekend as the Chicago Mac race as an alternative way to get north for the post-race cruising season. Complete results can be found at the web site www.racineyachtclub.org.

Link Sailing News

Racing Portugal Match Race

News Coutts story

Great Lakes Mac concludes. Winner List

Orange II to New York

The Orange II maxi-catamaran, skippered by Bruno Peyron, has left her Atlantic base in Lorient (Le Défi technical base) today at 15:45 and is heading for New York, her sights set on the North Atlantic record (crewed).
Orange II should be in New York around August 8, and immediately switch on the stand-by mode in order to seize the best weather window possible.

After having been owned by Jet Services V catamaran for 10 years, the absolute record is today held by Steve Fossett (USA) with only 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 6 seconds. This benchmark time was established aboard the PlayStation maxi-catamaran at a dazzling 25.78 knots of average speed!

Bruno Peyron, prior to his departure: "we will try and leave with the boat as light as possible, but should be at least 11 on board. We'll set our objectives progressively, the first one possibly being the 24-hour record - and maybe we'll try and approach the 700-mile barrier...

As far as the Atlantic record itself is concerned, we know that the current performance is outstanding, and we'll have the obligation to leave New York at the end of August, in order to pursue our program of records in the Mediterranean in early September.

The chance of finding a weather window in such a short period of time remains quite reduced, and we know this period is not the best one could dream of for this record. Our goal is nevertheless to sail the boat as much as we can, in order to keep working on her optimisation for our next Jules Verne attempt next winter. And if we have a chance to add one more record to Orange's list of achievements, we won't miss it. We dearly wish to come home to Marseilles with a substantial result, of any nature?.

Updated Racing Rules

US SAILING announced today that the production of The Racing Rules of Sailing 2005-2008 Including US SAILING Prescriptions is on schedule and will be available before the end of the year. The Racing Rules are effective on January 1, 2005. Members of US SAILING will receive a free copy of the new rules before the end of the year and additional copies will be available for purchase through US SAILING?s online store. Dave Perry's Understanding the Racing Rules Through 2008, a companion to The Racing Rules of Sailing, is currently being produced and will also be available by the end of the year.

The Racing Rules of Sailing are revised and published every four years by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) and the U.S. rulebook includes rules adopted by US SAILING for events held in the U.S.

An electrion version of the 2005-2008 rules is available.

2004 Mac Concludes

The 2004 Chicago Mac race will take it's place on the short list of slowest Mac's ever. First to finish Genuine Risk sailed the course in 32 + hours, 7 hours slower than the record they hoped to break. Despite the light conditions the new 90 footer averaged 10.11 knots!

On handicap Genuine Risk was edged by the recently launched Esmeralda which scored another win for the Farr design team. Windquest, formerly known as Zephurus V, completed a top 3 overall in the Mackinac Cup division. These three boats showcased the latest in sailing technology.

For the great portion of the rest of the fleet, 10 knots was something not seen in boat speed, and rarely in wind speed. Our pre race weather outlook said: A high pressure of 1028 MB will appear over the lake on Saturday and then "stall". Stall was a fully descriptive word. The high stalled and much of the fleet along with it.

90 was a number seen again as in 90 boats Did Not Finish the race. While boats have gotten faster, people's patience has shortened accordingly.

It's interesting that both Mac races were considered slow this year. The Port Huron race had 4 DNF's on the longer Southampton course and 12 on the Shore Course, 16 total.

For whatever reason the Chicago fleet was much more prone to not finishing. I'm sure Lake Huron sailors will trumpet these numbers.

They'll have more happy news in that 5 of the 7 boats that won flags in both races were from Lake Huron.

After days of light air sailing, and nights with even less wind, the 2004 Mac eventually came to an end. While boats still competed the traditional awards ceremony went on as scheduled and some sailors to their chagrin missed the free rum party.

Boats continued finishing with regularity into Wednesday morning. The final boat to cross the line was Misty at 0306 Wednesday. Misty is a classic Concordia Yawl. These were built between 1938 and 1966, with 103 the number produced. Misty's slow trip did not go unrewarded, she was 6th in section and 38th out of 101 overall. With the bleeding edge Genuine Risk 1st over the line, Misty served as a classy wooden book end to the race.

The trying conditions called for Perseverance (winner in the J120 class), maybe some good Karma (1st in the Beneteau 36.7's). The Top Dog prevailed-at least in the Tartan 10's- although Rover was on his heels, again in the Tartan 10's. Providence (1st section) may seem to have favored some, although there were no Twister's (winner section 1) sighted.

Chicago Mac Winner List

Overall winners of the 2004 Chicago Mac are as follows:

Bozo's Circus, owned by Bruce Metcalf of the Chicago Yacht Club, won the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Division in a corrected time of 43 hours, 59 minutes, 38 seconds.

Esmeralda, owned by Makoto Uematsu of Seabornia Yacht Club in Japan, won the Mackinac Cup division in 37:05:17.

Earth Voyager, owned by Ryan and Todd Howe of Genesee Yacht Club, won the Multihull Division in 53:15:10.

The Top 3 in each section are listed below

How'd The Favorites Do II

Due to the slowness of the race we have another day to consider and analyze as the boats continue make way to the Island. Last week we named 10 favorites, boats that based on past races, that might finish well.

Six of these 10 boats have finishes and it looks like a jinx/hex maybe in the making. Denali and Windancer VI named as favorites were last in the Turbo and GL 70 classes. Rosebud was 5th in the Turbo class.

Three on the list Saturn, Holua and Eagle have placed 3rd in class, section's 1, GL 70 and Section 3 respectively.

Bantu ended a long race on Tuesday with a 2nd in Section 8.

Bacchant finished 15th in Section 3. It appears as though the light conditions caught up with the old gal.

Mischief a T10 was 16th in her one design while Gamera ended up 7th in multi hulls.

These boats were selected based on past finishes in the top 3. In 2004 they produced an average finish of 7.3 with 4 boats placing in the top 3 in their section. Being expected to win isn't easy. Since some new boats were in the top 3 this list will look different in 2005.

Double Flag Winners

Here are the boats that took home brag flags for both Mac Races

Earth Voyager- 2nd Open Port Huron, 1st Multi Hulls Chicago
Holua- 3rd GL 70's both races
Saturn 1st in Section Port Huron, 3rd Chicago
Natalie J 2nd in Section both races
Power Tripp- Section Winner Port Huron, 3rd Chicago
XS 3rd Section F Port Huron, 3rd Section 7 Chicago
Batu 1st in Section Port Huron, 2nd in Section 8 Chicago

Another lull -

Tuesday, July 27, 1800 Michigan Time.

The rush of finishers has tapered off - with very few arrivals in the last hour.
XS, a Beneteau 38, has just called in from the bridge.

Dock count shows 33 racers at the Arnolds Dock and approximately 100 boats docked in the Municipal Marina. The rotation continues with many racers leaving to get a good slip at Harbor Springs or maybe to head home.

There is still a constant breeze from the west, northwest. Hopefully it is bringing yet more racers to the island.

MidAfternoon Finishes

A large portion of the Chicago-Mackinac Cup fleet is arriving.

Most are finishes - a few are drop outs arriving for the party:
A partial list of current boats:
Retriever, New World, Gonzo, Challenge, Mystery, Bantu, CC Rider, Assassin, Soap Opera, Michela, On Edge, Measure for Measure, Jahazi, Split Decision, Renegade, Top Dog, Intangible, Chaika, Retriever, R New Gal, Mahdi, Jack-A-Roe, White Spray, Tiger Lily, Serenity, Retriever, Twisted

Quicksilver, Providence & Etage have finished with no engine and had to be towed to dockage.

Tuesday Afternoon Update

With nearly half of the fleet accounted for - the racers who have arrived at Mackinac are preparing for the Awards Ceremony at 3:15 at the Island House.

How they handle some many incomplete divisions will be learned shortly!!

These are the remaining boats in the Mackinac Cup division.
Panache
Outlaw
Jahazi
C C Rider
Troubadour
St. Francis
Liberte'
Blu Interlude
Mahdi 2
Obsession
Fandango
Spirit of Artemis
Geronimo
Scheherezade
Relentless
Lucky Dubie 2
Soap Opera
Folie A Deux
Twisted
Spanker

Coutts Gets Cayard-ed

It's official Russel Coutts has been terminated by Alinghi. Maybe not with extreme prejudice but with some malice in the form of a rule change on the way out the door.

Reason's given for Coutts dismissal include: "Repeated violations of his duties resulted in Coutts's dismissal. & undisclosed involvement in the planning and development of a new race series." This 2nd supposedly with Paul Cayard.

The rule change says that any sailor "contracted, engaged, paid or otherwise engaged" by a team for 180 days since the last cup." can't change teams. It is thought that this is in effect the Coutts clause, to prevent Coutts from joining another team.

Coutts issues his own statement. Coutts stated, "I found the
role he increasingly insisted I occupy in the syndicate was at considerable
variance with the one we had discussed." Further he says that the event he and Cayard have discussed are "exaggerated."

Coutts now joins Cayard as having been taken off an American Campaign by a billionaire. Cayard during the last cycle by Larry Ellison, Coutts by Ernesto Bertarelli.

Eventually Cayard's side lining led to his current Star Olympic campaign. In a recent report from Athen's where he's training for the August Olympic regatta Cayard wrote, "We are back at the ranch, the BBQ is going strong with Burgers and Yardbird...We have the Stones playing on my sons I Pod speakers system. It doesn't get much better than this and we get to get up tomorrow and do it all over again."

Coutts already has an Olympic gold, but maybe he'll follow Cayard and head for the BBQ/Olympic circuit.

PS Both Cayard and Coutts are + 40. Mick Jagger of the above referenced Stones turned 61 on Monday. Still moves around OK for an older guy, eh?

Rating Rules Seminar

Note: This report on a recent meeting is a fine capper for our look at rating rules.

Representatives of One Design classes, PHRF, IMS, Americap, Box Rules, ORCA, Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) Rule and the International Rule Club (IRC) joined with members of US Sailing and area yacht clubs last week to discuss the status of existing handicap racing rules and the future of these rules as related to big boat racing in North America.

The all-day Handicap Racing Seminar sponsored by the Storm Trysail Club
was held at the Larchmont Yacht Club, Wednesday, July 21.

"IRC, with nearly 6,000 certificates issued to boats in 31 Countries,
seems to be the handicap rating rule for the future of the majority of
the world's big boat sailing regattas," said Storm Trysail Club
Commodore Dick Neville, summing up the day's deliberations.

Neville welcomed attendees to the seminar before STC Vice Commodore Rich
du Moulin worked through a matrix of all the existing rules, outlining
the following features for each rule or handicap system: Goal, Theory,
Process, Cost, Demographics, Strengths, Weaknesses and Current Events.

"This was a very enlightening summary and STC will be publishing this
matrix report," Neville said.

Jim Teeters and John Winder presented an explanation of ORCA's goals,
while Mike Urwin, Technical Director of the RORC Rating Office and Peter
Wykeham-Martin, General manage of the RORC, made a detailed presentation
of IRC and fielded questions from a very interested audience.

After some healthy discussions over lunch, a Panel group of Mike Urwin,
Jeffrey Chen (Chief Measurer for the CSA Rule), Dan Nowlan (Offshore
Director at US Sailing), Olin Stephens, Bill Tripp (yacht designers) and
Bob Monro (PHRF of LIS) was moderated by STC Past Commodore Charles
"Butch" Ulmer.

"After much debate, the consensus of attendees seemed to indicate that
PHRF is a very good system for entry level racing and top level racing
is accommodated by box rules for the moment," Neville said.

"There is a great need for a simple and efficient "mid-level" rule to
accommodate the majority of handicap racing sailors," Neville said. "The
two rules that seem to work best are Americap and IRC.

"As a growing international rule with seven years of success and a
positive, easy-to-follow marketing package, IRC seems favored to fill
this role of a mid-level rule. We're looking forward to a healthy dialog
as sailors come to grips with this issue."

Making The Coverage Better

The Chicago Mac is one of the high points of the all too brief Great Lakes sailing season. Knowing this, we've provided online coverage of the Chicago Mac for going on 10 years. We have tried all sorts of things - from reporters sailing in the race to web cams that provide 24 hour viewing at the island. Still, we haven't done as well as we like - nor have we satisfied all the folks who visit our website.

A sampling of some visitor comments "Poor coverage during the race....A race as historical and prestigious as the Mac certainly deserves better than the third grade result this site delivers....After 24 hours, your only update is that the race has started!"

OK, these folks have had their say. When you work on a project like this things like these hit home.

We know that early in the race our coverage is not satisfactory.
We know we want to improve our overall coverage.

So, now that folks have vented, I'd like to make all visitors an offer....help us help you by providing better coverage.

There is not an official call in until the fleet reaches the Manitous. Until then it's hard to report on the specifics of the race. We understand the frustration but if there isn't information out available, then it's hard for us to report. Put another way nothing plus nothing is still nothing.

It would be nice if race organizers would have a Saturday night call in. This would give us all information earlier. It would be nice, but I don't think it is going to happen.

Another suggestion is aerial coverage. This might also be a good addition, however, it is not cheap and it's not easy. To account for individual boats and their position while flying isn't a common skill. Also, flight time would be a rather large budget item.

Maybe sailors could arrange their own call in? Again, not likely, early in the race the boats tend to be farthest offshore with the poorest cell phone coverage.

The race organizer does outfit certain boats with tracking devices. There's two problems with this. One 50 boats out of 300 doesn't tell the whole story. Two, it seems as though boats that are often in the lead of the fleet, or various sections choose not to be tracked. Maybe they don't want to have their position given away. Reporting based on a small sample of boats, and knowing that these boats are probably not going to be leaders, simply leads to inaccurate and infrequent reports.

Now is the point where you the sailor, spectator, &/or website visitor come in. We know coverage in the first 24 hours can be better. We know people want better coverage.

We've helped folks with our Mac coverage for 9 years....please help us make our coverage in 2005-the 10th anniversary-better. Use the comments section below to give us your suggestions on how we can provide better coverage.

Tuesday Morning Update

As of 9:00 am Michigan Time 83 boats had finished -
The breeze in the straits is still calm to variable. But enough breeze has come in that the water is no longer glassy still.

How are the finishers split up?
Mackinac Cup - 81 finished - 10 dropped out.
Chicago Mackinac Trophy - 2 finished - 37 dropped out.
Multi-hulls - 8 finished - 6 dropped out

Keeping track of arrivals - The Turbo, GL70, Section 1, Farr 395 & Multihull 1 fleets are all complete. Section 2 currently has only 3 boats left unaccounted for.
There is one Corsair 31 remaining of the course.

The two Chicago Mackinac Trophy finishers at this time are Bozo's Circus, a J35 and Wooton 2, a Sabre 40.

Aussie Record

Subject to WSSR Ratification, there is a new outright Sydney to Lord Howe
Island record.

Sydney /Lord Howe Island
408 nm
Martyn Riley and a crew of 6.
"Raw Nerve"
56 ft Crowther design catamaran
1d 3h 45m 46s
14.69 kts

The record was previously held by Ian Treleaven's monohull, Merit, a Volvo
Ocean 60, with a time of: 1day 9hrs, 34mins, 21secs. Merit will continue to
hold the race record and 'Monohull vessel, any number of crew' category
record for the course.

Chi-Mac 2004 - How Slow is It?

Time - 0930 Michigan Time - Tuesday July 27, 2004.

Boats continue to finish. More J/120's and Farr 395's are rolling in.

The comments are made all over the island about how slow this year is - but how does it relate to the slowest recorded race?

The slowest "First Boat to Finish" record holder is Pied Piper with an elapsed time of 62 hrs & 29 seconds. This equals 2 days & 14 hrs. The closest finisher this year to that time was Criterion, a Soverel 50 in Section 2, with an overall elapsed time of 2 days, 14 hours and 5 minutes.

2004 is a slow Mac - but well ahead of record levels. And this is a good thing!!

