First boats arrive (a bit slow): 107th Mac

What started as a quick Mac slowed down Sunday afternoon and evening.

“We just can’t find the wind,” Matt Knighton posted in his blog at 5 p.m. Sunday from Imedi, owned by Mark Hauf and sailing in the Turbo section.

Ah, the quest for wind.

The duel for first to finish honors came down, as expected, to one between il Mostro, owned by Peter and Christopher Thornton, and Windquest, owned by Dick and Doug DeVos.

Windquest took honors in the 107th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, finishing at 1:11:22 in 35 hours, 51 minutes, 21 seconds. Il Mostro was just minutes behind at (35:58:24).

All of the Turbo section was in by 6:42 a.m.

The multihull Arete, owned by Frederick Warner IV, was close behind, finishing at 1:40 a.m. (36:10:00). Three multihulls were in by 8 a.m.

Others that challenged or were near the lead to be first reach Mackinac Island in the 333-mile race from east of Navy Pier to Mackinac Island, Mich., were Equation, owned by Bill Alcoff and Tom Anderson, in the Turbo section and the cruiser Roxy, owned and skippered by Don Condit.

But Infinite Diversion made a late charge was first to finish among Cruising 1, arriving at 3:20:07 a.m. (60:10:07).

The cruisers sailed from Chicago Friday afternoon ahead of the Saturday departure of the bulk of 324-boat fleet.

Jug Band, owned by Harry Simmon, led the cruisers and all for much of the early part of race before being passed Sunday.

In Cruising 2, Intangible was in first at 7:01:18 a.m. (64:01:18).

Evolution was first in of Section 1 at 5:44 a.m. (40:34:01).

The Mac ends 24 hours after the first boat in the last section arrives. More than half the sections did not have their first boat in by 8 a.m. Monday.

Race tracking suggested most of the fleet sailed close to the rhumb line, rather than trying to play shore winds.

In the early part of the race, good wind led to fast sailing. Even late Saturday night, the Princess M tweeted that there was 12 knots of wind.

By dunner time Sunday, the CYC update on Facebook summed it up nicely: “It’s a very slow race right now with a lot of race left to go. All of the fleets are averaging under 3 knots.”

Knighton waxed nearly poetic in describing the quest for wind late Sunday:

“There’s been this elusive band of breeze on the horizon all morning and now into the afternoon that taunts us–we keep sailing towards it, but then it pulls away. We’re slowly coming to the realization that the mirage effect of the lake and the Michigan shoreline has been playing a cruel joke on us all day.”