“Set a storm stay-sail. Had difficulty getting it up as the block broke loose. The spinnaker boom got loose in the terrific pounding. All hands hard at work. The wind is blowing at least 60 miles per hour and the rain is coming down hard. Getting dark rapidly. Barometer at 28.90 and going down fast. We are not exactly sure of our position.” — Log of the Amorita, 6:05 p.m. July 23, 1911
Improvements in technology in this century have brought vast advances to the speed and efficiency of transportation by land and air. Speeds and passenger capacity that are routine today were unimaginable a century ago.
Then, there’s sailing.
Most watercraft powered by the wind are based on technology that is centuries old, notwithstanding the application of space-age materials, computer-aided design and the boldest of modern graphics.
Among the 300 sailboats crossing the starting line Saturday for the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Yacht Club’s race to Mackinac Island will be high-tech racers that cost up to $1 million, carrying crews of 20. Sails will be made of space-age materials, such as Kevlar and Mylar, that can cost $10,000 each. Masts may be carbon fiber. Hulls are computer designed, and navigation equipment uses a constellation of satellites to pinpoint a boat’s location.
Yet this will not deliver much more speed than racers had in 1898.
Why?
Because, unlike cars, airplanes or trains, boats move through two elements–air and water–at the same time, and the basic mechanics of doing so are no different now then when man first went to sea.
One would think a sailboat is propelled by the wind filling the sail and pushing it along. Though that is essentially true, the force that moves a boat through the water is generated by airflow over its sails. The shape of the sail converts moving air into driving power.
The sail behaves like an airplane wing. Its shape and the angle at which the wind hits it cause the wind to travel farther around one side and creates low pressure. On the other side, the wind travels a shorter distance and creates a high-pressure area. The shape of the hull converts that energy into forward motion.
The traditional sailboat, like those used in the Mac, has a displacement hull that pushes water aside to move forward.
The wind over the sails provides the energy for the hull to move the water aside and overcome the friction of the moving through the water.
Modern boat designers strive to create hull shapes that can move through the water with the least friction, but there’s only so much design talent and modern materials can do with a displacement sailboat. The proof? The overall speed record for the 333-mile Mackinac Race stood for 76 years, from 1911 until 1987.
The Mac race began as a diversion for wealthy Chicagoans who owned summer homes on the island in the Straits of Mackinac. Before planes and superhighways, they often got there by boat. To make the sail more interesting, five sailors raced to the island in 1898. The event was held again in 1904 and, except for a hiatus in World War I, it has been an annual event.
In 1911, the Amorita, a 100-foot steel-hulled schooner, finished in 31 hours 14 minutes 30 seconds. That record, set in a storm that had 82-m.p.h. winds, stood for 76 years until Dick Jennings in his 70-foot sloop, Pied Piper, finished the 1987 race in 25:50:44. Nine others, including Bacchant, the oldest boat in the event, built in 1934, also beat the Amorita’s time.
Amorita’s 1911 record came just one year after William Hale Thompson, a real estate magnate, who would later serve three terms as Chicago’s mayor, covered the course in 31:24:06 in his 81-foot yacht Valmore.
“Never before did racing yachts sail a 333-mile course in such time, and I will venture to predict that Valmore’s record of 31:24:06 will stand these many years,” Charles Burras, a member of Thompson’s crew, wrote in 1910. His comments were published 15 years later in the book “There Will Always Be A Mackinac Race.”
But Thompson’s record stood for only one year.
On the other hand, Jennings’ 1987 time remains the fastest for the oldest and longest freshwater sailboat race in the world.
And though the venue and challenges remain the same, the race has changed considerably since the beginning of the century, when large yachts and paid crews were often the norm.
Saturday’s race will have boats ranging from 28 to 77 feet competing in a dozen sections under two handicapping systems that allow the different size boats to compete more equally. Participants are invited to race by the yacht club and pay an entry fee of $10 per foot. The only prizes are trophies and small “brag flags” for your boat, along with a great party at the island.