What is different on the island with a slow race? The hotels have rooms reserved for crews that aren't here yet. The wives, girlfriends, van drivers, delivery crews etc etc that are waiting for the "ship to come in" deal with the delay in many ways. Some view it as an opportunity to relax and enjoy this beautiful island. Others behave as if it was the greatest inconvenience EVER. Many these folks should have a little chat with the wind gods.

Another change that occurs with the delay is the great mass of boats that typically builds for a day of partying is greatly diminished. The first to finish boats - Genuine Risk & Windquest both departed on Monday. A couple GL70's and a Transpac 52 also unloaded and left. People have plans that a slower race interferes with. Many of the boats that have dropped out state business commitments as their primary reason for quitting. If you have to be back in the office early Wednesday, you need to make sure you will be there.

Right now there are 22 racers at the coal dock and approximately 75 vessel at the marina. The marina number is currently staying rather consistant, for each new comer it seems another boat heads out to it's next destination.

Division Review

Quite often guests staying at the Chippewa hotel will wake in the morning to look out over the sea of boats that had arrived in the wee hours of the morning. Milling about, following instructions for dockage, it often appears that they all came in together. Oh - that is often Monday morning. We have reached Tuesday and the influx is still slow.

All of the vessels in Section One have finished. Their placings are basically the order of arrival - with the exception of Main Street and Twister - they arrived 1-2 and Twister corrected to first. It took ten hours from the time Main Street finished until the last section on competitor crossed the line.

Section 2 has 27 entries - as of 6:45 Michigan time 17 have finished and 2 have dropped out. Two of our featured boats - Natalie J & Program, finished on Monday. Salsa has just arrived at the island.

Section 3 was about 50% finished as of this writing, with additional entries still trickling in. Two racers have dropped in this class. Serenissima appears to have taken approximately 1 1/2 hours to cover the distance from their call in 1/2 mile east of the bridge until they crossed the finish line. Not quite a parking lot, but very slow.

Section 4 has entries completing the course as I type. Realt Na Mara, just crossed and is heading into dock. Section 4 also has two recorded drops at this point.

The Corsair 31 fleet is mostly accounted for. Zingara is the winner. Three Corsiars have finished, three have dropped out and two a reported to be on course.

Other notable finishes - the first Beneteau 40.7 arrived at 4:17 Michigan time with two drop outs and no other finishers at this time.

The Farr 395 class is also "mostly" at the island.

The J120 Perserverance has just finished.

Check our web cams to watch the docks fill.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Commodore's Cup No go Training for Gold

News Coutts dismissed by Alinghi

Great Lakes Slow nite Nite on the Island

Late night update

As of 11:30 pm Michigan Time, the boats keep trickling in & dropping out.

It appears that Section 1 is nearing completion with a call in from Kokomo 1/2 mile past the bridge.

Wind conditions are light & variable.

The Farr 40's have been finishing - including Program. Pendragon & Heartbreaker. Call in's from the bridge include Farr 395's and Sydney 38's.

The list of drop outs is now up to 33 vessels.

Included are a few of chicagomackinac.com's featured boats.
Que Loco - Catalina 43, Cold Watch C&C 33 & Nice Pair Crowther 38 catamaran.

The reasons for drop outs are extensive. From as mundane as "there is no wind" to a collision on course.

Finishing & Manitou Updates

The Turbo and GL70 fleets are complete.

In Section 1 Main Street, Saturn & Twister have all finished.

Section 2 - Natalie J followed by Goblin. Right now corrected times have them finishing in the opposite order. Also in Section 2 - Windrush.

From the Manitous - 5:25 pm
They are still rounding Sleeping Bear Point! Still on spinnakers. A light wind from the northwest prevails. Don't ever recall this many boats coming through this late into the race. Maybe a record slow year? Betcha those sailors are bordering on boredom.

It's been interesting to see the freighters and sailboats co-mingle today. And the Coastie went by early afternoon. At least the sun is out!

A 1/2 Mile....

According to Anisley Randall of Bright Star their race vs. Esmeralda came down to 1/2 a mile. Bright Star trailed Esmeralda by just 15 minutes at the Manitous.

Esmeralda went a little farther into the shore. The seperation between boats was around 1/2 mile. Esmeralda got a bit of a N/NW breeze and they were off.

Bright Star still within sight, just a little more in the middle of the Manitou Passage ended up drifting much slower than Esmeralda for approximately 8 hours. By the finish the gap had grown to several hours from the previous few minutes.

That 1/2 mile distance will no doubt be the key measurement in many a....."there we were just a 1/2 mile from X"....of course this measuremant is approximate and may grow with the telling or consmuption of race sponsors products.

Manitou Update

This just in from Jan - my eyes at the Manitou passage.

There are about 30 boats, with spinnakers up, going through the Manitou Passage. It is 4:30pm EDT.

The fleet continues to move.

GL 70's and Turbo Fleets are complete

With the arrival of Windancer VI and Denali the two "biggest boat" divisions are complete.

Judging by call in times, the Section 1 boats should be arriving at any time.

Check our webcam at the Chippewa Hotel to watch the docks fill up as racers continue to arrive!!

Webcam - click here

The party at the Grand!!

One of the events that many racer involved non-racers look forward to is the "Veranda" party at the Grand Hotel.

Known for years as the "Ladie's Party", this event is sponsored by the Chicago Yacht Club and takes place at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island on Sunday evening. On record breaking years the fastest boats have been known to get in just in time to change and scamper to the Grand.

The party has food, beverages and live music. Alot of visiting with friends you may not have seen since last year at this time.

There are also locals who attend the event. I spoke with Sandra Orr, owner of The French Outpost and the Pub Oyster Bar on Main St with her sister Debra. Sandra has enjoyed the annual for many years. "It gives me a nice relaxing break, the calm before the storm" Sandra & Debra plan to open a new Main Street Restaurant for the 2005 season. Best of Luck!!!

Turn Around in the GL 70's

The first three GL 70's have finished. And there has been a remarkable turn around from the 45th parallel at the Manitou Islands to the finish on Mackinac Island.

At the Manitou's Holua led Evolution by 1 H 27 minutes with Pied Piper 40 more minutes behind.

At 1146 Evolution actually finished first, then came Holua and Pied Piper at 1149. A remarkable turn around in the end game of the race.

How Did the TP 52's fare?

4 TransPac 52's are entered in the Chicago Mac. We've follwed the build up and progress of these boats in the lead up to the race.

Esmeralda which dominated an inshroe regatta has shown that was not a fluke being the 1st TP 52 to finish at 0821. They led the 2nd TP 52 Bright Star by 13 minutes at the 45th parallell.

Remarkably Esmeralda took their 13 minute advantage over Bright Star and turned it into 3 H 3 minutes at the finish! Bright Star was just ahead of Rosebud which finished at 11:26:01, and then 22 seconds later came Sjambock. These three TP 52's were 4th through 6th on corrected time.

Update from the Manitous

From our eyes at Sleeping Bear -

Kathleen, it is almost 7:30am EDT, and I've just counted 48 boats between Sleeping Bear Point and the approach to Pyramid Point..............the water is like glass, sadly. But there must a bit of a south/southwest breeze, as the spinnakers are up!

NYYC One Design's

For the 83 boats competing at New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, today's two races held in strong, 15-17 knot breeze were a welcome finish to three days of competitive racing. Over 500 sailors competed for class championships in eight one-design classes: Farr 395, Farr 40, Swan 45, J/105, J/35, J/120, J/109 and Henderson 30. Masquerade was named "Best Performing One Design Boat," and its owner Tom Coates of San Francisco was awarded a Rolex timepiece.

"For the race committee to honor me and the J/105 this way is really fabulous," said Coates, who with this win was named the J/105 Southern New England champion. He explained that racing in the 28-boat class was some of the most competitive he has ever experienced. "This was a fantastic event" he said. "We did 10 races in three days! We typically do eight in a week, in Key West. I've always wanted to do shorter races. It keeps it exciting all day. By the time you establish your position on the race course, the race is over, and it is time to do it again."

Coates keeps two J/105s, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, in his hometown of San Francisco. "We do 12 regattas a season with the same core group of three to six people," he said. The consistency in crew work came in handy in the last race of the day, which Masquerade needed to finish better than fifth. "There were three general recalls, so we had to go through four sequences. It was nerve racking, but by the time we got going, we knew what everyone else was planning." They finished fourth and clinched the series.

Consistency also paid off in the Farr 395 class for Roger Wagner's Endurance, which posted only one fourth among firsts and seconds in the class's "no throwout" series. The boat, named after Shackleton's adventure to the South Pole, won both of its races today in the eight-boat class. "It' s never as easy as it looks," said Wagner of Stamford, Conn. "Over the last couple of days, the crew continued to put in 110 percent. We put in some hard work, and we talked about anything that didn't seem right and the crew never let down." Race Week doubled as the Farr 395 North American championship.

With today's two bullets added to the four earned earlier in the series, Craig Speck's Vim won the nine-boat Swan 45 class. "Today we had to get two good starts," said Speck of Grand Rapids, Mich. "We were in phase with the wind and were able to get into good lanes and control where we wanted to go. I felt I could win, but Doug (Douglass, owner of Goombay Smash, the second-place boat) was always there, so we executed our plan and got some breaks on the shifts."

Speck credits the entire crew with keeping the boat speed steady. "The communication between me and Moose McClintock and Dave Armitrage trimming the sails went really well. They kept feeding information about the shifts and puffs. It really was a whole team approach. Everyone respects each other, and the chemistry is fantastic."

For Rob Campbell of Wilton, Conn., winning the J/120 class was a bonus to the sailing. "Race Week is a good way for me and my friends to get together," said Campbell. "All six of the adults in our crew grew up sailing together, and we also had two of their kids along with us. So, we had two generations of sailors onboard. We sent the kids up to the bow for the hard work and they are terrific." Six boats competed in the J/120 class with Robert Caraballal's Sunday River of New York, N.Y. in second.

With seven firsts and two seconds, Dave Nickerson and Dana Seniff's Split Decision of Noank, Conn. won the J/35 class by 5.25 points over Aunt Jean, co-owned by Jim Sagerholm and Jerry Sagerholm of Annapolis. Six boats competed for the North American championship. "We love sailing in Newport," said Nickerson. "I remember in 2002, when we won our class, it was the first time that we had ever sailed four races in one day. And this year, to have two days of four races was great!"

Another boat that dominated its class was Electra, owned by Craig Crossley of Barrington, R.I. Electra posted a total of 17 points in the newly formed J/109 class, with the closest competitor, Storm owned by Rick Lyall of Stonington, Conn., with 23.75 points overall. "This was hard core racing," said Crossley, whose son Vincent sails with him. "We have never sailed four races in one day.

After the first race on the first day (they finished fourth), we said 'we've got to keep racing and do better.' After that, everything started to click and we kept getting better." Crossley attributed the boat's success to the team's positive atmosphere. He recalled looking around the course and seeing one of sailing's great names, Rod Johnstone, on a boat next to him at the first start. "We knew we had to do well against Rod," said Crossley. "At the end of the last race, we were both crossing the finish line together. We thought they had us, but we wound up winning it by an inch. And we won the series."

Barking Mad returned to the podium as Farr 40 class champion. Owned by Jim Richardson of Boston, Mass./Newport, R.I., Barking Mad won its class at the 2002 NYYC Race Week. Next up for Richardson is preparing for the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, set for September 8-11 in San Francisco. "That's my goal," he said. "No one has ever won the worlds twice, and we're setting out to be the first to do so." Nine boats competed for the North American championship, including Gem, campaigned by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Virago, owned by Stuart and MarrGwen Townsend of Chicago, Ill. finished second, with Jeff Siegal's Appreciation in third.

And in the Henderson 30 class, Jeffrey Gale's Beautiful World of Abaco, Fla. won convincingly, turning in seven first-place finishes for a total score of 9.25 points. Michael Carroll's New Wave of Clearwater, Fla. finished second with 17.25 points.

Over 180 boats competed in the fourth running of New York Yacht Club Race Week presented by Rolex. The biennial event hosted 79 entries in the four-day "first half," devoted to IMS, PHRF, Classic Yacht and 12 Meter racing. Splitting the handicap and one-design portions of Race Week was the Distance Race that was sailed on Wednesday and scored separately.

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Great Lakes Genuine Risk 1st to finish. Watch Chicago Mac finishes live

Favorites at the 45th Parallel call In

Five of the boats that we named favorites have called in their 45th parallel time. Faring the best is Holua which crossed the line at 1852 last nite, 1H 27M ahead of the next GL 70.

Rosebud was a few minutes ahead of Holua calling in at 1845. However, they were 4th of the 4 Transpac 52's, 54 minutes behind Esmeralda.

Saturn was the 4th boat in Section 1 to call in and they were 5 minutes behind their sistership Main Street.

Windancer VI was the final GL 70 to call in at 0024. They are pretty well seperated from their class mates with the exception of Mirage just 9 minutes ahead.

Denali also needs to catch up. They were the final boat in the Turbo class to call in @ 0139. This puts them over 4 hours behind the Equation which was the nearest boat from their class.

Earth Voyager Arrives

Earth Voyager arrived at Mackinac Island - finish time: 12:41 AM CT.

They proceded to dock at their customary location behind the Chippewa Hotel. Earth Voyager was the first multi hull to finish with Genuine Risk taking line honors.

Earth Voyager - 2:15 AM Michigan Time.

Genuine Risk Finishes

Genuine Risk turned the corner and sped for home.

Their call in from the bridge predicted an 20 minute journey to the finish line. The gun was fired at approximately 2326 CT.

The 90 footers elapsed time was 1 day 8 hours 56 minutes well outside both the monohull and outrigh records. Windquest finished nearly 3 hours later and was able to beat Genuine Risk on corrected time by nearly an hour.

Reports from the Course

Chicagomackinac.com's effort to recruit "Yacht Watch" team members has been paying off.

The following reports came in this afternoon and evening.

By email:
Hey, guys, I have been following the race from my vantage point on Sleeping Bear Bay in Glen Arbor, south of the Manitou Passage. I saw the first boat sailing between the islands at 3:15pm EDT~~

We also had reports of a large portion of the fleet slowly travelling from Big Point Sable at 3:00 pm. Unfortunately, we also learned that another (maybe some of the same?) large portion of the fleet appeared to be becalmed south of Point Betsie at sunset. Could be a looong night if the wind stays down.

Wind forecast for Mackinac Island on Monday is calm to variable. Weather like that has been known to make the home stretch of the race from the Bridge to the finish the longest part of the race.

Web Cams in Place

In an effort to expand our coverage of Chicago Yacht Club's annual Race to Mackinac, Chicagomackinac.com has installed two web cams overlooking the Straits of Mackinaw this year.

The first camera shows the finish line area from the roof of the Lakeview Hotel. The second cam is mounted atop the home of the Pink Pony - The Chippewa Hotel. The view from the Chippewa currently shows the Arnold's dock and will change to show the city dock at some point Monday.

Be sure to check out the view!!

A Slow Sunday on Mackinac

Several consecutive years of fast Mac's have spoiled many a van driver.
Rather than being unsure of what time the boats may arrive - they have been conditioned to remember that most of the 70's & faster vessels just make last call.

Not so this year. With the fastest yachts on the course being many hours behind the record setting pace of 2003, the story on the island is wait.

Genuine Risk crossed the 45th parallel at 2:21 this afternoon, the winds have been light, but consistant in the straits - but they need to turn the corner first.

Earth Voyager followed within 25 minutes. Then the Max Z86 Windquest and the Transpac 52 group 3 hours later. The first 70, Holua, called in at the 45th at 6:52.

Record Not Likely

Genuine Risk does not look like a record setter. As of 8:00 eastern Sunday morning Genuine Risk has not reached the Manitou Islands. In setting the mono hull record in 2002, Pyewacket reached the Manitou's in just under 10 hours.

As they've not reached the Manitou's, Genuine Risk could be as much as 8 hours off the record pace.

It should be noted that Pyewacket had double digit south winds during her record push while Genuine Risk began the race sailing upwind in winds that are consistently decreasing. Overnight winds were from many directions. However, the velocities were consistently under 10 knots. Not nearly enough wind from a good direction for a record is the main reason for Genuine Risk's trailing position.

