Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine | JUL ’19 63routine adjustment in the open stern,
to lose his footing and plunge into the
sea. Imedi’s crew immediately circled the
boat back to the lost racer’s location,
only to watch in horror as their fellow
sailor slipped underwater, his lifejacket
failing to inflate.
Boats stopped racing to help locate
the lost racer, sending crews up masts,
to no avail. His body was recovered
one week later, several miles east of the
starting area. The accident marked the
third loss of life in the race since 2011.
That year, a storm ravaged the fleet with
100 mile-per-hour winds, capsizing a
boat and drowning two sailors.
Morning is met with little talk from
our tired crew. The discussion, if any, is
about adjustments to course, tactics and
strategy. The winds are more easterly
as we approach the Michigan shore,
however, we also have less pressure—
meaning wind.
To stick with our fleet, we tack back
out into the lake and begin to feel the
impact of higher winds, waves and
a more northerly wind pattern. Our
goal is to find a balance between the
favorable wind direction close to the
Michigan shore and the less favorable
wind direction and more pressure far-
ther offshore. Since we are sailing as
close to the wind as possible—known
as close hauled—we feel strongly that by
sailing closer to the Michigan shore, we
would be able to sail higher to the wind
in fewer waves and with comparable
boat speed to our competition. This
is our plan. As the winds shift east,
boats on our left will need to cross the
lake and be met with a more unfavor-
able wind direction. As we sail up the
Michigan shore, our strategy works,
and we launch from fourth place in our
class to second. Morale rises. “Sweet,”
is the word we all repeat.
The Manitou Passage, known to
racers as simply “The Passage,” is the
narrow watery strip between the Mani-
tou Islands and the Leelanau Peninsula
and the only funnel for boats and their
crews making their way north. A great
place to spectate for those on shore, it’s
also a decision point for racers. Do you
steer for slightly more favorable winds
on the west side of South Manitou,
known as going outside the Manitous,
adding a little more distance but sailing
a faster pace? Or, do you stay in the
channel and suffer the same fate as
everyone else. The tracker shows us
still in second place, closing in on first,
so we follow yacht racing’s rule one for
when you are in the front of the pack:
Don’t leave your competition.
Every hour, we check our position
relative to our competition, staring
through binoculars trying to make out
sail numbers, rig dimensions and boat
names. “That’s the other J-122 behind
and to leeward,” Jeff, a veteran sailor
from California who has joined us for
his first Mackinac race, says. Now, it’s
up to us to stay between them and
the finish.
Personally, I never like to see the
competition. I prefer that they be miles
behind and not 500 yards to our star-
board side and within sight. Nighttime
sailing, while the most beautiful, can be
the hardest. In past races, I remember
hallucinating about sailing around non-
existent islands and brick walls in the
middle of the lake. Sleep deprivation is
real, and the results can be devastating
for a crew. Drivers need the most con-
centration—sailing as they are either by
the stars, by compass headings or wind
angles. Nighttime sailing is when races
can be won or lost, with winning teams
pushing hard when others are not.
While we make considerable ground
on the first place boat, we sail too far to
the right and into less pressure allow-
ing Blitzkrieg, another boat in our fleet,
to slip between us and the first place
boat. When the sun has finally risen on
Monday morning, we are in a position
of challenging from behind in order to
catch Blitzkrieg. Not where we wanted
to be.
The early evening prediction of a
moderation in the wind speed comes
true. This second evening is also con-
siderably colder, causing an impressive
amount of fog near shore. Exhale deeply
and you can see your breath. Our boat
speed relative to the boat in front is
just a bit slower, most likely due to
the fact that our rig is tuned based on
a significantly higher amount of wind.
Racing rules prohibit adjusting your rigtension once the race has started. While
we did catch and pass the former leader,
Blitzkrieg is now in first place, and based
on the wind forecast, is almost unbeat-
able. The finish of the race is always
tense no matter the speeds involved.
Jeff, the sailor from California, asks
about the winds on the other side of
the bridge. “Do they ever change as you
cross under the bridge?” The answer:
absolutely.
True to form, the lead boat stalls
a quarter mile from the finish. Boats
to the north of the finish line are also
having a tough time finishing. There’s
hope.
But finish place predictions are taboo
in racing. And if you call your spouse
to let them know that you’ll be finishing
within the hour, rest assured, it won’t
happen. Just when we believe we will
have enough wind to take us to the
finish, Lake Huron had other plans.
We begin to ghost forward at a scant
2 knots, watching as the third place
boat from behind steams ahead at three
times our speed.
We are tense, conjuring memories of
past races left sitting idly in a windless
hole a few hundred feet from the finish,
as others hear their cannon one by one.
We quickly rig the spinnaker hoping
that the winds are veering to the south
and that the lack of wind had to do
with a wind shift that was difficult to
detect. The flag on the Round Island
lighthouse is beginning to wave, and
thankfully we slip through to our finish.
The cannon sounds from the island.
There are smiles, handshakes and ulti-
mately relief. It was a great race and
a hard one, too. Over 60 boats retired
from this race compared to over 300
that started. We finish with a second
in our class, and the desire to do it all
over again.Christopher Lamb, a Traverse City resident, is a
principal partner and trust officer at Old Mission
Investment and Trust. Growing up on Lake Huron,
his first sailing experience was in 1978. After
completing the adult sailing program at NMC
over 20 years ago, and with the support of his wife
Autumn, Christopher is committed to remaining
a lifelong sailor and Great Lakes mariner.