While the largest boats are always the first to arrive at the island, a smaller boat often is the winner when the handicap time is considered.
The largest boats are required to give the smallest as much as 20 hours of handicap time, determined by a complex rating system devised to fairly match boats of various size.
Handicaps, however, assume all the boats are racing in the same set of wind and sea conditions. So, weather patterns significantly affect the race. The boats spread out over the lake and often, the largest boats have finished the race when a weather system moves across the lake, kicking up strong breezes and allowing the smallest boats to sail faster gaining time on the large boats in addition to their handicap.
The 22,400-square-mile lake is so large some boats will be becalmed, while others are in a squall a few miles away.
Among sailors, individual Mac races have come to be known as “small boat” or “big boat” races. When winds kick up after the big guys finish, it usually becomes a small boat race.
In 1993, Windquest, a 70-foot craft designed for Rich De Vos, a founder of the Amway Corp., finished first, but building winds helped carry a 33-footer named Daybreak to ultimate victory when the handicap was figured.
If winds die after the big boats finish, the advantage remains with the big boats. That happened in 1995, when Thirsty Tiger, a 70-footer finished in just over 36 hours. It was the overall winner.
It is not unusual for smaller boats to take three days to finish the race.
In 1990, 1993 and 1994, boats bettered the times for the 1910 and 1911 races, but not by much.
In 1990, Sassy, a 77-foot maxi-boat from Detroit, made the island in 29:07:23. Windquest finished the 1993 race in 26:59 and, in 1994, in 29:59.
But in four of the last 10 Macs, the finishing times couldn’t even better the 1904 time of 37:46. Blame it on the wind–or more precisely the right wind, from the right direction for the right period of time.
During a Mac, attention to sail shape is of paramount importance to the serious contender. When a boat is sailing with the wind from behind, it is said to be running. During a run, a boat can use its largest sail, the spinnaker, which blossoms like a parachute in front of the boat.
In Pied Piper’s 1987 record run, much of the race was a “screaming run” with winds up to 40 m.p.h. blowing from the southwest and allowing Jennings to attain speeds of 20 m.p.h., which for a sailboat is unusually fast.
A sailboat cannot go directly into the wind, but depending on the type of hull and sail configuration, it can sail very close to the direction of the wind. This is called beating.
Some wind conditions create waves that can slow a boat, and the skill of the person steering and those tending the sails must combine for top speed. The Mac race is a nautical endurance contest and is as much a test of the skills of the sailors as of the design of the boat.
Shawn O’Neill, a member of the Chicago Yacht Club’s Mackinac Committee, will be sailing in his 20th Mac race this year. He was 13 when he sailed his first race. He and his father, Jerry, have compiled an enviable record in a series of boats named Eagle. In 1986, and again in 1991, Eagle was the overall race winner. The O’Neills also count six other first-, second- and third-place honors for their individual sailing sections.
“You learn a new trick each year on the boat,” O’Neill said. “We always have someone watching sail trim, our spinnaker is constantly being adjusted.”
Eagle has four helmsmen among its crew of nine. Each has special skills at driving the boat O’Neill said.
“Some are better downwind, others are better when you’re driving into a pounding sea with 5-foot waves coming at you and you have to pick your way through the maze of waves to the flattest course so you get there faster,” O’Neill said.
“It’s important to have depth in each position,” he said. “We place a high emphasis on getting enough rest . . . Some people burn out, they race for 30 hours then just run out of gas.”
Many of the same concerns that faced sailors a century ago– weather, winds and sailing skill–will face O’Neill and the others again this year. But one element will be different from those early races: With each boat equipped with a marine radio, and many with cellular phones, too, there won’t be a need for anyone to bring along carrier pigeons to send messages ashore.
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The Chicago Yacht Club’s Race to Mackinac Island starts at noon Saturday from a point about two miles east of Navy Pier. Many of the boats will depart from the yacht club facility at Monroe Harbor Saturday morning.