Disabled Crew Sails Mac

The sailing vessel Gigi [see boat profile] sails this year's Chicago to Mackinac race with a special distinction. According to today's Chicago Sun Times, four of the boat's six crew are sailors with disabilities.

The boat has been fitted with a wooden grip for better access to the companionway and straps, so sailors can more easily stabilize themselves in bad weather.

The J-105 [see complete list of J-105's in this year's race] will complete on an even field with other boats in its class. Like most of the boats in the Chicago Mackinac, Gigi boast sailors with impressive back grounds and sailing abilities including recent wins in the Chicago NOOD and the Solo Chicago Mac.

You can find more information and the complete story at Chicago Sun Times

Saturday Night

From the afternoon start and into the first night of the race winds have been from the north in the low double digits. This perhaps exceeded some expectations.

However, as night falls, the wind is dropping especially to the north. While the south weather buoy still shows 13.6 knots there is 6.7 knots at Muskegon and only 1.9 knots at the North Weather buoy.

Race organizers have a tracking device on Genuine Risk, the 90 footer expected to be first to finish. With round the world navigator Mark Rudiger on board Genuine Risk sailed north until off Waukegan and then changed course and is headed for the Michigan side of the lake.

Will they close with the Michigan shore expecting better wind? Or will they soon tack and head north without trying the shore? That's the type of things that all crews are noodling on.

Chicago Mackinac.com will offer expanded coverage this year of what should be an interesting race. As soon as the race started in Chicago we headed toward Mackinac Island where we will report on the progress of the race. This year's coverage includes web cameras that will cover the finish line from two angles. You will be able to see the finishes, as they happen from thechicagomackinac.com web site. (Cameras should be in place and operational starting late Sunday afternoon.)

If you would like to provide any information or have any questions, please contact the chicagomackinac.com on-the-scene reporter at info@chicagomackinac.com

The Race Has Started

The annual wait is over ... the annual wait begins.

Each year, Great Lake sailors wait in anticipation for the start of the Chicago Yacht Club's race to Mackinac. That happened earlier today on Lake Michigan, just off of Chicago. Now the next wait begins. We now wait to find out who will finish first and which boats with gain honors in their sections.

Once the boats sail out of sight from Chicago, people will rely on chicagomackinac.com and calls from relatives to find out how things are going.

Some people will try to catch glimpses of the boats from various shoreline locations along Michigan's Lake Michigan shoreline.

Chicago Mackinac will offer expanded coverage this year. Once the race started in Chicago we headed toward Mackinac Island where we will report on the progress of the race. This year's coverage includes web cameras that will cover the finish line from two angles. You will be able to see the finishes, as they happen from the chicagomackinac.com web site. (Cameras should be in place and operational starting late Sunday afternoon.)

Today's start included more than 300 boats in the Race to Mackinac, the world's longest annual freshwater yacht race. Aboard the 300 boats where about 3,000 crew members participating in the 96th running of this important race.

Most boats are expected to finish Monday or Tuesday with some of the fastest boats finishing sometime Sunday evening.

If you would like to provide any information or have any questions, please contact the chicagomackinac.com on-the-scene reporter at info@chicagomackinac.com

WX Update

Boisterous conditions which caused the Lake Express ferry to cancel a trip on Friday are holding on in Chicago. At 1030 Saturday Chicago had 19 knot winds from the ESE. To the north and to the west winds rapidly drop off. On the Wisconsin shore Milwaukee has 9 knots while on the Michigan shore Muskegon has only 4 knots. The southern lake weather buoy located mid lake off Milwaukee shows 11 knots.

Barometric pressures range from 1027 MB at Chicago to 1030 MB at Muskegon and Mackinac Island. The forecasted high has come to Lake Michigan meaning the Chicago breeze is an aberration. This high will control the weather to Monday. Forecasts going forward are still in the 5-10 knot range.

How best to deal with this situation? Sometimes around the edge of the high you can find breeze. Since the high stretches hundreds of miles inland from Lake Michigan you simply can't do this.

When thre is a 10 degree difference between water and air temperature often you can find a sea breeze. The warm air rises above the land allowing the cooler air to blow in from sea. This is not likely in the south half of the lake but will become increasingly possible as the fleet sails north.

Perhaps the best situation for those wishing to play the shore is an onshore breeze developed by the pressure gradient. In the case of this race winds are expected to switch to the SW. This will be an onshore breeze on the Michigan shore. From Sunday on the Michigan shore could be the best place to be with good temperature differentials and an onshore breeze. Essentially the sea breeze and gradient breeze blow the same way, combining and accelerating.

Conversely on the Illinois and Wisconsin shore this will be an offshore breeze. This tends to diminish any sea breeze affect. I can't see the west shore being a windy area.

While the start maybe fast things will get slower and less clear as you sail north. For now it appears to be a race that will be sailed largely in Michigan waters. You need not sail straight to the shore, but from Sunday on the shore maybe your only friend wind-wise.

Commodore's Cup Starts Monday

With the first race scheduled for Monday on the Solent, this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup will be a hotly contested affair between 11 three boat teams. Although the race is for cruiser-racers and a proportion of the crew must be amateur, the boats will feature many top race boat sailors from the countries represented.

"We're delighted by the quality and the strength of the entry and judging by the results of many of the entries from the Mees Pierson IRC Championships and Cork Week it looks like it will be a very closely fought event on the water," said RORC General Manager, Peter Wykeham-Martin.

The GBR line-up includes the seasoned campaigner Bear of Britain, Kit Hobday and Tim Louis' black Farr 52, the leading British big boat in this event two years ago. For this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup she will be steered by Mark Campbell-James and GBR Challenge America's Cup helm Andy Beadsworth. Alongside Bear of Britain in the GBR Red is Jonathan and Lisa Goring's J/109 Jeronimo with sailmaker and former Olympic sailor Kevin Sproul calling tactics and Jerry Otter's Exabyte II with America's Cup sailors Chris Main and Jules Salter on the crew list.

In the GBR Blue team Nick Hartshorn's Ker 11.3 El Gringo, returns to the Rolex Commodores' Cup with leading keelboat sailor Ian Southworth and Hannah Harwood, part of Tracy Edwards' crew on Royal & Sun Alliance during their non-stop round the world record bid. Also in GBR Blue is Andrew Pearce's IMX 40 Magnum II and the Elan 37 Quokka of former RORC Commodore Peter Rutter, with navigator Peter Scholfield on board.

GBR Black has as its big boat the successful IMX45 Exabyte III of Shaun Frohlich. Also in the team are Fair Do's VI, the Ker 32 of John Shepherd and Adam Gosling's latest Yes!, a Beneteau First 44.7 including former Olympic sailors Jeremy Robinson and Hugh Styles on her crew list.

Andrew Ritchie's Corby 41 Minx leads GBR White with Open 60 sailor Alex Thomson leading the crew. Also in this team, are the renamed Beneteau 40.7 Tarka Lee Peck Greenfield skippered by Nick Jones and Jim MacGregor's Elan 37 Civils with Flair.

In an attempt to defend their title, France, the 2002 winners are this time fielding three teams, one more than last time around. The French effort is led once again by the highly effective Gery Trentesaux, with a Grand Soleil 45R Courier d'Ile de France in the France Blue team.

Trentesaux recently showed the form of his latest boat by convincingly winning the RORC's Cowes-Dinard-St Malo race in severe conditions. Racing alongside him is the French Admiral's Cup Sinergia 40 Stephane Neve's Paprec Recyclage and Erwan Dubois' small boat, Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer.

The France Red team sees Jean-Yves Le Goff's return to the Rolex Commodores' Cup, this time in the IMX40 Fastwave III. His team also includes Gonzague Dubois' IMX45 Pretexte and Musix, Philippe Baetz' X362.

The third French team, France White, is led by Jean Claude Nicoleau's Codiam ENSP dh, another IMX45 and also includes Jacques Pelletier's X-43 L'Ange de Milon and Philippe Delaporte's J/109 Pen Azen, the latter with Olympic sailor Christine Briand and veteran skipper Laurent Cordelle on board.

A number of competitors rate the favourites for this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup to be the Irish team. This comprises Chris Brown and Peter Harding's DK46 Fidessa Fastwave, a design by Mark Mills that to date has done well under IRC handicap. Ireland's two other boats are Colm Barrington's new Ker 39 Flying Glove, second in the IRC0 class at Cork Week and Eamon Crosbie's Ker 32 Calyx the Voice and Data People, recent handicap winner of the BMW Round Ireland Race. The bigger Ker has sailmaker Eddie Warden-Owen and 18ft skiff world champion Rob Greenhalgh in her crew while the smaller has maxi-boat navigator Ian Moore.

Another contender will be the Dutch team including the highly successful Peter de Ridder, sailing the BH41 Checkmate III. So far this year de Ridder has won his class at the Key West and SORC regattas and the Mumm 30 Europeans. Also in the Dutch team are the Grand Soleil 44R Holmatro of Hans Horrevoets and Franz van der Heijden's HOD35 Daikin Airco.

The Belgium team sees the return of Francois Goubau's Beneteau First 47.7 Moana, supported by the Bertrand Stuyts' First 40.77 Liesl and the small ILC30 Breeze of Christian Muyls. Of note is that the Belgium boats are entirely crewed by amateur sailors.

The last team to enter the Rolex Commodores' Cup was Team Europe led by the Franco-Russian crew on Serguei Kotsiouba's IMX 45 Follow Me who recently finished sixth at Cork Week, while the small boat in this team, Bernard Moureau's Merlin was fourth in her class at that regatta. The third Team Europe boat is Axel de Cock's IMX 40 Oxygen.

"I'm pretty happy with our team, but the Irish and the French are going to be very tough," said Bear of Britain helm Mark Campbell-James "Then again the British teams should be good as well. It's great the event has a good number of teams,"

Yes! Skipper Adam Gosling concurs: "I think the Irish will be the boys to watch. They have got some top boats. The DK46 sailed well will be a difficult boat to beat and the Kers should be all right. But I think the British have got some reasonable teams too."

Racing commences on Monday 26th July with two inshore races.

Chicago Mac Weather Outlook

Conditions: Moderate high temperatures with low temperatures in the low 50's as you go north. Rain rates no mention in the forecasts.

Big Picture: Simple and unappealing. A high pressure of 1028 MB will appear over the lake on Saturday and then "stall".

Winds: The best forecast winds are NE 10-15, however these are supposed to end by noon Saturday. After that there is a lot of 5-10 knots, and many periods where unspecified light winds are predicted. Direction begins at NE and goes around to SW by Sunday night.

Main Sailing Mode: Once again ready yourself for light air. Lots of food and water for those extra hours on the water.

Option I: It appears that sometime Sunday the breeze may wander from NE to SW. Essentially this means the wind is switching to the prevailing direction. This shift could mean a switch from on the wind to off the wind. Maximizing this shift may mean the race.

Option II: With the expected light air bigger boats both in fleet and within class should be favored. If you are a smaller boat following the big boys will not pay. Start thinking of alternatives now. Maybe this is the year to go outside the Manitous or Beaver Island?

Special Situation: There's is large difference in water temperature as measured by the two weather buoys on the lake. At the south buoy off Milwaukee the water is 67 degrees. At the north buoy on a line with the Manitou Islands the water temperature is 59°. To benefit from breeze near the shore a 10 degree temperature difference is needed between land and water temperature. With the warm water in the south half of the lake there will be no benefit to hugging the shore. From the Manitous on the shore should pay.

Record Chances: Genuine Risk will be after Pyewacket's record set in 2002. 2002 was considered a fast race. The forecast does not promise a fast race in '04. Looks like Pyewacket's record has a chance to stand. Remember from Chicago to the Manitous Pyewacket averaged 20.5 knots! No doubt Genuine Risk can achieve these speeds but not in the winds that are predicted.

Sanderson to Skipper Volvo Boat

Mike Sanderson has joined Team ABN AMRO as their skipper for its 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race campaign. The experienced sailor from Whangarei, New Zealand will be the skipper on the first boat of the ABN AMRO Team.

Sanderson, who has twice sailed in The Whitbread - now the Volvo Ocean Race - is an experienced canting keel sailor. Roy Heiner, also a Whitbread veteran and responsible for technical management of the team, said today: “Mike matches with the team and with our boat. He has vast experience in sailing with a canting keel, a new feature of the specially designed class of the Volvo Open 70 to be used in this upcoming edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. As this device will be applied for the first time for a sailing race over such a long distance, Mike is the natural choice of skipper for us.”

Mike Sanderson said: “I am happy and proud that I have joined the ABN AMRO Team. It is an ambitious and promising campaign, which includes all elements to make the race successful.”

Sanderson, 33, started sailing when he was five. Having won many national titles, he was invited to be the trimmer onboard Grant Dalton’s New Zealand Endeavour, winner of the maxi division of the Whitbread 1993-94. In the 1997-98 Whitbread, Mike was watch captain and sail co-ordinator on Dalton's W60 Merit Cup, which finished second. He is also the current record holder in the Sydney-Hobart Race and has been mainsheet trimmer for two America's Cup campaigns - Tag Heuer in 1995 and Oracle BMW in 2003. This last team was narrowly beaten by the eventual winner, Alinghi.

In October 2003, he was the driving force behind Mari Cha IV's historic transatlantic record, which smashed the previous record by two days. In the Transat 2004 Mike finished third in his first ever-solo race.

One of the world's leading race yacht designers, Argentinian Juan Kouyoumdjian, has designed the boat, which is currently being constructed by Killian Bushe in Lelystad, the Netherlands.

ABN AMRO announced its participation in the Volvo Ocean Race in March this year. The bank considers its entry in this top sporting event an ideal opportunity to further strengthen its international brand awareness. In addition, qualities essential in this race, such as professionalism, flexibility, teamwork and innovation match the bank's corporate culture.

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The Favorites

How are the favorites faring? Click here to find out.

Bantu - Block Island 40 Hailing from the upper pennisula of Michigan, Bantu often collects the top prizes upon finishing at Mackinac Island which is in the UP. Bantu appears on form having won the Queens Cup and her Shore Course class in the Port Huron Mac.

Bacchant a wooden 75 square meter is both beautiful and successful. In 2003 Bacchant was 2nd overall and another such finish would be no surprise.

Rosebud is one of several Transpac 52's in the race. 2003 was her 1st Mac and she was 2nd over the line and 4th overall. Earlier this year she was the top TP 52 in the Bermuda Race.

Saturn is a J145 and won Class A in the Port Huron Mac. In the 2003 Chicago version of the race she was 3rd in Section 1.

Eagle, a Sydney 38 sports an experienced crew led by a father/son duo. Last year they were 1st in section 4 but only by 14 seconds over Serenissima a sistership.

Windancer VI is skippered by John Neadeau. Oh, by the way, this will be John's 57th Mac race. This 68 footer was 3rd in the Great Lakes 70 class in 2003 and 6th in last weeks Port Huron race. It's unlikely they'll encounter conditions John hasn't seen before.

Mischief sails in the large and competitive T-10 fleet. Last year they netted a 3rd.

Gamera won flags in both 2003 Mac races. Last week they were 4th in the Port Huron Mac.

Holua was the most successful of the GL 70's in 2003 with a 1st in the Chicago Mac and a 2nd in the Port Huron. In the Port Huron race this blue hulled 70 was 3rd showing that all is well with this regular flag winner.

Denali has had a fine run of results in the big boat/Tubo classes the past two years. This Detroit based crew has posted a 3rd in the 2003 Port Huron Mac, a 2nd in the 2003 Chicago Mac and an overall win the recent Port Huron Mac. Continuation of this trend will see Denali in the noise in this race.

An Entry From Japan? Not

Race organizers are busily selling the story that there is a boat all the way from Japan in this years Mac race. The story goes something like this, ""Race interest is stronger that we've seen in several previous years, with some 300 entries from around the continental United States and Canada, and one entry, Esmeralda, comes all the way from Japan," Lillie said."

