CYC Mac - Just like Lake St. Clair

From left to right: Fred Rozelle, Steve Rozelle, Fred Kreger, Nancy Caldwell, Pete "Camper" Peterson, Mike Henk, Dale Marshal, Harald Kolter

The CYC Mac had 9 J120s sailing. We started with 16 knots of air out of the southwest. We chose to start on the right side of the course. Of course Hot Ticket was just to our left. We almost started early so we kept the sprit in to prevent it. HT immediately put up her .6 spinnaker where it took us a little longer.

Jayhawker behind Flyin Irish...little did we know how much we would be looking at them

Steve Rozelle trimming the spinnaker...again looking at the stern of Hot Ticket

Gorgeous Lake Michigan Sunrise

About 35 miles farther up the course the wind started to peter out. The bulk of the fleet was on rhumb line where we were a couple of miles to the east. Fortunately the wind started to fill in from the right and we were one of the first to receive it. Another 16 miles up the course the wind died and rotated another 180 degrees. Later that night we were see 16 knots to the north by northwest. By daybreak we were crossing tacks with Flyin' Irish and Jayhawker by Ludington.

We sailed to the Michigan shore to get the onshore winds. With the northwest gradient we got a lift and more pressure. Jayhawker and Flyin Irish had the same idea.

We had good luck tacking to weather. We seemed to be able to point higher and a little faster than the other two J120s. By staying in shore we managed to maintain a higher point and with a little more pressure went faster than the boats out in the lake with a onshore breeze after 2pm. After tacking around Sturgeon Point it was a reach up the Michigan coast. The real question to us was how was Hot Ticket doing. She was probably 10 miles west and a tad a little farther south.

Going to weather off of Sturgeon Point at dawn

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Dale Marshal

Fred R. and skipper discussing strategy over dinner

This was Fred Kreger's 100th Mackinac. He rode the rail just like everyone else.

Approaching the Manitou Passage we were ahead of Jayhawker and Flyin Irish by at least a couple of miles. Since we were approaching from the west of the islands a decision to be made was to go inside or outside the islands. I ran an optimum path on the laptop and it suggested going through the passage. Fred and I agreed that if we ran on the outside it could get sticky if the wind changed. We sailed through the passage and the other two J120s followed us. Still we knew Hot Ticket was coming in from the west and would probably go outside the islands. If everything worked they could of got a rung up on us.

Course through the Manitou Islands

Coming out of the Manitou's the wind again went to bed. Our competition came screaming up to us and at different times they passed us. Fred had enough sense to put up the .5 oz drifter spinnaker and we were one of the first boats to come out of the hole.

Just south of South Fox Island the wind went to bed allowing Jayhawker and Flyin Irish to nearly pass us. Fortunately after putting up the drifter we were one of the first to sail out of the wind hole.

Ile Aux Galets Shoal just south of Grave Reef

Flyin Irish got a little ahead of us but sailed more easterly of course with Jayhawker following. We were on a northeast course. The wind started out of the southeast and the wind was forecasted to go more southwest. That enabled us to get leverage on both of them when we got to the Graves Reef Light. Also Hot Ticket was unable to press their separate lane to their advantage.

 Approaching Graves Reef Light

At Graves Reef it was a question of staying ahead of our competition. Past buoy #3 at the west end of the Mackinac Straights it was our goal was to stay between the finish and the others. We did manage it although as the wind moderated Flyin Irish managed to catch up a little.

Camper in charge

Flyin Irish under the Mackinac Bridge

Flyin Irish never was out of sight since Ludington.
The white spinnaker behind her is Jayhawker

Fred Rozelle under the Mackinac Bridge

As we got closer to the finish we saw that out of desperation Flyin Irish and Jayhawker started to jibe farther out from the rhumb line. We did finish first in class with the Detroit boats taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. It had to be frustrating for the other J120s to watch us take it away. Amazingly it turned out to be a longer version of the same boats beating each other up on Lake St. Clair.

Finishing with "Cone of Silence"

Going east early helped Carinthia stay in the front

Results: 1st out of 9 J120s in class, 13th in a fleet of 152 boats
Link to the results: here
Link to race tracking: here

Chicago Delivery Surprise

I thought this was a neat picture of Carinthia approaching Chicago for the delivery from Mackinac Island. I just woke up from a few hours sleep. Immediately I went to visit the back of the boat when there was Jayhawker with a woman taking photos. This picture was taken after I discovered my lack of privacy.

