2024 LMSRF Awards Program
LMSRF Is pleased to share its simplified, revamped Awards Program. We have a great year of racing to look forward to and certainly will have some outstanding actions to recognize!
Learn more here: http://lmsrf.org/awards .
2024 LMSRF YOUTH REGATTA SCHEDULE UPDATED
Chicago Youth Race Week added. Visit our Youth Events page, scroll down to the link, and download the current version. Release date: June 19, 2024.
http://lmsrf.org/youth/youth-events
2024 LMSRF YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP AT SOUTH SHORE YACHT CLUB South Shore Yacht Club will host the 2024 LMSRF Youth Championship July 9-10, coincident to its annual Kaszube Cup Regatta.
Notice of Race: https://www.ssycjuniors.org/kaszube-cup-2024.html . Register early - cap at 120 participants!
1245 West Gull Lake Drive | Richland, MI 49083 | 312.857.6640 T | 786.358.3605 F | www.lmsrf.org Detailed contact information available in Contact Us link at top right
By Alyssa Haduck Medill Reports
The Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac is anything but normal.
After 112 years, the July competition remains the world’s longest freshwater sailboat race, with participants trekking 333 miles, or 289.4 nautical miles, from Chicago’s Navy Pier to Mackinac Island, Michigan. But that’s where the consistency ceases.
“You’re going to the same place,” sailor Sam Veilleux said, “but something different happens every time.”
While Lake Michigan’s ever-changing atmosphere makes the race impossible to predict, race organizers and sailing crews are currently doing what they can to prepare. Veilleux, who also serves as the race chair, is leading a team of 20 volunteers — along with the staff at the Chicago Yacht Club — in identifying officials, organizing incoming entries and finalizing event contracts.
The race generally attracts more than 300 boats crewed by more than 3,000 participants ranging from serious sailors to leisure boaters, but this year’s race is already on pace to become one of the largest in recent history, Veilleux said. He suspects the pandemic has driven an increase in interest in the event, which was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The contest’s fastest recorded time is just under 24 hours, but it can take up to three days for crews, no matter their skill level, to complete the race — an experience Veilleux knows all too well.
“There are challenges, there are storms, but probably more frustrating than that is sitting there with no wind, swatting flies and eating warm sandwiches,” he said. “It’s not just a physical challenge, it’s a mental challenge.”
Despite these struggles, competitors keep coming back for more.
“I’ve done this race six times, but I’m on the low end of the spectrum,” he said. “Some of the guys that I’ve raced with have done it 40 times.”
One such sailor is Angela Graham, who has participated in 33 Mackinac races. She began competing at a time that preceded today’s technology, remembering when race participants would line up at a payphone after days on the lake to call home and report their results.
But Graham’s extensive experience has earned her a place in the Race to Mackinac hall of fame: the Island Goat Sailing Society. In fact, Graham is commodore, or president, of the club that serves to celebrate those who have sailed in at least 25 Mackinac races.
While the moniker may suggest the Island Goats are so named for their greatest-of-all-time status, the label actually harkens back to early sailors’ odorous similarity to these animals.
The organization was founded by three sailors in 1959 and has grown to more than 350 active members and 500 all-time. While these race participants have each encountered their fair share of weather woes, Graham said competitors have endured particularly brutal conditions in recent years.
“There’s almost always a point where you’d rather be someplace else,” she said.
Few understand Lake Michigan’s climate better than Chris Bedford, who has been studying the lake’s weather patterns for decades as a meteorologist specializing in competitive sailing. Bedford has been the Race to Mackinac weather coach for nearly 20 years, providing generic forecasts to all teams and tailored recommendations to clients who must become their own meteorologists once out in the unpredictable waters of Lake Michigan.
“The cool thing about this race, in my opinion, is it has elements of both a local coastal race and an offshore ocean race,” Bedford said, referencing Lake Michigan’s unique size and shape. “They’re two different problems from a weather forecasting standpoint, but in this case, they’re both happening at the same time.”
Even with its chaos, the lake hosts some of the race’s most awe-inspiring moments, connecting competitors with the elements like little else can. These memories motivate sailors like Graham to return year after year.