Except that Esmeralda really doesn't come from Japan. In fact this boat was built in Rhode Island, was designed by an American based designer and it's only foreign voyage was to Bermuda.

While the owner Mr. Makoto Uematsu is Japenese the boat hasn't come all the way from Japan for the race.

While it would be a great story if a boat came from Japan for the race it hasn't happended yet.

Keep visiting this website for more unofficial, independent coverage of the 2004 Chicago Mac.

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Great Lakes Shipwreck found. Mac basics. Family of Goats. The Incense wind finder. Genuine Risk arrives in Holland

Port Huron Mackinac Winners

Denali is the overall winner of the 2004 Port Huron Mackinac with a corrected time of 42 H 23. Equation which was in the Turbo class along with Denali and the first to finish Genuine Risk was 2nd. Saturn was 3rd overall and the Class A winner.

Lowest corrected time on the Shore Course was 39 H 17 M recorded by Majic Star an NA 40.

Chicago Mac Basics

Beginning at 1150 central on Saturday July 24th Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac will be sailed for the 98th time.

The Start: The race starts 1.5 miles off the shoreline of Chicago. The course heads generally north and east past Little and Big Sable points on the Michigan shore and then through the Manitou passage. Boats go through the Greys Reef passage and then under the Mackinac Bridge to the finish line.

The Finish: After sailing 300+ miles, the boats cross the finish line. One end is the Round Island light, the other is on Mackinac Island proper.

How Long: Sailboats being wind powered are fully dependant on the weather and the wind and seas it produces. The newer, faster boats are now capable of covering the course well under 48 hours. A catamaran has finished in 19 hours, a mono hull has sailed it in just under 24 hours, which means a Sunday afternoon finish.

For more mortal boats anything under 48 hours, or a Monday afternoon finish is a fast passage. This means you plan to spend Saturday and Sunday night on the water expecting to finish during the day on Monday. If light winds prevail you may get a 3rd chance at night sailing. Awards are presented Tuesday afternoon so this tells you expectations are you'll arrive Tuesday mid day at the latest.

The fleet has 24 hours to finish the race after the first boat crosses the finish line.

The winners of those awards are determined by handicap systems. This assures that boats of all sizes and types can be winners.

Box Rules

Box rules can serve as an alternative to the mix and match approach of handicap racing and the one size fits all method of one design. We've all heard the hoary phrase think outside the box. A box rules gives designers a set of paramaters that they have to stay within. Examples are limits on: length, beam, draft, rig size and displacement. These are some of the limits that the Transpac 52 class contains.

Transpac 52 limits

LOA Maximum 52.00 ft
Beam Maximum 14.50 ft
Beam Minimum 13.00 ft
Displacement Minimum 16,500 lbs
Displacement Maximum 17,000 lbs
**IMS PIPA Minimum 0.0584
Draft Maximum 10.50 ft
Mainsail Area Maximum 985 sq ft
Spinnaker Area Maximum 2665 sq ft

Rosebud designed by Reichel Pugh was launched in May 2002

Trader soon to be launched is a Donovan Design

The above pictures show the evolution of boats designed to the TP 52 rule. When you have narrow limits like 1.5 feet of beam and 500 pounds of displacement boats do have a tendancy to 'type form'. Considering these boats have been consistently fast and successful at the very least they've hit on a good type form.

Another box rule is the Open 60. These are the fast mono hulls that sail races such as the Vendee Globe.

This rule has fewer limits such as length between 50 and 60 feet, a maximum draft of 4.5 meters and a rule that says the boat can't be heeled more than 20 degrees by it's water ballast or canting keel.

Open 60's tend more towards the professional side of racing. This box rule has fewer limitations so items like canting keels, deck spreaders and more have been developed. As time has gone on Open 60's have developed a type form that is beamy, although their are exceptions like Ocean Planet. Again though these boats have been fast and successful so the type forming seems an acceptable trade off.

We'll conclude this series next week with a look at one designs. Once when you thought one designs things like Lasers, Sunfish etc. came to mind. Now the one design concept has grown a keel and the Chicago Mac is filled with one design classes such as J105's, Beneteau 40.7's etc. We'll look at one designs next week.

Linky Sailing News

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Great Lakes How slow was it yet there were winners. Cross lake paddle.

The SailRocket

Go Fast on the Great Lakes

Sail free in the midwest! In the recent Bermuda Race the Max Z 86's were put off to the side in a 'demonstration' division. In next summer's Transpac there will be a rating limit based on the Max Z86 Pyewacket. According to race organizers, "No boat may be configured to rate faster [than Pyewacket], although larger and faster boats such as the new 90-footers emerging on the world scene may power down with smaller sails or other changes to meet the standard."

As a Great Lakes sailor I'm happy to say that neither Bayview nor Chicago Yacht Club have given into the Luddite idea of rating limits, or separate unofficial divisions. Rather they have opened their respective Mac races to all boats no matter how fast. Sort of a run what ya brung idea. No special local rules, or local boat owners to protect. And that's the way it should be. If people are building fast boats when let them race them as designed, sans limitations or made up divisions.

If the mac race organizers adhered to this philosophy then the Great Lakes 70's fine boats yet 20 year old technology would still be getting 1st to finish credits. Or boats would be having to power down so they wouldn't be faster than the GL 70s'. Fortunately this isn't the case.

So, while the Mac races aren't as long as the Transpac or the Bermuda race they do finish on an Island and you needn't alter your boat to compete and that's without doubt a good thing.

There'll be a bit of a showdown navigator wise in the Turbo class. Rosebud will have Adrienne Cahalan onboard. Recently she guided Steve Fossett's Cheyenne around the world in a time of 58 days. On board Bright Star another Transpac 52 will be Larry Rosenfeld served as co-navigator on Team Adventure during The Race.

It'll be interesting to see how these experienced 'magellans' deal with Lake Michigan.

Trader Arrives in Michigan

Trader has arrived at Torresen Marine. She's inside with many 'Trader-ites' and Torresen Marine service personnel at work. The mission is clear-make the start of the Mac on Saturday or bust.

Work party on Trader

Bow shot, shows hull form

Boat Smart: Make the Call Count

Make the call count and wear a life jacket

By Senior Chief Tom Rau, Coast Guard Group Grand Haven, Michigan

It’s not uncommon for people to call the Coast Guard or 911 regarding the whereabouts of a loved one on the water. I urge those who make overdue reports to authorities to make the call count. Information they provide could save a loved one’s life, especially if the loved one is wearing a life jacket. Read on.

On August 25, 2003, the Coast Guard received a telephone call from Tricia Young that her husband and a friend, Vern Uricek, had departed early that morning for Rockport, Michigan, to go salmon fishing. According to a message Vern Uricek left on his answering machine, he would be returning home to Gaylord, Michigan, that same day around noon. At 4 p.m., Tricia Young called the Coast Guard after the fishermen had failed to arrive home. Local authorities checked the public boat ramp where the fisherman had launched a18-foot Sea Ray boat. They located the fisherman’s vehicle and boat trailer, but no boat. While local officials checked marinas, Coast Guard surface and air units commenced searching the waters off Rockport, Michigan, located 75 miles southeast of the Mackinac Straits.

At 2:21 p.m. of the 27th a Coast Guard aircrew spotted a debris field at 44-58.798W, 83-03.619W, revealing a life vest, seat cushions and two homemade buoys. The Coast Guard pilot reported: WIND SPEED: 25 KNOTS, WIND DIRECTION: 350T, AIR TEMP: 64 F, WATER TEMP: 64 F, WAVE HEIGHT: 8 FEET; SKY CONDITON: CLEAR.

The Coast Guard HH-65, Dolphin helicopter crew began a search of the immediate area. At 4:03 p.m., the aircrew spotted a man in the water. Lieutenant Commander Day, Assistant Operations boss at Coast Guard Traverse air, later told me a swim noodle that the victim was clinging to drew the airmen’s attention. They hoisted him aboard with the aid of a rescue swimmer, nearly 31 hours after the boat sank.

His fishing mate faired far better: he made it to Middle Island after spending 20 hours in the water. At approximately 4 a.m. of the 26th, he crawled up onto the beach and broke into a keeper’s lodge used to host island visitors. “My heart was fluttering. I fell onto a cot and dozed in and out of sleep,” said Mr. Uricek.

After dawn broke, he set out searching for a link with the outside world. There was no one on the island and he couldn’t find a telephone or radio to call for help. “I placed a large stop sign on the beach, spray painted an S.O.S. on a carpet and laid it out, and then wandered across the island holding an American flag over my head hoping it would attract the Coast Guard aircrew.

It did.

“When the helicopter landed, I asked the air crewman, how was John, expecting the worst. When the crewman told me he was alive and on board, it floored me. I thought I was a goner after spending twenty hours in the lake. That John spent eleven more hours in the water speaks volumes for his will to survive,” said Mr. Uricek, who attributes their survival to a fierce determination to live, and to- LIFE JACKETS.

Post Search and Rescue Brief

So how did the fisherman end up in the water? Mr. Uricek told me around 9 a.m. they were trolling around seven miles northeast of the Middle Island, into 1-2-foot seas. A wave broke over the open bow dumping several gallons of water into the boat. A second wave followed and within seconds the boat filled with water. “There was nothing we could do, the bilge pump couldn’t keep up with the flooding and when John raised the engine, the boat rolled and we ended up fighting our way through downriggers and fishing lines to escape,” said Mr. Uricek. “I passed a swimming noodle that had floated free to John and being a capable swimmer I set out for Middle Island for help.” Yes, he was wearing a life jacket.

Mr. Uricek told me that during the night a Coast Guard helicopter passed overhead flooding him in its night sun but fluttered away. “Apparently they failed to spot me in the white wind-streaked seas. Since, I have purchased a strobe light for my life jacket, and will never go out again on a boat without wearing it and a life jacket,” said Mr. Uricek.

In all, the Coast Guard deployed one Falcon Jet, a C-130 (a four engine search and rescue fixed wind aircraft), two HH-65 helicopters and one 47-foot Motor Life Boat, totaling 32.9 resources hours. In addition, local rescue agencies provided resources. Cost: Thousands of dollars. A life saved: Priceless.

How to make your call count

The Coast Guard’s and other rescue agencies’ ability to process a successful rescue regarding overdue cases depends a great deal on the initial information provided them by concerned parties. Most overdue reports stem from poor communications. A boater fails to inform loved ones of changed plans, such as unexpected stay over, unforeseen mechanical problems, prolonged fishing plans, and so on. Boaters should always inform family or friends of their boating plans (‘float plan”). This does not mean a casual “we’re going boating” notice, but the why, where, and when the boating will take place, and the boat’s description and name. If plans change, always update your contact so that if an emergency develops searchers will have an idea as to your whereabouts.

In the above case, Mr. Uricek left a message on his answering machine that he would be home around noon. When he failed to show up by 4 p.m., family members sounded the alarm. In addition, his fishing mate, John Young, told his father that they would be fishing in the waters off Middle Island.

Understand the Great Lakes offer a vast and complex marine environment with a myriad of bays, outlets, connecting lakes and river channels that hold hundreds of marinas and boat launches. It’s enough to find Sherlock Homes scratching his head. It’s your call- make it count.

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Port Huron Mac- Tuesday Morning

As of 0730 Tuesday morning just about half (77/157) of the boats sailing the Southampton course have finished. With the exception of PHRF A Monday saw few boats finish once the GL 70 and Turbo classes had arrived.

For some classes such as PHRF D & E the majority of the boats are still on the course. PHRF had yet to have its 1st finisher.

The light winds have created the proverbial big boat race corrected time wise. Denali the corrected time winner of the Turbo class (42 H 23M) currently has a corrected time lead of 2 H 21 minutes over Saturn the Class A winner.

Genuine Risk's elapsed time of 30.5 hours means that many other boats and crews will have spend twice the time on the largely placid waters of Lake Huron.

However that extra time has defiantly seen racing continue. For instance Flyer in PHRF Class E which trailed competitor Jubilee by 13 minutes on corrected time at the Southampton Buoy made up that deficit by the finish. After Flyer's 0735 finish they were 2:45 ahead of Jubilee on corrected time. In the 67 hours since the Southampton rounding Flyer has gained approximately 20 seconds per hour. So, while we all sat ashore others worked many watches to gain the needed seconds.

For those boats planning to sail the Chicago Mac shore time on Mackinac Island will be limited as they have a 48 hour delivery to Chicago.

The early weather outlook shows 70 degree temperatures and moderate easterly winds for the Chicago Mac start.

Genuine Risk is 1st to Finish in Port Huron Mac

Bayview Yacht Club officials have finished 11 boats as of 0645 Monday morning. 1st across the line was the 90 foot mono hull Genuine Risk at 2139 Sunday. Earth Voyager was the first multi hull across the line at 2145. Colt 45 was the 1st Great Lakes 70 to finish at 0407.

Genuine Risk's elapsed time of 30h 34m was 3 hours 6 minutes slow than the 2003 first to finish mono hull Alchemy. On correct time Genuine Risk fell to 4th of 4 in the Turbo class with Denali correcting 1st. For the boats already finished it was an almost 100% upwind race with minimal time under spinnaker.

Earth Voyager was 7 hours behind her outright record time of 2003.

The forecast for Lake Huron calls for variable winds of less than 10 knots with W/SW winds 5-15 later in the day. Overnite there have been calm winds at Mackainac Island. Looks like the race will continue to stay behind last years pace.

A Close Transat

The Quebec to St. Malo crewed transat for Open 60 trimarans has seen the 1st boats cross the line. Sergio Tacchini was winner with a winning time of 7D 21H averaging 15.36 knots over the 2950 mile course.

Just 2 minutes later came Groupama finishing with an average of 15.286 knots.

3rd place Geant was just 1 hour back of the winner their average was 15.283 knots.

4th was Sobedo which achieved an average of 15.27 knots.

These spider like boats are spectacular and when average speeds must be measured in thousandths of a knot their more competitive than others boats too.

Classics at NYYC Race Week

Two classes of classic yachts celebrated the end of their New York Yacht Club Race Week experience in Newport today, even though the Rolex-sponsored event is a nine-day competition. The first weekend served as the second of three events in the NYYC Invitational Racing Series for Vintage and Classic Yachts, open to boats built before 1958. (The NYYC,s recent 150th Annual Regatta served as the first and the Museum of Yachting,s Classic Yacht Regatta in September serves as the third.) With fog and light winds delaying racing in the morning, the weather did not cooperate as beautifully as it did during yesterday,s opening races. The spectacular visual of the classics under sail, however, was preserved when race officials managed to get off two races after moving the fleet from "outside" on Rhode Island Sound to "up Narragansett Bay" to find wind.

"We loved the experience," said Don Glassie (Newport), owner and skipper of Fortune, which won Class 2. "It was the first time the classics have sailed in Race Week and I think it was a good idea to include them."

Fortune is a 54-foot antique staysail schooner built in 1926 and designed by B.B. Crowninshield. Glassie,s "remarkable" all-Rhode Island crew has sailed together for almost eight years and one crewmember~John Taft of Newport~has sailed the boat for 30 years with his skipper friend.

"We do more sail changes than the rest of the fleet combined," said Taft, explaining that on the yacht,s two masts there are at least four sails flying at any given time. "It was a workout for us when we did the four races yesterday."

Glassie added that the racing was "tight and close" despite each classic yacht,s different length and handicap by the NYYC cruising rule. "It was not like any one was way out of the box."

Finishing in second was the classic beauty Bolero, a 73, yawl owned by Ed Kane (Concord, Mass.) and designed in 1949 by Olin Stephens as "the largest modern ocean racer of its time." A highlight of the awards ceremony was when Olin Stephens himself, now in his 90s, awarded Bolero with a special trophy for being the top boat designed by Sparkman & Stephens. The prestigious design firm coordinated an elaborate 75th Anniversary Celebration with Race Week, and the legendary S&S designed 12 Meters Columbia, Courageous, Intrepid and Freedom are sailing in the event,s first half and used this weekend as their 12-Meter Annual Regatta.

