Tuesday, July 28, 2009

101st Chicago-Mackinac Race

J/105 ASYLUM And Inmates Win Mac Cup!
(Chicago, IL- July 19-21)- The J/Team does it again. The 101st Running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac may go down in the history books as a record slow race-- thanks to the renowned phenomenon known as global warming, right? As one crew member put it during the Saturday morning start, 'It's always a crap shoot.' Nevertheless, the inmates were truly running the J/105 ASYLUM and the wily veterans aboard the J/122 SKYE shot for the moon and won, too.

The official count for the fleet is 337 boats, among 21 different sections. The debut of the new Double-Handed Division brought additional excitement as several veterans of past Mac Races were on hand to compete for top prizes. .

Jon Weglarz on J/105 ASYLUM not only won the Mackinac Cup Division, but also netted the fastest corrected time of the five division winners! Awesome job guys!! The J/105 ASYLUM's elapsed time was just under 62 hours and with handicap adjustments, the boat's finishing time was 54 hours 35 minutes 39 seconds--- hours faster than the next nearest competitor! Fifteen J/105s competed in the annual event, which is being described as the "flukiest" ever. Following Weglarz in the J/105 top three were Clark Pellet on SEALARK and Peter Fray on PRONTO II.

In the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Divsion, WILLIE J, a J/130 sailed by Robert Vander Weele & Doug Petter finished 4th overall and 3rd in Section 2! Good on ya WILLIE J for a strong performance in such vexating conditions!

The strong J/109 contingent saw REALT NA MARA raced by Tom and Joe Londrigan win J/109 Class Honors as well as garner a 7th overall in the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Division! 2nd in J/109s was ZEITGEIST raced by Robert T and Dr Cornelia Zerban and 3rd was K III raced by Irv Kerbel.
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