“Being out in the middle of the lake and seeing the stars at night, or getting close to the island and smelling the pine trees, there’s just something about that,” she said.
And while Veilleux still faces weeks of coordination ahead, both as race chair and as a crew member, he puts in his hours on land looking forward to the promise of peace on the lake.
“You see the sun come up in the morning, the smell of coffee brewing — it’s great to get away from it all,” he said.
Alyssa Haduck is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow her on Twitter at @Alyssa_Haduck .
© 2024 Northwestern University
MEDILL SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, MEDIA, INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 1845 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-2101
Related ArticlesMackinac Island's historic sailboat race is making a big comebackWhile lakes are still filled with ice, summertime plans for the historic around-the-clock sailboat race from southern Lake Huron to the Straits of Mackinac are underway with a sense of early celebration. Canadians get to compete again. And COVID-19 deaths have dropped dramatically. A tradition that began in 1925 is seeing a surge of enthusiasm fed by lifted pandemic restrictions and relief about the return to tradition and a sense of normalcy. "There's pent-up energy and people are anxious to get out," said Chris Clark, chairman of the 2022 Bayview Mackinac Race organized by Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit. "We have a 50% to 70% increase in new requests," he told the Free Press. Organizers say the bounce is a response to two years of struggle that altered the race course, safety protocols and the island celebration. Now, the whole event is returning to what people loved. Planners say they expect more than 200 participants. The race starts in Port Huron on July 16 and can last two or three days, depending on the sailing skill of the racers from all over the world. It is the world's longest consecutively run long-distance freshwater yacht race. Already 170 boats had registered by Tuesday with four months until the window closes, a pace about 10% higher than normal with more newcomers than usual. The deadline to register is June 12. $8M expansion: Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel building nature center, miniature golf Fast Tango: Champion almost missed Mackinac race. Then competitors stepped in. Competitors are coming from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (so far). Canadian sailors are back after being unable to compete in 2020 and 2021 because of restrictions related to COVID-19. In 2021, 173 boats raced. In 2020, 81. And in 2019, 171. There are big changes this year. Boats will race on the Shore Course, along the Michigan shoreline, and the Cove Island Course, into Canadian waters, for the first time since 2019. The Canadian border patrol has carefully monitored the waters during the pandemic and no sailboats were allowed to cross. So the race was restricted to the Shore Course, which is 204 nautical miles or 234.8 miles. Now the popular Cove Island Course is back — at 259 nautical miles or 298 miles. "It's returning to the races that everybody knows and everybody loves," said Clark, who plans to race on Dynamis, a Santa Cruz 70. And that also includes boats being allowed to raft off each other — tie up together to allow more in the harbor — instead of sending most boats off to Mackinaw City and elsewhere after the finish of the race, Clark said. The celebration lasts for days as sailors are joined by friends and family on the island to drink, dance, hike and bike. There are no cars, just horse-and-buggy. The island doesn't sleep when the sailors arrive. Boats will cross the starting line at 11:30 a.m. on Lake Huron, just north of the Blue Water Bridge. They race through the night and all weather, guided by the stars under the moonlight with no land in sight. Organizers worked closely with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Chippewa Hotel, Lilac Tree Hotel and Chris Shepler of Shepler's Ferry service as well as state Rep. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs. This year's Island Award Party moves from The Grand Hotel back to Mission Point Resort on July 19. And the finish line that used to be near the lighthouse by Windemere Point on the west end of the island will now be near Mission Point on the east end of the island. More: Mackinac Island tourism 'absolutely crazy,' sets revenue record in 2021 Each July, there are two big sailboat races to Mackinac, held on back-to-back weekends. Bayview Yacht Club and Chicago Yacht Club alternate which club goes first. Many sailors race in both. The Chicago to Mackinac race, which begins on Lake Michigan, was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. Bayview Yacht Club coordinated this year with Chicago in putting together logistics so the island and its businesses would have common contracts and usage of facilities and just make everything easier, Clark said. This year, Chicago will race on July 23. Finally, the Chicago Yacht Club agreed to switch the start of the race dates two years from now so Bayview will go second for its 100th anniversary. That means next year Bayview will start July 15 and Chicago on July 22. In 2024, Chicago will start July 13 and Bayview on July 20. Generations of mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, cousins, brothers, sisters and longtime friends race the Mackinac, sometimes as young as 10 and as old as 86. There is no age restriction. Childhood memories include gathering in the middle of the night to cheer sailboats crossing the finish line. "Traditionally, when our race is second, we get a larger number of boats from Chicago to participate in the Bayview Mack," said BYC Commodore Lynn Kotwicki in a news release. "We are expecting the Centennial to be one of the biggest, most exciting sailing competitions in recent history." More: Prestigious Detroit sailing club gets first female commodore in 100-year history More: 3 Mackinac Island hotels, restaurant sold to owner of Grand Hotel Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid .
Great Lakes Daily NewsHistoric sailboat race to mackinac island returns july 20 to sarnia area. Jul 8, 2024 | Daily News The 100th running of the Bayview Mackinac Race, where boats sail from Lake Huron off Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, to the finish line at Mackinac Island, will be its largest. Read the full story by The Sarnia Observer. Click here for additional Great Lakes news stories from around the region, curated daily by Great Lakes Commission staff. Sign up here to get Great Lakes Daily News in your inbox! Latest Daily News
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The 2025 South Shore Yacht Club Queen's Cup® Race. Plan now to enter the 86th challenge of one of the most storied yacht races on the Great Lakes. This year's night race across Lake Michigan departs from Milwaukee, WI for Muskegon, MI on June 27, 2025. Both Milwaukee's South Shore Yacht Club and the Muskegon Yacht Club will provide an ...
The race starts at the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse just off Navy Pier, crosses Lake Michigan, enters Lake Huron at the Straits of Mackinac, and finishes in the Round Island Channel, off Mackinac Island, Michigan.The race course runs 333 mi (536 km). In 2011, 361 boats entered the race. Steve Fossett set the overall race record, 18 hours, 50 minutes, in 1998 with the multihull yacht, Stars and ...
0:00. 1:36. Billed on its website as the "world's longest continuously run long-distance freshwater yacht race," the 100th Bayview Mackinac Race is set to start Saturday. A record-setting ...
Started in 1898, the race annually hosts over 3,000 sailors and covers 333 statute miles, starting from Chicago's Navy Pier on Lake Michigan and finishing at Mackinac Island, Mich. on Lake Huron. The 114th edition starts Friday, July 21 for cruising sailboats and Saturday, July 22 for performance sailboats.
Overnight storms impact Race to Mackinac fleet Posted Jul 14, 2024. CHICAGO, July 14, 2024 - During last night's storms, three of the larger boats in the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac's Racing Division reported dismasting: Sagamore, Farr STP 65 owned by Tone and Laura Martin; Usual Suspects, a TP 52 owned Eric Wynsma; and Sapphire, an Arcona 435 owned by Robert Radway.
Burnham Park, Jackson Park, Chicago Corinthian, LMSRF promotes sail racing competition on Lake Michigan for Offshore, Youth, and One Design sailors. It also provides racing information through its newsletters, e-mails, and website as well as educational programs on race management and judging.
HOOK Race 2025, the 42nd Consecutive Running of the Death's Door Challenge. Saturday, July 12, 2024. The HOOK Race is a 189 nautical mile race on Lake Michigan held each year in July. This challenging event starts outside the harbor in Racine, Wisconsin, "hooking" through Death's Door (Porte Des Morts passage), a narrow and often ...
This weekend is the 100th running of the Bayview Mackinac Race, one of the oldest freshwater sailing races in the world. This photo shows the 2023 competition. ... heavy storms on Lake Michigan, a ...
Sail GP Chicago is back on Lake Michigan with spectators able to watch the race from Navy Pier. Sail GP has returned and is gearing up for two days of spectator-focused racing that will take place ...
The start of the 2003 Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac on Lake Michigan. Brian Jackson. ... Veilleux said wild storms battered the fleet for about 12 hours on Lake Michigan, causing 29 boats to ...