The biennial New York Yacht Club Race Week presented by Rolex is in its fourth running and has over 180 entrants competing in two segments of racing: one for handicap boats on the front end and another for one-design boats on the back end. A distance race on Wednesday, July 21, will split the sessions.

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The legandary Sparkman & Stephens Design Bolero
Image Daniel Forster/Rolex

2004 Port Huron Mac is Slower

Judging by the times boats have rounded the Southampton buoy, this years Port Huron to Mac race is at least 3 hours slower than in 2003.

The first boat at the Southampton Buoy was Genuine Risk at 0335 Sunday. This is 3 hours 14 minutes slower than the time Alchemy posted in 2003. Earth Voyager the 60 foot trimaran was almost 5 hours behind her record pace of 2003.

Evolution was the first Great Lakes 70 to turn at Southampton at 0627 this morning. This was just about 4 hours slower than the first GL 70 in 2003.
By 0739 the final GL 70 had rounded 4 hours and 8 minutes after the entire GL 70 fleet had rounded in 2003.

With variable winds of under 10 knots forecast for Sunday night it does not look likely that the pace will pick up.

Water Level Update

Below you'll find water level info that pertains to Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Reference Point- Measurements in Inches

Difference from Chart Datum +14
Difference from last month +2
Difference from last year +13
Difference from long term average for July -9
Difference from Record High -40
Difference from Record Low +24
Forecast for 16 August 2004 +0

Click for information on other lakes.

Port Huron Mac WX Outlook

Conditions: Temperatures should be reasonable ranging between just below 80 down to low 50's. There's about a 10 degree difference in temperature between Port Huron and the Island. Water temperatures are 55 to 60 degrees. Thunderstorm possibilities for Saturday night. FYI the northern Lake Huron wx buoy Station 45003 is offline.

Big Picture: A 1000 MB will pass to the north today followed by another low of 1010 MB. By late Saturday a high of 1020 MB will move in. This high is just entering Minnesota meaning how it will affect things is no certain thing.

Winds: Direction starts NE and the goes north. Velocity is strongest at the start decreasing as the fleet goes north. Monday the dreaded word variable shows up. I can forsee a not uncommon situation with the bigger boats at the dock while the bulk of the fleet struggles.

Main Sailing Mode: Main mode looks to be light to moderate. Weight center to forward as often in light air bow down is best. As things look lighter later in the race don't skimp on provisions as high concentration will be needed towards the finish.

Option I: I believe that playing the shore line may often be a good option. Especially Sunday morning there should be a good breeze developed by the cool water and warm land.

Option II: With a consensus forecast that varies little I see small chances for success on the edges. Conditions should be consistent so small bore tactics all the way may pay the best. Staying with your fleet and working the boat hard will pay over trying to find your 'own breeze' which I don' see developing given the conditions.

Option III: Italian ocean racer Giovanni Soldini is currently racing across the Atlantic. Soldini's strategy is summed up this way "“We’re following the edge of a high pressure zone and so we’re sailing by the barometer, keeping away from areas where the pressure is lower. So we end up zig-zagging." The high pressure will track west to east and appears to be aimed for northern Lake Huron. A vigilant barometer watch may help avoide some effects of this high. One of the bad places to be is the edge of a high, as this is where the highest pressure exists. Digging into the high to benefit from the high to low gradient maybe an option. Your barometer will tell you if it is.

Special Situation: With the breeze expected to decrease as the fleet enters the end game I think any distance gained while the wind holds will be extremely valuable. If you can pick up a lead while there is breeze you will be in a classic covering position. I'd rather be ahead and have to nervously cover than be behind and have to perform tactical gyrations towards the finish. Short term moves that get you north, as near the finish as possible, may turn out to be long term pluses.

Record Chances: Genuine Risk is certainly perceived as having a chance to break the mono hull record set by Alchemy last year. The time was approximately 28 hours at an average of 9.21 knots. Genuine Risk is untested in race mode and this week dismasted while training. Still, she has technology, and a 130 foot tall mast in her favor. That 130 foot mast is key. At 130 feet there can be 10 to 15% greater wind speeds. So, even though winds are expected to be light they are not that light for Genuine Risk which should break Alchemy's 2003 record.

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2005 Transpac

Merlin, the boat that once revolutionized the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii, will return under fittingly historic ownership in the Centennial Transpac a year from now.

Patricia (Trisha) Steele, representing one of four family generations that
have raced Transpac since 1939, this month purchased Merlin from the Orange
Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship. Her timing couldn't be
better, and not only for the historical context.

To give all boats, great and small, an equal chance for first place overall
on corrected handicap time, Transpac directors have voted to stretch the
rating distance of the race to 2,300 nautical miles. The actual distance
will remain 2,225 from the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles to
the Diamond Head lighthouse at Waikiki.

The longer rated course is intended to give the smaller boats with their
higher handicaps more track to eat away at the faster boats' times.

Although Merlin won the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time in 1977,
'81 and '87 and held the race record for 20 years, Steele realizes it can no
longer compete with newer and larger high-tech speed machines like the
maxZ86s.

"I know we won't be first to finish, but we could correct out well," Steele
said.

The Bill Lee-designed 68-footer last sailed Transpac in 2001 as Merlin's
Reata, following a complete makeover by short-term owner Al Micallef, a Ft.
Worth, Tex. restaurateur who donated the boat to OCC afterward. Steele will
keep part of the colorful graphics created by Gary Miltimore that show the
namesake legendary magician twirling a Reata, or lariat.

"[The name] Reata's going away," Steele said. "It's back to Merlin. The big
guy's going to stay, and we're going to a rainbow type graphic."

Miltimore will re-do his original work and also be part of the crew.

Steele's grandfather, Harry G. Steele, was owner-skipper of Odyssey in 1939,
with his son Richard---Trish Steele's father---as a crew member. Richard
Steele sailed Odyssey in '55, joined Charles Ullman---Dave Ullman's
father---on Legend in '57 and took Odyssey again in '61 with Trisha Steele's
brother, Ricky, as a crew member. Ricky Steele was lost at sea later that
year while delivering a boat.

Later, Trisha Steele sailed the first of her three Transpacs with her sister
Libby as co-owner-skippers of Tres Hermanas and their father Richard as
navigator. A third sister had to scratch because of childbirth. Finally, a
nephew, Paul Bittner, sailed with Steele when she and Owen Minney chartered
Ragtime in 2001.

Merlin and Ragtime currently share the record for most Transpacs sailed at
12.

Merlin, a Bill Lee-designed 68-footer, was the forerunner of the downwind
"sleds" that dominated Transpac's Barn door competition through the end of
the 20th century. Even in 1995, as technology passed it by, it won the King
Kalakaua Perpetual and the Governor of Hawaii take-home trophies for best
overall corrected time---its goal again in 2005.

"I've never won a yacht race in my life," Steele said, "but it's not about
that, really. You get out in the middle of the ocean and it doesn't matter."

Well . . . to some others it matters a lot. With the Barn Door out of reach
for all but a handful of entries, handicap honors are huge.

Speaking for the board, Stan Honey said, "We want to make it as attractive
for a skilled and knowledgeable sailor to race a good small boat as it would
be to race a good large boat."

Honey has done both, as navigator for Roy Disney on Pyewacket's record run
in 1999 and on his own Cal 40, Illusion, in 2003 when he posted the third
fastest corrected time on a 40-year-old boat.

The smallest winner ever was Stuart Cowan's 35-foot sloop, Chutzpah, in 1973
and '75. The largest boats have dominated since, except for Seth Radow's
Sydney 40, Bull, in 2001. The smallest length overall now allowed is 30
feet.

Besides the longer course rating, the new formula also will consider updated
Velocity Prediction Programs (VPPs) for all boats that include the "Pacific
Swell" factor, taking into account the fact that, as entry chairman Bill Lee
said, in a predominantly downwind race "some boats surf [the waves] better
than others." The basic VPP used was developed mostly in flat water.

Designer Alan Andrews elaborated, "The Pacific Swell factor has the
potential to really help the bulk of the fleet---moderate to non-surfing
boats---considerably, as well as the shorter surfing boats that still don't
fit the wave length as well as longer boats."

The Transpac directors also refined the new rating limit It will be based
on the rating certificate of the designated base boat, Roy Disney's new
maxZ86, Pyewacket, in its fastest configuration.

No boat may be configured to rate faster, although larger and faster boats
such as the new 90-footers emerging on the world scene may power down with
smaller sails or other changes to meet the standard.

NYYC Race Week

There are fewer and fewer sailing "race weeks" these days, some having fallen to lack of sponsorship and others having dried up due to work-place trends that allow little time for indulging in hard-core competition over five consecutive work days "just for the fun of it." The New York Yacht Club‚s Race Week at Newport, however, is back with a bang this year, scheduled to begin its fourth biennial edition this weekend with over 155 boats signed up and with Rolex returning in a presenting sponsorship role that it has held since the event‚s inauguration in 1998.

It is the event‚s unique split-racing format that makes it so popular and allows sailors to customize their racing experience. The first half of the week, from Saturday, July 17, to Tuesday, July 20, is devoted to handicap racing under IMS and PHRF, with 12-Meter and Classic Yacht racing added for good measure. The second half, from Friday, July 23 to Sunday, July 25, is reserved for one-design racing. A distance race, open to all divisions, takes place mid-week, on Wednesday, July 21, and is scored separately. Sailors can choose to race either the front- or back-end sessions, or both, and pass or play on the Distance Race.

"Race Week at Newport takes advantage of weekend days and offers competitors an abundance of choices: handicap, one-design and distance racing, in modern or classic yachts," said Steven Wolff, chairman of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) Sailing Committee. "The Race Week ambience is captured with socials under the tent at Harbour Court, which has breathtaking views of the Newport Bridge, Newport Harbor and the downtown area that is only minutes away. The experience is enjoyed by sailors from the local area, the region and all across the country."

Classic Yachts and 12-Meters to Make an Impressive Show

Race Week‚s formula for success also includes flexibility to integrate new ideas, events and classes. In 2000, the event doubled as the Rolex IMS Worlds, a move efficiently handled by the NYYC‚s expert race committee and race office. This time around, the first half of Race Week is serving as the second event in the newly established NYYC Invitational Racing Series for Vintage and Classic Yachts. The move attracted the attention of the pre-eminent yacht design firm Sparkman & Stephens (S&S), which decided to coordinate its elaborate 75th Anniversary Celebration with Race Week. The legendary S&S designed 12 Meters Columbia, Courageous, Intrepid and Freedom will join other 12 Meters in racing over the first four days and use the opening weekend as their 12-Meter Annual Regatta. Also racing over the weekend will be another group of S&S designed yachts, including the classic beauty Bolero, a 73‚ yawl owned by Ed Kane (Concord, Mass.). Designed in 1949 by Olin Stephens as "the largest modern ocean racer of its time," Bolero represented a new era of post-World War II technology. It was originally owned by John Nicolas Brown, whose estate, Harbour Court, is now the NYYC‚s Newport clubhouse.

"Bolero won the Classic division at the NYYC 150th Annual Regatta in June," said Bolero‚s helmsman Chip Barber (Charlottesville, Va.), "and won the Antigua Classic Regatta earlier this year and the Concord d‚Elegance Trophy just last week for the 75th Anniversary Celebration. What will be fabulous is seeing classic yachts like the 72‚ Ticonderoga, the Eight Meter Angelita and the New York 30 Amorita on the same line as Bolero. The NYYC Cruising Rule works great for handicapping these boats, so we will get some keen racing out of it."

Notable names from the first half of Race Week include Hannah Swett (New York, N.Y./Jamestown, R.I.), sailing with Chuck Townsend (New York, N.Y.) on his PHRF entrant T-Squared, Ken Read (Newport, R.I), serving as tactician for Dan Meyers (Boston, Mass.) aboard the IMS entrant Numbers, Tony Rey (Newport, R.I.) and Steve Benjamin (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) aboard Bob Towse‚s (Stamford, Conn.) PHRF entrant Blue Yankee and Bermuda‚s 2004 Olympic Star representative Peter Bromby, sailing on Blair Brown‚s (Newton, Mass.) Sforzando, an IMS boat that won its class in the NYYC 150th Annual Regatta.

And More to Come

For the second half of Race Week, North American championships for the Farr 395, Henderson 30 and J/35 classes will be determined. The Farr 40 class will determine its East Coast Champion, while the J/105 class will determine its Southern New England Champion. Other one-design classes competing are the J/109, J/120 and Swan 45.

Top names from this session include Tom Whidden (Essex, Conn.), sailing with John Thomson (Port Washington, N.Y.) on his Farr 40 Solution; Terry Hutchinson (Annapolis, Md.) sailing with Jim Richardson (Boston, Mass./Newport, R.I.) on his Farr 40 Barking Mad; Geoff Ewenson (Annapolis, Md./Newport, R.I.) on the Swan 45 Plenty; and Moose McClintock (Portsmouth, R.I.) on Craig Speck‚s (Grand Rapid, Mich.) Swan 45 Vim.

Racing will take place on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. Up to three racing circles for the handicap and one-design portions of the week are planned, with a total of at least seven races scheduled per circle. A Rolex timepiece will be awarded to the best overall performance in PHRF division. A timepiece also will be awarded for best overall performance during the one-design segment of the regatta.

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Great Lakes Genuine Risk dismasts. The slow & the fast

Genuine Risk Dismasts

Genuine Risk, the 90 foot line honors contender, dismasted while training off Port Huron this morning.

The good news for Genuine Risk is that the boat arrived in Port Huron with two masts. The bad news is that the spare rig had been moved across Michigan to Holland, so that if a dismasting occurred during the Port Huron Mac, Genuine Risk could travel to Holland and be ready in time for the Chicago Mac.

With the race starting Saturday the Genuine Risk team now has a logistical race to make good on before the start on Saturday.

Update

As of Thursday afternoon Genuine Risk's spare 130 foot mast had been spotted on a truck in the Port Huron area. Along the waterfront Genuine Risk's salvaged mainsail was seen to have minor damage. The broken mast and mainsail were salved by a crane and barge after they were marked by a buoy. The salvage of the sail was crucial, unlike the mast there is no spare.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Quebec St Malo enters Atlantic . Youth Worlds

News Sail Suit

Great Lakes What does Mac Mean New York Ferry Figures. Coastie Boat

Next for Orange II

The Orange II maxi catamaran skippered by Bruno Peyron arrived yesterday in the Brest harbour, in order to take part in the "Brest 2004" festivities. An opportunity for the crew and the boat's partners to sail everyday, while showing the boat to thousands of spectators wandering on the docks. Bruno Peyron seized the occasion to confirm the major dates of the giant's forthcoming program. Interview...

Q: What is your high-tech giant doing among traditional tall ships?
BP: First of all, we were invited by the city of Brest, and wished to bring a touch of future to this great gathering. It's a very good idea to welcome our modern boats in such a splendid traditional event. Being based in Lorient, it was easy for us to come over here, and it was a good opportunity to show the catamaran and the way she sails to quite an amount of spectators.

Q: What's next, the Atlantic ocean, and a shot at the New York - Lizard Point record?

BP: Pushing a boat hard on the Atlantic at this time of the year is a bit ambitious, but we'll set our objectives progressively. First thing, we'll try and beat the 24-hrs record, then try and become the first crew to reach the 700 miles mark. We were the first to reach 600 miles aboard Club Med in 2000, now we have to do better than the current record, set at 694,78 miles. In order to achieve this, we have to be in the middle of the North Atlantic, ready to catch a hypothetical ideal weather window, even though we now it's not the best period to make such an attempt.

Q: How many crew members will be aboard Orange II for this challenge?

BP: Our goal is to leave with the boat as light as possible. I reckon we'll sail with two watches of 5 persons each; plus myself being off watch - that adds up to 11 people. I think we'll try to leave around July 25th. We should be in New York by August 5th, and in stand-by mode shortly after that.

Q: And the back to Marseilles, around September 15th, for a 2-month program of training sessions and record attempts?