Bayview Mackinac - Can we get a break?

Crew in Port Huron from left to right: Nicole Neely, Fred Kreger, Kurt Hahn, Mike Henk, Pete "Camper" Peterson, Nathan Caspers, Nancy Caldwell, Colleen Flanagan, Hank Mistele, Harald Kolter

This race we got 4 crew members from Night Moves to come since their boat was not ready after running into a SUV.

We did not use this device enough

Going to weather

Start your engines

The start was with the J35s. We managed to start on the left side of the line. I noticed there were no boats on the weather side of the line and it looked like nobody could reach it. Unfortunately a J35, Night Train, came from the leeward side we had to slow down so we would not get caught barging. Although we were about 5 seconds late we had decent start. The first mistake I made was calling for the .75 spinnaker because of the tentative thunder storms. The other J120s used their .6 spinnakers and the sail area allowed them to get ahead of us in the first mile. We later changed to a .6 but never seemed to be able dig out of the hole.

After the start...Capers eventually got the lead and won the race

All the J/120's had a MB sticker on their sprits in honor of Mike Badendieck

The later classes got some storms with wind in them

Going to weather Monday morning, a little colder and rougher

West of Bruce Peninsula before Cove Island buoy - we were the farthest east

Fred's 99th Mackinac

The weather report was pretty inaccurate after the start. There was low center that was traveling across the lake. They get dicey predicting local weather and most of the forecasters said it was going to cross farther north. This creates a lot of wind holes and unpredictable wind directions. As it turned out, Carinthia and Jayhawker suffered from one more hole and although we got a better bead to the buoy, HT, Capers, and FI rounded just ahead of us.

After rounding the buoy we put up the .75 oz. in 16 knots of air and eventually went to the .6 spinnaker when the wind moderated.

Henry in his element

Mike Henk and Henry Mistele

We almost got leverage on the lead three J120s until they got a lift off the lower peninsula

We tried to pull it out by getting in a passing lane. We stayed north of the rhumb line when possible and almost pulled this one out. In the end we could only get a 4th not far behind Capers, Flyin Irish, and Hot Ticket. This was a well sailed race but we could not just get a break.

Here is the results link: finish results
Here is the link for iboat tracking: here

Sail change

Carinthia crossing finish line a Mackinac Island

We got a good mix of running and going to weather mostly
in moderate wind with the requisite wind holes

Unfortunately a J120 has no chance of winning the BYC Mac race with the Cove Island course. The best a J120 has done under IRC is 18th and this year although they sailed a nearly perfect race Capers got a 20th. We won in 2007 on the Thunder Bay course but the entire fleet sailed into a hole. There are no longer many passing lanes on this course. This change does discourage boats from sailing our race. The great thing is that we got to race one design and even though we got our heads handed to us, I love racing these guys.

Scooter came to greet us at the dock

Mackinac Island at last

This race seemed to get it all...wind, no wind, running, reaching, going to weather. We put up nearly every sail in the inventory. What really made it special was that we returned Mike's ashes to the waters north of Boblo Island near the straights of Mackinac. Mike had been stowed below and this was the first time we had seen his remains. We were surprised to find them contained in a Bacardi bottle wrapped in his crew shirt, a solemn moment indeed. Each crew member had a silent moment with him and we sent him to his eternal resting place. 

Port Huron 100 - uhm, uhm, uhm

Made the mistake of going left after Kettle Point

The Port Huron International 100 is actually 89 miles long. This year we got 5 J120s to sail the race. We started off the Sarnia YC. It was immediately a port run out to the outer buoy. I kind of goofed the start. I got under Hot Ticket before the gun but unfortunately had to sail above weather to get to the mark. That little mistake meant we rounded the next two marks the same distance behind Hot Ticket since there was no passing lane.

We followed Hot Ticket within a hundred feet for nearly a third of the race

Flyin Irish and Irresistible before Kettle Point buoy

At Kettle point mark we immediately went to a port run, another bad mistake. The weather forecast had called for the wind to more westerly and we got on the wrong side of the course so the other boats that went right got headed on the northern part of the leg. Irresistible and Jayhawker went right and at the next mark rounded ahead of us and HT. We almost missed the top weather broadcast buoy because it was .7 miles farther south. At that point it was trying to pass HT without success. The wind the entire race was in moderate air and temperature. We may of gained by sailing the right side of the river but by then it was too late.

JHawker and Irresistible tacking in front of the Blue Water Bridge

Final results are posted at http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=328

Finish Line at PH