Robert Wall, of Algonac, won his last Port Huron to Mackinac race on Chippewa, a Tartan 34C, in 2014 at age 85. Contact Phoebe Wall Howard : 313-618-1034 or [email protected]. Follow her on X ...
The Kiwis beat arch rivals Australia and Phil Robertson's Canada to top the leaderboard after two days of close-to-shore racing on Lake Michigan. Despite pressure from Tom Slingsby's crew, it was the Kiwis who commanded the winner-takes-all Final from the start, securing the best angle to Mark One and sneaking inside at the top gate.
230 boats are traveling well over 300 miles to Michigan's Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. This year is the 114th running of the famed regatta, known by many as 'the Mac.'
LA PORTE COUNTY, Ind. -- The inaugural Wave 100 sailboat race, organized by Formula Wave Class and the Hobie Class Association of North America, will begin on August 13 in South Haven, Mich. and ...
Boat Details. Results. Pro-Team Challenge. Societies Old Goats (25 BYC Mackinac Races) Grand Rams (50 BYC Mackinac Races) ... Long Distance Freshwater Yacht Race. Official Board News & Notices Register/Login Crew Login Race Program Scratch Sheet Race Sponsors Presenting Sponsor. Official Vodka. Official Seltzer ...
By CBS Chicago Team. July 21, 2023 / 11:35 AM CDT / CBS Chicago. CHICAGO (CBS) -- More than 240 boats are getting ready to set sail for a 333-mile trek across Lake Michigan. The 114th annual Race ...
The Chicago Yacht Club has officially announced that its ever-popular Race to Mackinac presented by Wintrust (CYCRTM). Started in 1898, the race annually hosts over 3,000 sailors and covers 333 statute miles, starting from Chicago's Navy Pier on Lake Michigan and finishing at Mackinac Island, Mich. on Lake Huron.
1245 West Gull Lake Drive | Richland, MI 49083 | 312.857.6640 T | 786.358.3605 F | www.lmsrf.org Detailed contact information available in Contact Us link at top right. LMSRF promotes sail racing competition on Lake Michigan for Offshore, Youth, and One Design sailors. It also provides racing information through its newsletters, e-mails, and ...
The Bayview Mackinac Boat Race is run by the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit, Michigan. It is one of the longest fresh-water races in the world with over two hundred boats entering the race each year. [ 1] Mackinac Island Marina after the 2006 Port Huron to Mackinac Race. There have been at least six changes to the course throughout the race's ...
Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation, Richland, Michigan. 1,516 likes · 18 talking about this · 20 were here. LMSRF promotes sailing across Lake Michigan through race organization, training and other...
While Lake Michigan's ever-changing atmosphere makes the race impossible to predict, race organizers and sailing crews are currently doing what they can to prepare. Veilleux, who also serves as the race chair, is leading a team of 20 volunteers — along with the staff at the Chicago Yacht Club — in identifying officials, organizing ...
Related Articles 2024 Queen's Cup Race® - Registration is open! The overnight race across the lake from Milwaukee to South Haven Plan now to join the fleet for the time-honored tradition of sailing the Queen's Cup" Race. The 85th sailing of this overnight race is brought to you by South Shore Yacht Club and sails across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, Wl, to South Haven, Ml.
Each July, there are two big sailboat races to Mackinac, held on back-to-back weekends. ... The Chicago to Mackinac race, which begins on Lake Michigan, was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Historic sailboat race to Mackinac Island returns July 20 to Sarnia area. The 100th running of the Bayview Mackinac Race, where boats sail from Lake Huron off Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, to the finish line at Mackinac Island, will be its largest. Read the full story by The Sarnia Observer.
Bayshore Yacht Club hosts the largest Wednesday night racing fleet this side of Lake Michigan. This is an all volunteer organization for both boats and people. 2024 Skipper's Meeting at Bayshore Yacht Club April 17 at 7:00pm. All racing details will be managed through Yacht Scoring. Registraions, payments, volunteers, notice of race, crew ...