BP: That's right. We'll give a shot at the Mediterranean, which is a tough record to beat since the current benchmark time shows a high average speed. What's more, it's a bit more violent because of the Mistral... But it's good, it's a course favourable to sheer speed, and that's easy for the media to follow - yet the boat is put to the test in such conditions. We'll be preparing for the Jules Verne Trophy by then, and with the storms that reach Brittany at this period, we'll be better off in the south of France to train and to sail with our partners. And Marseilles is the boat's homeport, we've always been deeply attached to this city that has been changing dramatically since a few years, opening up more and more towards the sea and our sport.

PHRF

PHRF is a locally administered handicapping system using the perceived speed potential of a yacht as the basis for the handicap. An initial handicap is assigned based on comparisons with similar yachts. The handicap may then be adjusted based on the performance of the class of the yacht.

In most fleets there is no credit for lack of sailing skill or boat preparation. The handicap is based on the yacht being sailed by a top notch crew with the best equipment. The PHRF system handicaps yachts, not sailors.

(PHRF) handicaps are based on the speed potential of the boat, determined as far as possible on observations of previous racing experiences. The handicap can then be adjusted, based on race performance. This is the difficult part as the quality of the racing program has to be taken into consideration. Just because a boat finishes last all the time or, on the other hand, wins many races, does not necessarily mean that the handicap is wrong. In most areas, the overall philosophy is that, for new boats, any error in the handicap is on the side of being a bit harsh, since it is always easier to raise a handicap than to lower one.

PHRF assigns boats a single number handicap. These handicap number's are in 3 second increments. For instance, a boat with a rating of 3 would owe 3 seconds of time per mile to a boat that rates 6, while a boat that rates 0 would owe the '3' rater 3 seconds per mile.

PHRF is controversial and not always the most loved aspect of sailboat racing. It started as more of a grass roots, close to home system and since has been implemented on much higher and technical levels. When and if a new 'grand prix' rule is implemented PHRF can go back to it's original intentions and probably a better perception.

Note: In the upcoming Port Huron Mac all boats will be scored using PHRF while PHRF will determine the handicap winner for multi hulls in the Chicago Mac.

What does 'Mac' Mean to you?

Recently Stuart Streuli of Sailing World magazine was quoted as saying, "Outside of the area, when people say 'the Mackinac race,' the first race people think of is Chicago" "(Port Huron) is a close second in terms of importance and prestige." What are some reasons for this?

Hmmm... it is the 98th sailing of the Chicago Mac, while the Bayview Yacht Club sponsored Port Huron race is in it's 80th year.

The Chicago race carries a distance of 333 miles while the longer of the Port Huron courses is 253 miles.

I think an element of tradition and prestige that Chicago has is an essentially unchanging course. The Port Huron course has changed over the years. Even today there is a 'shore course' option that is just over 200 miles. Insulting though it may be, I don't count the Shore Course as a true offshore race.

One way in which the Port Huron race is superior is the pre race in atmosphere. For Port Huron the days prior to the race are red letter days. For Chicago it's another event and a rather small one.

The 'Huron' mac has a reputation as being a more upwind race while the Chicago race is more for spinnaker specialists.

This year four Transpac 52's have entered the Chicago Race while 0 are sailing Port Huron. Perhaps they buy this prestige argument?

To me since the Chicago race typically has more boats going truly offshore, when I hear mac race I think Chicago Mac. I'm sure this isn't a universal opinion thought.....

Search for Speed

IN BRIEF

* 'THE SEARCH FOR SPEED': BBC'S LATEST DOCUMENTARY FOLLOWING ELLEN'S ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE SOLO TRANSAT RECORD ON <> TO BE BROADCAST ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON BBC1 IN THE UK...

* SOLO TRANSATLANTIC ATTEMPT WAS A HUGE AND POSITIVE LEARNING CURVE FOR THE FUTURE...

* MACARTHUR OUTLINES PLANS FOR THE YEAR AND CONFIRMS HER DECISION TO GO SOLO AROUND THE WORLD ON <>...STANDBY MODE RED FROM EARLY NOVEMBER.

IN DETAIL:

BBC1 DOCUMENTARY - ONE TO SET THE VIDEO FOR...
The fourth documentary following the highs and lows of Ellen's sailing career will be broadcast on BBC1 on Wednesday (14.7.04) at 7.00pm. The 50-minute documentary entitled "The Search for Speed" follows the construction and launch of the 75-foot <> trimaran in Australia, delivery from Australia to the US and MacArthur's attempt on the solo transatlantic record, set 10 years ago. The Extreme Lives TV production team, headed up by Llion Iwan from BBC TV Wales, have produced all of the BBC documentaries to date. This latest offering gives viewers a unique insight into the life of Ellen and her team, from the conception and construction of the trimaran, right through to the first record attempt just a few weeks ago.

SOLO TRANSATLANTIC WAS A HUGE LEARNING CURVE...

Ellen may have missed out on the 7 day, 2 hour, 34 minute and 42 second record set by Laurent Bourgnon by just 75 minutes but the fact remains that the record attempt provided Ellen with her first real opportunity to test the Nigel-Irens designed <> trimaran in a 'record pace' environment. "When we finished the record attempt, I was utterly exhausted - there were no reserves whatsoever to draw on, I had had it. But <> could have kept on going for eternity, I think! Nothing serious had broken during the attempt and we saw some pretty big conditions on the way across including 40+ knot winds and big seas. She was fantastic, never showing any real signs of stress or pitch-poling or capsizing. I pushed <> hard, really hard as I knew it was important for us to test ourselves to the limits and to build confidence in what we were both capable of. Now we are analysing the data from the boat, data from me including sleep and energy consumption data and going over every part of the record attempt to see where I could have done things differently. Having done the solo transatlantic record attempt I am certain that we have a 'glamour' on our hands and <> is capable of setting of records."

MACARTHUR'S PLANS FOR THE FUTURE...

After arriving back in Southampton, <> returned briefly to OC's Cowes Waterfront base before heading to Brest to attend the Brest Festival of the sea and to meet sponsor engagements for co-title sponsor Castorama for two weeks, following which the trimaran will return to the UK for two weeks of B&Q hospitality and media activity that will include a presence at the UK's largest sailing regatta, Skandia Cowes Week (7th-14th August).

By mid-August the trimaran will return to her French base in Lorient, NW France, to undergo further sea trials before a possible attempt on the Round Britain and Ireland record. This solo record currently stands at 11 days, 12 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds set by Belgian sailor Michel Kleinjans on board a 40ft monohull 'Roaring Forty' in June this year. Kleinjans set this record at an average speed of 6.74 knots and <> is certainly capable of maintaining significantly higher averages if the right weather patterns aid her attempt. But the course is notoriously difficult, with strong tidal currents and variable weather conditions as well as some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

In September, the 75-foot trimaran will be based in Lorient for a refit prior to the round the world voyage and will go on Standby Mode Red from early November. "The long-term goal of this project has always been to go solo around the world and following the half circumnavigation back from Australia and our solo attempt across the Atlantic, we are now ready to take on this huge challenge," said MacArthur. Frenchman Francis Joyon slashed the previous solo round the world record set by Michel Desjoyeux in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe by 20 days finishing in February this year, less than a month after the launch of <>. The new record set by Joyon on his 90ft trimaran, IDEC, stands at 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds - a quite extraordinary time. "Francis has raised the bar considerably and it will be no easy feat beating his time - and it is no easy feat sailing round the world solo on a big multihull!" concluded MacArthur.

Francis Joyon is himself continuing his solo record breaking programme, and is currently planning east-west and west-east transatlantic passages.

NOTES ON PREVIOUS RECORDS:

MacArthur currently holds four solo sailing race records:
* Plymouth (UK) to Newport (US) east-west transatlantic 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes (fastest female and winner of Class 1 / Kingfisher monohull).
* Fastest female to race solo around the world in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe in 94 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes, 40 seconds and finishing 2nd overall (Kingfisher monohull).
* Route du Rhum race (St Malo, France to Guadeloupe) new course record 13 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes, 47 seconds (Kingfisher monohull).
* Fastest female solo to cross the Atlantic west to east in 7 days, 3 hours, 49 minutes, 57 seconds (<> trimaran).

Spirit of Canada Report

Summer greetings to all of you. I hope the great weather finds you outdoors and doing something exciting. If you are currently getting the status reports and press releases, you will already know that Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges continues to charge headlong towards the start line of the 5-Oceans Race starting in September 2006. The team has been working non-stop (I have never worked so hard in my life) towards securing sponsorships and forging partnerships with corporations that believe in our mission to win the 5-Oceans in 2006/07.

The design of the new Open 60 by Owen Clarke Designs and Merv Owen is well under way and I am in constant contact with the design team. The discussions surround the tweaking of the design to meet our specifications to ensure that the boat is the best it can be. I am also making a few modifications to the design to personalize it and take advantage of what I learned during the last trip around the world in 2002/03. My philosophy is to make the boat the lightest and simplest Open 60 ever built.

The build site for the new Open 60 is currently under construction at Decoma International in Concord, Ontario just north of Toronto. I have the boat builders lined up and as soon as the build site is finished this fall, construction of the tooling for the hull and deck structure will begin.

The Open 40 Spirit of Canada has been sold to Pindar Ocean Racing. We are currently in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia getting it ready for a Transatlantic crossing along with a Pindar skipper. It is her intention to race the Open 40 in the Transatlantic Race from Plymouth England to Newport RI in June 2005. It will be difficult to see the Open 40 leaving after all these years of building and racing it around the world, but we must move on and it will be great to see it racing again rather than sitting out of the water.

Please stay tuned for more press releases and status reports as we continue to prepare for the 5-Oceans in 2006. I promise to be more diligent in letting you know how we are doing.

Take Care

Linky Sailing News

Racing Groupama leads Quebec St. Malo. Youth Worlds

News Collegiate good news

Great Lakes Ship smog

Linky Sailing News

Racing Sergio Tacchini leads Quebec- St Malo . At the Youth Worlds
News Sailing with Olympians Lipton Cup.. Olympic Preview

Great Lakes Ferry piece Touring

Trimaran Sopra @ Quebec St Malo start

Russel's New World

It appears as if Russell Coutt's post Team Alinghi sailing life is starting in Sweden. Coutts is competing in the Swedish Match Cup in Sweden. Peter Holmberg is skippering Team Alinghi. His 4 person crew of New Zealander Richard Bouzaid, ITalian Lorenzo Mazza, Australian Will McCarthy,& Kiwi Dean Phipps consists of official Alinghi sailors. In fact Phipps has been part of Coutt's Team Magic and has sailed on Team New Zealand and Alinghi in their Cup wins.

Coutts is entered but sans Alinghi affiliation. His crew features Jes Gram-Hansen actually a spot ahead of Coutts in Swedish Match standings. In fact the crew of Michael Arnhild, Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner is the one that Gram-Hansen usually skippers in match race events. It's all Danish, typically sailing as Team Denmark.

Interesting to see the results as Coutts' and Alinghi's paths diverge.

Despite Coutt's new crew he won the Swedish Match Cup. Peter Holmberg and the Alinghi crew were 9th.

Sobedo is Loaded

Sodebo the 60' trimaran skippered by Thomas Coville will carry a crew loaded with talent and notoriety in the Quebec St Malo Transat.

Martial Salvan is a regular on the boat typically sailing as pitman. Stefan Fodor serves as a winch griner.

The three other crew Jacques Vincent, Loick Peyron and Cam Lewis have lengthy careers. Vincent has sailed around the world 7 times, most recently on the record setting Cheyenne. Peyron dominated the 60' trimaran circuit sailing Fuji Color. In 1996 Peyron was this race's winning skipper and finished 2nd in 1988.

Cam Lewis who skippered Team Adventure in The Race and was part of the original Jules Verne crew-along with Vincent- also will be on board. Lewis is also a skilled writer famous for his Cam Grams sent while at sea.

Sobedo was 2nd in the Transat to Geant. Perhaps Coville's pedigreed crew can move the result to 1st.

Back Across the Atlantic

This Sunday at 1235 local time, the monohull and multihull class II (50 foot) fleets depart from Quebec City for the running of the 6th Quebec-Saint Malo race. Fifteen minutes later, the ORMA fleet, 12 strong, crosses the line.

The 1st edition of the Québec ­ Saint Malo was held in 1984, to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the arrival in Canada of Jacques Cartier, born in Saint Malo.

Fred LePeutrec, skipper of Gitana 11:
"It’s the only crewed ocean race on the ORMA circuit. It gives us the
opportunity to push the boats 100%. After The Transat, it’s useful to have
new pairs of eyes to confirm or contradict the perceptions we have. This
time, it’s a "return" trip in summer bringing us back "home"… There is a
strong chance that we will be essentially running downwind, pushed by the
wind. We’ve got two coastal stretches which will be really exciting ­ a
race along the coast of Québec on the Saint Lawrence river, with its share
of coastal effects, thermal breeze, current and another one after the
Fastnet rock off the south of the Irish along the coast of the Channel.
The middle stretch is the transatlantic where we are likely to have a
front with wind abeam and gennaker up. A bit racing a Grand Prix offshore…
only longer ! We’re sailing short-handed, six up instead of eleven in
Grand Prix, but with an ocean passage into the bargain, not to mention
night time sailing, the length of the course, crew management, and
handling factors of fatigue and energy…"

The twelve ORMA trimarans taking part in the race:
Banque Covefi - Stève Ravussin
Banque Populaire - Lalou Roucayrol
Foncia - Alain Gautier
Géant - Michel Desjoyeaux
Gitana X - Marc Guillemot
Gitana 11 - Fred Le Peutrec
Groupama - Franck Cammas
Médiatis / Région Aquitaine - Yves Parlier
Sergio Tacchini - Karine Fauconnier
Sodebo - Thomas Coville
Sopra Group - Philippe Monnet
TIM / Progetto Italia - Giovanni Soldini

50 foot multihulls:
Nootka - Mike Birch
Aquaera - Philippe Bousquet
Atlantic Nature - Anne Caseneuve
GIFI - Dominique Demachy
Crepes Whaou! - Franck Yves Escoffier
Jean Stalaven - Pascal Quintin

50 foot monohulls:
Marine Fot Lous - Ile de Saint Martin - Luc Coquelin
Branec III - Roger Langevin
Ciment Saint Laurent - Georges LeBlanc

Water Level Update

Below you'll find water level info that pertains to Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Reference Point- Measurements in Inches

Difference from Chart Datum +13
Difference from last month +3
Difference from last year +13
Difference from long term average for July -10
Difference from Record High -41
Difference from Record Low +23
Forecast for 9 August 2004 +0

Click for information on other lakes.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Ramming Speed to knockout. Barkow wins

News Calendar. Coutts plans

Great Lakes PH is ready. PH 100. GR photo

North Sails Race Week is no more

Over the past 20 years, North Sails Race Week evolved into a premier racing
event on the West Coast. The regatta has been recognized for its continuous
innovation and professional race and event management. Founded in 1985 by
Bruce and Margo Golison, the regatta held in the waters off Long Beach had
grown into one of the top regional one-design and handicap regattas in the
country, and was the regatta that most West Coast sailors pointed to as
their “championship event” of the year.

“We're proud of what we have accomplished over the past 20 years," Bruce
Golison said. “In addition to providing a great event and world-class race
management, we are proud to know that we have made our sport better with
some of the innovations that we have developed over the years.

"The innovation we are most proud of, and one that is currently used
worldwide in sailing, is the 'Protest Arbitration System.' We developed
this system 17 years ago to streamline protest procedures. It took the
sailing bureaucracy some time to accept our system, but protest arbitration
works wonders, and the boat owners love it. Now it is a part of our sport
forever, I would hope.”

The event routinely attracted the stars of the sport, in recent years
showcasing Dean Barker, Paul Cayard, Dennis Conner, Peter Isler, John
Cutler, John Kostecki, Mark Reynolds, Hamish Pepper, Robbie Haines, Ed
Baird, the McKee brothers, Lowell North and Buddy Melges. These sailors
competed against some of the best amateur competition from Seattle to San
Diego. The dependable June sea breeze was as consistent as the top tier
competition.

