2011 Race To Mackinac

Monday of last week I received a call from Rick Johnson, asking me if I was interested in sailing the Chicago Mac. I met Rick, at the Tartan dealer meeting a month ago. He is the Chicago/Detroit area Tartan Dealer. While we were touring Tartan's new facility (which is very nice and will be the subject of a follow up post), there was a blue hulled Tartan 4000 nearing completion on the assembly line. She was to be Rick's boat and was under to gun to be completed in time for the Race to Mackinac.
Upon inspection of the boat there were several details that made her stand out:
1. She had a custom 17'6" carbon fiber spinnaker pole (which we couldn't use in the cruising class)
2. The mainsheet traveler had been moved from the top of the coachroof to the cockpit sole. This enabled end-boom sheeting.
3. A custom 155% genoa was added with inboard jib tracks. Also the main, jib, and genoa were laminated, carbon reinforced, Doyle sails... Nice!
4. She also came with a A2 asymmetrical spinnaker and a Code 0 on a continuous line roller furler.
5.The Harken furler was upgraded to Mk IIII, in order to allow faster sail changes on the roller furler. This way the standard 100% or the 155% could be furled up on the furler.
6. There was a full outfit of B&G electronics.
7. Below she had custom pilot berths added in the main saloon as well as dockside AC
A Tartan this well outfitted for performance sailing, I knew I had to see if Rick needed crew to sail the Chicago-Mac.

On short notice, Rick assembled a crew of eight. Three of which (including myself) are Tartan Dealers, along with Tom and Andy of Tartan Yachts. I arrived Thursday to help prep the boat for the race. We discovered that the hose fitting in the propane locker had a slow leak as well as a speedo transducer that refused to work. We were able to reduce the leak, by tightening the hose connections. After several futile attempts to get the speedo to work, we had to rely on GPS for speed. Aside from that, the boat came together perfectly.

Friday: "Roxy" was scheduled to race in Cruising 1 division, with the Moody 54 being the scratch boat. Our rating was very close (which is fast for a boat with a 15' shorter waterline). Upon hoisting sails for the first time, we discovered that the 155% and the mainsail were cut about 2" too tall. We decided to make a standard hoist on the jib. By forgoing the roller furling we were able to use the furler for the headsail track, and gained the distance from the 4" swivel at the top. This gave us full hoist on the genoa. The main we simply used a healthy dose of cunningham.
With 15 kts of easterly wind and a 1 foot chop, Andy helmed us to a perfect pin end start and powered away from the start at over 7.5 kts! It was simply incredible. Not only that, we were pointing higher and faster than our entire fleet! My favorite moment was watching "Princess M" and a J/42 pointing lower and sailing slower as we sailed out from underneath them. Sailing this fast seemed too easy. Rick, cooked us a delicious dinner of ribs served with rice and beans that evening. YUM! My experience distance racing hadn't been this comfortable, nor had it been so easy to lead the fleet. It gave the crew almost a giddy feeling. We knew this was going to be a great race.
By sundown we had worked a healthy lead over the fleet. As the wind gradually dropped to 3-4 kts around midnight, we hoisted a Code 0, which kept the boat moving over 3 kts.
At some point later that night we had a windshift, which caused an autotack and pushed our course towards Chicago. Tom, Dave, and I were on watch and finally got us back on track, at which point the wind came in southerly at about 6 kts.

Saturday: Waking up early, I could tell in my berth we were moving nicely. When I got on deck I noticed there had been a sail change. The wind had clocked West overnight and the A-2 Asymmetrical replaced the Code 0. That would be our last sail change the entire race.
When we had enough light to see how we were doing; "Princess M" (Moody 54) as well as two other boats had caught up and passed us during the night. There was clearly some work cut out for us. At which point we brought all hands on deck to get every tenth of a knot of boatspeed we could get. It took the better part of the day to find our optimal sailing angles, and we worked a 12 kts south/southwest wind as far north as we could. Our boatspeed averaged about 8.5 kts with bursts of 9kts. I was very impressed with how easily the boat continued to power up. Since this was inaugural sail, our hope was that the race would either turn into a broad reach or an upwind sail. The boat seemed particularly strong sailing upwind or with the asymmetrical up.
By working to get the best VMG and to keeping the boat moving as fast as possible, we closed the gap on the boats in front of us. By dinner, we had passed one and were abeam with second place as we approached the Manitou Islands.
That evening was another spectacular sail, even though the wind died a bit. Our boatspeed clocked between 7.2-8.7 kts with a full moon and no waves. We were so impressed with the boat that there seemed to be a unanimous consensus that this was perhaps the best boat that anyone of us had sailed. The boat sailed effortlessly. It seemed as though it barely needed any wind to get up to three knots, but more so that it was possible to have a boat sail this well and also live so well below amazed the crew. With a 65' mast, the Tartan 4000 has an enormous amount of power.

Sunday:We spent the morning working different jibing angles between the islands, and working our way towards Grey's Reef. We felt really fast with the wind coming out of the southwest at about 13-15 kts. By maintaining a better VMG, we were able to close about 2.5 miles between us at the first place boat "Princess M." (Quick note: At some point the day before we had seen the now fatal storm that was perched above Green Bay, and at this point was still not visible on the horizon). By the time we reached Grey's Reef Lighthouse, "Princess M" rounded approximately 7 minutes and 30 seconds behind. The waves were piping up to about 2-3 feet. We jibed and headed towards the Mackinac Bridge.
The Tartan really stretched her legs and flew on a reach towards the finish. We topped out at 11.1 knots, and maintained a constant 9-10 knots downwind. When we passed the Mackinac Island Bridge, we had gained about a minute on "Princess M," unfortunately it was not enough to take first to finish trophy. We arrived in Mackinac sometime in the late afternoon.

Later that evening I was with the crew at the Pink Pony. Off to the west we saw the most spectacular lightening I had ever seen. The lightening turned the night sky as light as day, which was quickly followed by a pouring rain and quarter size hail. Fortunately we were snugly tied up close to shore, however a majority of the racing fleet bore the brunt of the storm out on the main lake. I had heard that mostly that winds had reached about 40 kts, although there are a few reports that winds topped over 105 kts in localized areas! A modified Kiwi 35 "Wing Nuts" capsized near the Fox Islands and trapped two individuals under the boat. The remaining six, were able to free themselves from their harnesses and were rescued by the brave crew on the Beneteau 40.7 "Sociable." The successful rescue of the six were attributed to quick release harnesses, use of sailing knives (to cut the harnesses free), PLBs (Personal Locating Beacons), and EPIRB activation.
Word spread on the island of a capsized boat in the early morning, with the news that six of the eight had been found. This is the first instance of death recorded in the entire 103 year history of the Race to Mackinac. It is a sad reminder of how dangerous the Great Lakes can be, even with extensive preparation and experience.
Monday: I left late Monday evening. The winds were very calm. At about nine pm, I took the ferry of the island and there were still a large number of boats still racing. I spent a good deal of time thinking about how spectacular our sail had been. It was some of the best sailing I have ever had. We had been extraordinarily lucky, and fortunate. Yet, hopefully a bit wiser in my new found respect for the power of the inland seas. This is a race I will remember for a long time.

Our most sincere condolences to the families of Mark Morley and Suzanne Bickel. I would like to thank Rick and Bob from C&C/Tartan of Chicago for inviting me aboard, as well as Tartan Yachts for sending Andy and Tom.

Jeremy
Crow's Nest Yachts