Peruvian boat withdraws from Mack after protest

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

July 14, 2014 at 4:14 pm Mackinac Island

Bob and Pam Wall of Algonac pack away sails aboard their Tartan 34, Chippewa.

Sails are being dried and folded on the lawn above the Mackinac Island Harbor and race stories are being traded on the docks and in the Pink Pony Bar, as the 90thBell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Island Race winds to an end.

The finish wasn’t without a small controversy.

The race committee protested three boats because they did not correctly finish, sailing on the wrong side of the Round Island Light, the lighthouse at the finish line. One of those boats was Challwa, leased by a group of Peruvian sailors who wanted to try their hand at Great Lakes racing.

All three protested boats withdrew.

It’s got to be frustrating to fly 6,000 miles, sail the entire race and then end up rounding the wrong side of the finishing mark. But in fairness to the rest of the 227-boat fleet, race rules have to be enforced.

This wasn’t a race you plan ahead for, because the course conditions were far different than forecast.

Crews reported winds up to 30 knots, despite weather prediction of no more than 12 knots. The predicted flat sea turned into heavy waves Sunday night.

What was expected to be a slow, light race turned into a heavy, challenging one.

Chippewa, a Tartan 34 owned by Bob and Pam Wall of Algonac took first place in PHRF G.

“It was a really tough race,” Pam Wall said. “This one really means a lot to us because we beat last year’s first place boat.”

Opus Dei, an Olson 30 from Hixson, TN, won the double handed class. It was sailed by brothers Greg and Chris Cyrul, who found the conditions pretty tough for a crew of two.

At one point, the winds and waves were switching so fast, their autohelm couldn’t keep up, Greg Cyrul said. They were dipping the boom and spinnaker in the water as the brothers tried to change sails as fast as conditions changed.

“The scariest part for us was that we couldn’t jibe,” Greg Cyrul said. They ended up sailing about five miles out of their way before they got everything under control, yet they still won their class.

Harry Bloom of Bloomfield Hills, the owner of Rum Kist, a Beneteau 10R which won its class in Lake Erie’s Mills Race last month, pretty much summed up the race.

“We had two young guys on board, it was their first race, so it was a perfect race for that,” Bloom said of the varying conditions. “I had a great crew and we had two guys on board that I could turn the boat over to.”

“We had a great time.”