Golison said, "This regatta has always been a highlight on the racing
calendars of serious sailors up and down the coast. However, the financial
and logistical hurdles are higher than ever. We frankly didn't achieve the
levels of corporate sponsorship and industry support that are needed to run
a top caliber, professionally managed regatta.

"For 11 years we had Audi of America and Trimble Navigation as title
sponsors, along with North Sails, and they made the event financially
viable. But for the past seven years corporate sponsorship of that level
simply has been unavailable to us. To further complicate future viability,
the majority of participating boat owners and classes have shown marked
resistance to entry fee increases."

Co-manager Peter Craig of Premiere Racing said, "This was a difficult
decision. Bruce Golison has consistently delivered a terrific regatta. He
has worked tirelessly to keep North Sails Race Week a highlight on the West
Coast racing calendar and to keep it financially viable."

Gary Weisman, president of title sponsor North Sails said, “It deeply
saddens North Sails to see Race Week come to an end. Having been a key
player for 18 years with the Golisons, they are to be congratulated by all
for the innovative, exciting and unique approach they've brought to yacht
racing. We will miss their fantastic support and the enthusiasm they brought
to Southern California's premier regatta. North has always been a proud
participant in such a high quality event.”

North Sails Race Week fleet size ranged from 120 to- 175 boats in recent
years with both one-design and PHRF racing offered. The one-design classes
represented in 2004 included the Farr 40, Schock 35, J/120, J/109, J/105,
Melges 24 and Santana 20. This event also served as the Pacific Coast
Championships for the Farr 40 and Schock 35 classes.

"Losing North Sails Race Week is a huge loss,” said Dave Ullman, a longtime
competitor. “For sailing in Southern California, it is the premier regatta.
Either something will have to step up to take its place or we'll be lacking
a major regatta here. North Sails Race Week was the only non-yacht
club-affiliated regatta. A yacht club will have trouble doing it on the
scale that Golison has done it all these years. North Sails Race Week and
the St. Francis Yacht Club’s Big Boat Series were the two premier West Coast
regattas.”

John Wylie, a 1D35 owner, said, "North Sails Race Week is the measure of how
you stack up with the rest of the fleet---in fact, it has become the
unofficial championship regatta for Southern California. The RC work is
flawless and the post race activities most enjoyable."

Dennis Case, a past class winner in the Schock 35 and J/105 classes, said,
"Having no North Sails Race Week creates a big hole. We don't have enough
major regattas on this coast and losing the biggest one will definitely
hurt. I've been going every year for the last 10 years and on other people's
boats before that.”

Golison & Golison has partnered with Premiere Racing in since 2000. Past
results will continue to be available on the web.

Bright Star Arrives

Transpac 52 Bright Star has arrived at Torresen Marine

The new Farr design has already been to Bermuda & back

Next on the schedule is the Chicago Mac race

Other TP 52's will compete

Ainslie's Lead Up

Multiple Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie has written an excellent article about his state of readiness just a month prior to the Olympics.

Here's a short sample of Ainslie's training: "One drill we use is tacking for 15 seconds every 25 or 30 minutes. That's really hard and a good work-out that polishes any rough edges."

If everybody did something like this we'd all be better sailors. Also until you can really do things like this worry a little less about your rating and more about your boat handling.

Linky Sailing News

Racing Volvo Baltic concludes. Mari Cha record

News Kevin Hall approved. Ainslie pre Olympic thoughts
Great Lakes Junior sailing

Volvo Baltic Concludes

The 2004 Volvo Baltic Race went down to the wire today in an exciting climax to the series. After a mixture of inshore and offshore races comprising eight legs, and some 1200 nautical miles, over three weeks, the winner was not decided until the three windward/leeward races held off Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago had been completed.

The exciting finale, which began in a light breeze and culminated in a perfect 18-20 knots, provided some champagne sailing. The racing was hot and intense, as predicted, and protests were many and varied throughout the fleet, keeping the jury busy for several hours after the racing had finished.

There were a number of incidents for the jury to consider and after a long period of deliberation, the jury disqualified Team Elanders from all three of today’s races. They also disqualified Sony Ericsson from race three. But this was not enough and Blixt, who started today with a half point lead, increased his lead and won the series by 2.5 points. Avant (M Lundh/Swe) was the overall winner of today’s racing, with JMS Next Generation (KI Heiberg) second.

“We were the best,” said a delighted Thomas Blixt. “We were the under dogs and it feels really good to beat them. We have the best team, the best team spirit. We did it and it’s so beautiful.”

Winning the Round Gotland part of the series was a milestone for Blixt, “We’re celebrating that today as well. I’m a Swede and winning that was really important to me,” he added.

Humphries stuck to his strategy today. “We had to go out there all guns blazing the way we did. We put ourselves in close situations, but we had to do that. What happened, happened. If we hadn’t have pushed so hard, we wouldn’t have stood a chance. We’ve been sailing on a knife edge. It’s sad for us because we sailed really well. When we finished today, we felt really satisfied. We felt we had shown our true colours.”

Mikael Lundh/Swe with his young team on Avant won today’s racing and finished in third place overall, as well as being the best of the second generation Volvo 60s. “Our learning curve has been high, and we’re really happy with the result,” commented Lundh. “All the young guys were so focussed and so keen to learn. They are a role model in itself for learning,” added Lundh who is only 31.

For Kjell Inge Heiberg/Nor in charge of JMS Next Generation, it has been a mixed event. They have been disqualified twice for pre-start rule infringements, the second DSQ coming last night. “That was a punch on the nose for us, losing that protest,” Heiberg said. The team ripped their spinnaker during the last race today, but in spite of these setbacks, they still finished today’s racing in second place and Heiberg and his team feel they have achieved a lot. “The sailing has been really great and the team building has been fantastic. We have achieved a lot without much training and I think we did well in the circumstances. Lots of the guys haven’t sailed a big boat like this before.”

For the part Croatian/part Swedish team racing AV-Teknik, this event has been challenging. “For us it was a very big experience,” said owner and co-skipper Marko Murtic, who will now take the boat to the UK and compete at Cowes Week in August. “Now we know more about the boat and our boat handling has got better. The competition was very, very strong, especially for us. We didn’t think it would be so professional ­ we are amateurs here. But we are happy that in the last few races we have been so close to the others ­ it gave us the strength to finish.”

Results from Leg 8 Windward/Leeward Races
1 Avant
2 JMS Next Generation
3 Sony Ericsson
4 AV-Teknik
5 Team Elanders

OVERALL SCORE
1 Sony Ericsson 32.5 points
2 Team Elanders 30.0 points
3 Avant 21.0 points
4 JMS Next Generation 16.0 points
5 AV Teknik 10.5 points

Linky Sailing News

Racing Swedish Match Cup Day 1. 49er Euros. Mari Cha in the Pacific Cup

News Brit POV. Hall fires

Great Lakes Security for ferries. Genuine Risk arrives.

High speed, yet bare foot on the Mari Cha IV
Copyright Mari-Cha IV

Emirates New Zealand heads North

Emirates Team New Zealand today took the first steps in its European campaign for the 2007 America’s Cup as race yacht NZL82 was loaded on board the P&O Nedlloyd containership Botany bound for Europe.

Also loaded on the ship at Ports of Auckland’s container terminal was NZL57, the trial yacht from the successful 2000 defence which has been sold to the French K Challenge syndicate.

Accompanying the yachts is the Team’s 60ft (18.2m) tender, a 40ft container loaded with sails, gears and spares, a fully equipped workshop built into another 40ft container and a 40ft (12.2m) chase boat.

The yachts will be offloaded at La Spezia in Italy and the tender will tow both yachts and the chase boat 240 nautical miles across the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille.

NZL82 will compete in America’s Cup 2007 pre-regattas at Marseille and Valencia in September and October. At the end of the regattas the process will be reversed. NZL82 will be towed from Spain to Italy and shipped back to Auckland for the team’s summer sailing programme on the Hauraki Gulf.

Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said that today marked the most visible start of the long road to Valencia in 2007. “We are on our way from New Zealand … the team will start assembling in Marseille in late August and then it’s almost straight into the Marseille regatta which starts on September 5.

“We are very interested to see how much progress Alinghi and BMW Oracle have made since the last America’s Cup. They have spent a lot of time on the water training and they have raced at San Francisco and Newport so we expect them to have something of an edge.”

Grant Dalton said: “The yacht will be ready to race on September 5 and the Team will have had a few days together to get used to the yacht and each other.

“Three of the afterguard (Dean Barker on helm, strategist Ben Ainslie and navigator Kevin Hall) will be only a few days out of their Olympic campaigns so they’ll have to make a swift transition from racing dinghies to 80ft keelers.

“We’re optimistic, but we’re realistic about Marseille. I think that by Valencia we will be looking stronger.”

Get your boat online!

If you are sailing the Chicago Mackinac race, you be part of our coverage by providing information about your boat --- it's crew and accomplishments. You can easily provide this by filling out our online form.

Why do this? Simply put, it helps sailing. The more people know about sailing, such as who is from their hometown, or what boats have a history of success the better our coverage can be. When our coverage is better we then attract more folks to sailing which helps us all out.

Want another reason? Imagine if you win....your class, overall, etc. What if you haven't filled out the form. Everyone knows your boat won yet nobody knows who the crew is. If you win the Mac don't you want everyone to know?

Go, fill out the form so we can give credit where credit is due.

Next up for Hellomoto

HELLOMOTO Open 60 arrived safely into Caen, Normandy early this Monday morning to enter the next phase of the project – the second refit. Conrad sent his last diary off the boat this weekend to reflect on the race and carry on the story of preparations for the Vendée Globe solo, non-stop round the world yacht race…

‘As we complete our return trip from Boston to Plymouth, it gives me a chance to reflect on the last month of activity and looking ahead at what we now have to do. Fifth place in The Transat was a great result for the whole team, sponsors and supporters. More importantly, the result reflected our key message of keeping things simple. Whilst the fleet around us fell, we stuck to our game and qualified for the Vendée Globe with an excellent result - Well done everybody!

‘We left Boston nearly two weeks ago with two clear goals. The first was to push the boat hard downwind to give me a chance to get mentally and physically used to the relentless pressure of fast downwind sailing. The South (Southern Ocean) counts for two thirds of the Vendée Globe course and most of the time you are reaching or fast running. The average wind speed in the Southern Ocean summer is 14 knots, but at least 30 percent of the time the wind is averaging 25-30 knots. We have now had a week of continuous 25-35 knots downwind conditions and also a couple of days of 45-50 knots. Enough time to get into the groove, sleeping, eating and making some tough downwind manouevres.

‘The second goal was to prioritise our second refit. To fully optimise HELLOMOTO for the Vendée Globe would take many more weeks and more budget than we have at our disposal. We have set ourselves a goal of being race ready and back in the water training and testing by the end of August. This gives us 6 weeks. The changes we need to make reflect the time already spent on the water and are mainly performance related, although we have found a few bugs left over from our last refit that need rectifying. These are mainly reliability issues and where we had to cut a few corners to make the start of The Transat. We’ll be focusing on power supply management onboard, the sheeting configuration of the sails and replacing all the standing rigging and sheets, as well as some aspects of the swing keel hydraulic system. We’re working with North France to optimize our sail wardrobe and produce new 3DL sails for the Vendée.

‘Today, Monday, we will unstep the mast and begin the process of removing all the deck hardware for servicing. HELLOMOTO will then be lifted out of the water and placed in the shed at V1D2 boatyard here in Caen for her modifications. Once again the Motorola Ocean Racing shore team – Joff, Tony and Olly – will move to France for the whole of the refit period, where we will be supported remotely with our 40ft workshop and office, and support vehicles provided by Vospers, Plymouth.

‘For me, my detailed training begins. We have begun a new bio-monitoring and sleep programme in conjunction with Motorola's Cambridge facility and Claudio Stampi at Harvard. I will be training at the University of Plymouth's recreation facility strengthening and gaining weight and muscle mass and I will be focusing on developing and strengthening my understanding of the weather and climatology.

‘Whilst this is my focus, other members of my team have much to do. Jill will be arranging all the logistics for the team as we decamp from Plymouth to Les Sables d’Olonne, Mary will be working with our partners to fully exploit the marketing and communications opportunities that surround the Vendée and Vikki will be working with nutritionists to further develop and enhance the food programme after the feedback learnt during the Transat has been analysed.

I hope you all stay tuned to our programme and follow us on the web at www.conradhumphreys.com as we gear up for The Big One!

Only 4 months to the start gun of the 2004 Vendée Globe!

UK Sails do well in Solo Mac

One week after cleaning up in the competitive J/105 class at the Chicago NOOD David Wagner set sail for the 8th annual Solo Chicago Mac race. On a day when local race committees had to cancel races due to the high winds and waves, the fleet set sail early in the morning in 20-plus-knot winds and six-foot seas directly on the nose. Wagner’s J/105 GIGI had mechanical problems with his autopilot from the start yet he continued on in the rough weather making numerous attempts to fix it throughout the race. After about 12 straight hours of beating, the wind began to go aft and David was able to set his reaching asymmetric he had built for distance racing. The wind continued to clock and increase, and the waves continued to build. At this point, David peeled to his running asymmetric. David spent the entire portion of Sunday surfing up Lake Michigan hitting speeds of 17+ knots. David ended up finishing early Monday 1:30 am with an elapsed time of 41 hours setting a monohull record for the singlehanded race. This is quite an accomplishment since in the record 2002 Chicago-Mac race a crewed J/105 time finished just under 38 hours. In that event there was never any upwind work while David spent half a day going upwind. Congratulations David.

Eric Kerlow sailing his Tartan 10, OUTRAGEOUS, also won his division and set a new course record for his division in the race. Eric and David used the same forecasting to assist with the race and stuck to the plan sailing to the Michigan shore until they were lifted and surfing in the big winds and waves on Saturday. Eric was second overall amongst the monohulls. Eric called UK Sailmakers Chicago to thank them for their assistance with his sail preparation and advice for the race.

More VOR Entries

The southern hemisphere will mount its strongest challenge for many years in the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race. Two teams, one from Australia and one from Brazil, are preparing to build boats.

The Australian team, Premier Challenge, headed by Grant Wharington, has secured sufficient funding to commence testing and boat construction. Don Jones, designer of Wharington’s highly successful super-maxi “Skandia” has been appointed as Chief Designer and construction of the boat is set to begin in Australia in October.

Brazilian Olympian, Torben Grael, will lead Brasil1. The team has secured the majority of its funding and plans to announce its designers and builders once discussions with sponsors are concluded in due course. Designers under consideration are Farr Yacht Design and Mani Frers.

Wharington and Grael both have practical experience of this great ocean classic: Wharington raced a southern ocean leg onboard djuice in 2001-02, while Grael, who has won gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals, sailed with Norwegian Knut Frostad onboard Innovation Kvaerner in 1997-98.

“We can’t wait to begin construction of our new VO 70” says Wharington, continuing,” such a step clarifies our position and demonstrates our determination to be on the start line for Australia in November 2005. Our “Team Australia” sponsorship model is being well received and recognised by Australian business as an invaluable way of exploiting the worldwide interest in this event. We are confident current discussions will end positively and expect more to come.”

Grael says he is looking forward to the challenge in every respect. “I am very pleased to be part of this project: it shows the potential accomplishment of Brazilian sports.”

Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Glenn Bourke, is delighted to have such a strong showing from the southern hemisphere. The changes to the race format which include in-port racing, scoring gates and pit stops, largely initiated by Bourke in consultation with past and future competitors, are now paying off as the event sees increased interest from sailors and investors around the world.

“To have five boats going into production 17 months ahead of the start is great news,” says Bourke, and adds: “The way the entries are rolling in, we can all look forward to this event being the most successful event in recent history. Get yourselves ready for some more announcements.”

Prior to Wharington and Grael’s announcements, two premier international brands - Spanish telecoms, Telefónica and Dutch bank, ABN AMRO - have signed up to support three race entries.

US Olympic Info Bits

Gary Jobson has done a nice job in the most recent Sailing World in covering the US Olympic Sailing team. Here's some things I learned.

