Mack race sets sail tomorrow

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

July 11, 2014 at 10:42 am Lake Huron

A sailboat races up Lake Huron.

Only one day left in the countdown to the 90th Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race.

A total of 227 boats, the most since, 2005, will head out to the starting line just north of Port Huron’s Blue Water Bridge. The first start is at 11:30 am, the last start is at 1:40 pm.

The fleet includes 25 boat that have never sailed the race before. The largest is Dick and Doug DeVos’ 86-foot Max Z86 Windquest, which will sail the Quantum Sails Cove Island Course.

The smallest are Pete Fitzpatrick’s Morgan 27 Defiant, on the Acura Shore Course, and Mark Cadotte’s F-25 Trimaran Accipiter, on the Cove Island course.

About 180 boats are sailing in 13 classes on the shore course. It’s 204 nautical miles, or 235 statute (land) miles. More than 40 boats, mostly the larger and faster ones, are sailing the Cove Island course. That course is 259 nautical miles or 298 statute miles.

What’s the difference between nautical and statute miles? A statute mile is 5,280 feet. A nautical mile is 6,076 feet.

Watch the race progress up the lake on Ashore Detroit, via the Bell’s Beer Sponsored Yellowbrick race tracker. You can click on a boat, class, multiple classes, a course of the entire fleet to see how the sailors are doing.