1. Paul Cayard is the oldest team member, right? Actually no he isn't. Kevin Burnham a 470 crew who spends his sailing time on trapeze is 47 to Cayard's 45.

2. Conversely the youngest sailor is Isabelle Kinsolving who is 24. She is the women's 470 crew.

3. College sailing helps, right? Mark Mendeblatt says "It is the single biggest influence on my sailing." Kevin Hall says "The short answer is no."

4. Why the Mendenblatt/Hall difference. Probably because college sailing features simple, non developmental boats such as FJ's, Lasers etc. While this helps Mendenblatt is doesn't help Hall in what is a more technological class.

5. Tim Wadlow, 49er skipper must be a good main trimmer. Well, he maybe but on a 49er the crew- in this case Pete Spaulding is the main trimmer.

Here are some other Olympic thoughts

6. Who of the US sailors has the best chance to win a medal? I'd say the men's 470 team of Foerster and Burnham.

7. Who has the least chance to medal? Mistral men's sailor Peter Wells.

8. How will the US Yngling team do? Not as well as people might think. I believe their 9th and 8th at past world championships are more representative than their Olympic trials winner.

9. Kevin Hall says "peaking....perhaps spiritually is invaluable." I don't know if there's a team chaplain, but could it hurt?

10. In 1984 when Paul Cayard missed the Olympic team he would have been 25. By the standards of this years team that is young....retrospectively maybe he shouldn't have been disappointed about new Hall of Famer Bill Buchan beating him out.

These are a few of my favorite sailors

Over the holiday weekend one of my idle thoughts was a list of my 3 favorite athletes. Alphabetically they are: Lance Armstrong, Brett Favre and Ellen Macarthur.

Since only one of those is a sailor I'll list my favorite sailors: in addition to Ellen Macarhtur you'll find Paul Cayard and Jacques Vincent. Macarthur for her all on solo style and accomplishments, Cayard for his well rounded CV, and Vincent for having done 7 circumnavigations!

Who are you 3 favorites and why?

Americap Explained

In July we will look at rating systems. This week we will look at Americap which will determine the winner of the Chicago Mac race. Next we'll look at PHRF which is widely used, then box rules and finally one designs.

The Americap II rating system will determine the mono hull handicap winners in this years Chicago Mac Race.

Americap II is a rating system combining multiple elements. Included are boat measurement (similar to IOR), Wind velocity and direction (familiar from IMS) and a combined time on time/time on distance scoring (both methods used
in PHRF). Unlike PHRF there is are no subjective components that maybe
finessed by boat owners.

For those racing, or spectating results are figured a little different with Americap II. A 2 part equation is used, infolding multiplication and subtraction.

The equation is as follows: CT= (A * ET) - (B * Distance)

Corrected time= Corrected Time


ET= Elapsed Time in seconds


Distance= Distance


A= Time on Time Co-efficient (seconds per mile)


B= Time on Distance Co-efficient (seconds/second)

The scratch boat has an A coefficient of 1 and a B coefficient of 0.

The ratings displayed on the Chicago to Mackina official scratch sheets at http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org/racetomackinac/ScratchSheets/index.htm are the 10 knot rating.

Last year was the 1st time that the Mac race used Americap II. A look at the winners list shows that at the very least Americap can't be said to have a bias towards older boats, as several oldies but goodies were overall winners.

Linky Sailing News

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Great Lakes Ferry sellout

Going OB is Risky

Going overboard can be risky

By Senior Chief Tom Rau, Coast Guard Group Grand Haven, Mi

The following story was told to me by a boater who experienced first hand the challenge of retrieving a person from the water. Boaters should pay heed, it’s not as simple as one might think and it can be risky.

Tim Israel told me that on July 23, 2000, while inbound into South Haven Harbor aboard his 40-foot power boat, he and his crewman Jerry Roach spotted a 30-foot sailboat around a ¼ mile off the pier heads trailing a life ring a 100 yards or so off the stern. “Then we saw two men in the water directly behind the stern,” said Israel. “They were clinging to the stern ladder but couldn’t climb aboard.”

Two ladies standing at the stern watched helplessly. “One man could not climb up the ladder despite the efforts of the second man to boost him up,” said Israel, who gingerly approached the smaller sail boat with the 40-foot steel hulled power boat. Roach grabbed a life ring and jumped into the water.

Roach later told a Grand Haven Tribune reporter, “The man was out of it. His eyes were bloodshot. You could see red on his forehead where the boom had hit him. I could see that his legs were purplish from the amount of time he had been in the cold water.”

Roach climbed aboard the sailboat while the other man in the water bolstered his mate aboard. Roach estimated the man weighted over 270 pounds: “He appeared to be in his mid sixties. He pleaded for me not to let him go as I hauled him aboard.” They transported the victim to the Coast Guard auxiliary facility in South Haven and awaiting paramedics.

The man’s wife adequately summed up the ordeal: “It is serious on Lake Michigan. When accidents happen, they happen so quickly.”

Yes, indeed, and for someone in the water even a slow drifting boat can quickly elude an outstretched hand. From aboard a boat, the drift rate may seem hardly apparent, but from the water it can seem like the boat is forever out of reach. Sadly, too often are the cases where a person falls overboard off a drifting boat and those aboard watch helplessly.

Chief Ellison, Officer in Charge, Station Kenosha, Wisconsin, told me about a case his crew responded to in 2002 involving a 28-foot boat adrift on Lake Michigan with two boys aboard. A man and his brother went for a swim leaving the two boys on the boat; the boat drifted away. The father swam back to the boat, but his brother floundered and drowned as his two nephews looked on. The boys couldn’t operate the boat and the father, while stroking to reach his sons, could do little to assist his brother.

Soon after that family tragedy one like it happened off Michigan City, Indiana. A father, after towing his twin eight-year-old girls behind a boat on a tube, pulled them aboard then took a break and dove into Lake Michigan to find confront from the smoldering heat. The boat began to drift. He struggled to reach it, but exhaustion soon took hold. He drowned as the boat drifted off, leaving the twins alone for two hours until a passing boater heard their desperate cries and rescued them.

Even when those aboard can operate the boat open water recovery can prove to be challenging and even deadly. Commander Anthony Popiel, Commander Group Grand Haven, recently told me of an overboard incident he witnessed during the 1996 Chicago air show. A man in his mid forties while swimming off the stern of a 30-foot power boat at anchor off Chicago Harbor, dove into the lake. For whatever reasons, the captain engaged the throttles and backed down slicing the man’s calf with the prop.

“I was aboard a Coast Guard 41-foot rescue boat directly astern of the boat. Several Coasties aboard leaped into the water to assist the man. He bled to death before the crewmen could get him to our boat. He was only 30-feet away,” said the Commander.

On June 26, 2004 a 15-year-old boy was struck and killed by a power boat when he fell from an inner tube on Emerald Lake, Newaygo County, Michigan. The operator of the power boat struck the boy after he returned to pick him up. The following day a 10-year-old girl was killed when she jumped off the stern of a 34-foot power boat backing down onto a beach near Michigan City, Indiana. . She landed on the boat’s propeller.

Commander Popiel has edited my Boat Smart copy for three years often providing valuable input. He has spent most of his career in search and rescue and is held in high regard by fellow chiefs. The following is a list of must do’s we worked up regarding overboard recovery:

1. Always wear a life jacket when entering the water, absolutely no exceptions.
2. Instruct passengers on how to operate the boat and how to call for help.
3. When approaching a person in the water (PIW) Coast Guard crews deploy two approaches: a direct or indirect pickup. The direct approach brings the boat alongside the PIW, the indirect approach keeps the PIW a safe distance off the boat. I prefer the indirect approach; that way a crewman can toss a line to the PIW, pulling the person to the boat rather than engaging the throttles to approach the PIW. That is, of course, if the PIW is wearing a life jacket and doesn’t need immediate assistance.

4.
When approaching a PIW do so into the wind with the PIW to windward which hopefully will swing the stern away from the PIW.

5. Never engage the engines when a PIW is alongside the boat or off the stern. We suspect that when the Chicago boat captain set the anchor he may have backed down allowing the anchor to take hold. Forgetting the engines were in reverse, he may have engaged the throttle to move forward, allowing room for his friend to swim.

6. Do you have the wherewithal to haul a PIW aboard? If not, hopefully the PIW is wearing a lifejacket.

7. Wearing a life jacket will greatly enhance the chances for a successful overboard recovery. For sure, it will provide needed time for you to figure out a plan to haul the person aboard.

June Weather Report

The June climate in Muskegon was a 2000 1st. For the first time temperatures were below normal. For the month temperatures were 1.1° below normal. This after being + 2.08° in May and + .08° in April.

For the month the average temperature was 64.5. High for the month was 85 on Saturday the 10th. Low was 42 on Tuesday the 6th.

Precipitation measures in at 3.07 inches, above the 2.35 inch norm.

Average wind speed was 9.8, up .2 from May. Max peak wind speed was 17.1 on Saturday the 10th. Minimum peak wind speed was Wednesday the 28th.

Below find a bit out of the ordinary correlation between wind direction and temperature. Days of west wind brought no above norm Temps, which is rare. South winds were the months only warm wind.

Combining temperature, precipitation and wind June in Muskegon was a bit off center climatologically.

Water Level Update

Below you'll find water level info that pertains to Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Reference Point- Measurements in Inches

Difference from Chart Datum +13
Difference from last month +3
Difference from last year +13
Difference from long term average for June -10
Difference from Record High -41
Difference from Record Low +22
Forecast for 2 August 2004 +0

Click for information on other lakes.

Michigan Sailors Win Rescue Medal

­When boat owner Tom Fraser and his crew were preparing his Ensign C.F. Pickle for a race on Lake St. Clair, MI, little did the sailors know that they were about to become involved in a daring rescue, saving the lives of three fishing boat passengers but unable to rescue two others. For their courageous efforts, Fraser and his crew Mike Dodge, Chris Grow and Matt Morman were recently presented with US SAILING’s Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal.

The rescue took place on May 18, 2003, near the shores of Grosse Pointe Park
on Lake St. Clair, MI. Fraser and his crew were getting ready to compete in
Detroit Yacht Club’s River Challenge when they heard cries for help coming
from the water. Crewmember Matt Morman saw five passengers on a 14-foot
aluminum fishing boat taking on water and then capsizing. The five
passengers were dumped overboard into two-foot seas and cold 56-degree
waters.

Morman watched as two victims lost their life jackets and he quickly jumped
in the water, soon followed by fellow crewmember Mike Dodge. In the next 15
minutes, the two sailors rescued a seven-year-old boy and two men in their
30’s. Meanwhile, boat owner Fraser and crew Chris Grow helped pull the
victims out of the water and called 911. The bodies of two additional
passengers from the fishing boat were recovered several days later by
authorities. The United States Coast Guard had requested that race
organizers abandon the day’s racing so they could conduct their
investigation and continue recovery efforts. The race committee complied.

For coming to the aid of fellow mariners in what proved to be fatal
conditions, the owner and crew of C.F. Pickle received US SAILING’s Arthur
B. Hanson Rescue Medal. The presentation was made at the Detroit Regional
Yacht-Racing Association board meeting on June 24 by former US SAILING
Vice-President Ted Everingham.

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June 2004 Weather Report

The first month of summer 2004 began with 5 straight days of sub normal temperatures. After those first 5 days temperatures were -1.2 degrees from the norm. That trend of coolness continued as the month ended up 1.9 degrees below normal in temperature.

June 8th saw the monthly high a very summer like 87 degrees. Later on the 25th came the monthly low of 41°. That morning I noted, "In the 40's-summer, yah right!" Another cool day was the 19th when 46° was recorded, lowest ever for that day.

Rain was plentiful with a total of 4.26 inches coming down. On the 9th just over an inch of rain fell, most of any day.

Winds in June averaged 8.2 knots with a peak daily average of 15.1 on the 8th. Least windy day was the a week later on the 15th with an average of 4.1 knots.

Despite the below normal temperatures the sun did come out in June. 16 days were recorded as clear, 10 as partly cloudy and only 4 as cloudy.

4 of the last 5 Junes have had below normal temperatures, meaning we're getting used to slow starting summers. Still, for the year temperatures are up .93 degrees.

The last 4 July's have seen 50% above normal and 50% under normal. Guess that means July could be warmer or it could be cooler. That's usually the way weather is predicted isn't it?

New Solo Record

The WSSR Council announces the ratification of the following record:

WORLD RECORD: "Round Britain and Ireland, all islands, non stop
singlehanded"

Yacht: 'Roaring Forty' 40 ft Monohull
Sailed by: Michel Kleinjans. Belgian
Dates: 28th May 200.to 8th June 2004.
Elapsed Time: 11days 12hours 26minutes 48seconds
Average speed: 6.47kts

Entry Report

With about 3 weeks to the start 300 boats have entered the Chicago Mac and will go under starters orders July 24th. The 300 entries is an increase from 2003.

Over 101 of these boats will race in a variety of one design sections ranging from 28 Tartan 10's to 11 Great Lake's 70's.

Three of the one design classes are made by J Boats: J105, J35 & J120 while two carry the Beneteau name, 36.7 & 40.7

Americap II™ will again be the rating rule for monohull boats. Monohulls will sail under one of two divisions, the Mackinac Cup Division for the faster and generally larger boats and the Mackinac Trophy Division for the smaller and generally slower boats. Chicago Yacht Club is allowing boats with canting keels or water ballast to race with these fleets. This is a better approach than the one taken by the Bermuda Race which penalized and stigmatized innovation by putting canting keel boats in a 'demonstration division'.

Multi hulls will use PHRF as their rating rule.

Water levels are up, entries are up, hopefully fun will be up also in this years race.

All The Way From Brazil

This year's Chicago Mac could see a boat on the line all the way from Brazil. In fact, this boat is currently sailing to the US from Brazil.

The boat in question is Trader, a new Transpac 52 built by MLBoatworks for long time Great Lakes sailor Fred Detweiler. Trader was actually built in Brazil and is in transit to the US via cargo ship. This is not the first time Detweiler has tried this approach. His previous boat was built in Estonia.

As Trader hails from Bayview Yacht club all parties would like to see her on the line for the Port Huron Mac July 17th. However, there's a lot of variables between now and then. Therefore Trader will debut in the Chicago Mac.

Regardless of which race it makes, Trader will have on of the better back stories in Mac history.

Risk:Record Potential

Later this month the Genuine Risk, 90 feet with canting keel, will sail the Chicago Mackinac. The question of whether she is capable of a course record precedes her.

The race mono hull record was set 2 years ago by Pyewacket, the time being 23.5 hours. The outright record was set by Steve Fossett on a catamaran in 1998 when the 333 mile course was covered in 18 hours 50 minutes.

The outright record is 25% faster than Pyewacket's mono hull time.

In this years Bermuda Race Morning Glory a canting keel equipped boat, set a new race record of 48 hours, 5 hours / 10% faster than the previous record also set by Pyewacket.

If Genuine Risk shows similar speed potential to Morning Glory and takes 10% off the current record a new record expectation might be around 21 hours 12 minutes.

The variable in any sailing venture is weather. If Genuine Risk gets more favorable weather than 2002 might she threaten the outright record? Well, reports indicate that the Max Z 86's are capable to 500 mile days. If Genuine Risk sails those same speeds then yes, the 18 hour monohull mark could be set.

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Great Lakes Queens Cup change. Ontario ferry problems

Queens Cup Winner Changed

Bantu with a Corrected Time of 7:59:51 has officially been declared winner of the 2004 Queens Cup.

Race Orgaizner South Shore Yacht Club posted the following statement: "The South Shore Yacht Club Queen's Cup Committee apologizes for the previous error in scoring. The proper DHCP was not applied due to a difference in boat type coding. We thank Mr. James DeVries for informing us and allowing us to correct the scoring error."

It should be noted that James Devries is the skipepr of Cynthia the boat that SSYC has scored as first overall. Mr. Devries discovery and disclosure of this error put his boat Cynthia in 2nd overall by 15 seconds. Clearly despite not being the overall winner Mr. Devries unprecedented act of sportsmanship makes him the clear winner regardless of results.