Bayview to Mackinac

Bayview to Mackinac, Just as Memorable 50 Races Later

By GPYC Sailing Director Wally Cross

Despite the strange circumstances surrounding this year, this year’s Bayview to Mackinac Race turned out to be my favorite. Almost all sailing events were canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19, but Regatta Chair Chris Clark was determined to have the race. The sailing forums were not too kind to Chris, or to Bayview Yacht Club, for pushing on. However, necessary precautions, such as no social events including award celebrations, allowed for a safe race. Even the harbor at Mackinac was empty, since the DNR was only allowing four boats in the harbor at once. In the end, not one crew or volunteer got sick.

This was my 50th race to Mackinac, and it was the best. When I was 13, I sailed with my father for the first time on his C&C 31 along the shore. Back then all the boats would start close to Port Huron and race along the shore to Mackinac. The big boats always start last to give the smaller boats a head start. I will never forget watching the bigger boats like Gypsy and the wooden 12-meter, Heritage. I also will not forget the refreshing smell of water, land and lake breezes along with the view of beautiful northern Michigan. During most of the races after that first one, we rounded a buoy by Cove Island and then went on to Mackinac. This year the race was along the shore again based on the inability to sail in Canadian waters. The other limiting factor that increased the fun was an invisible Canadian water barrier.

In the diagram below, the purple line was the border between US and Canadian water. In effort to limit the number of people at the finish on the island, all boats were required to have the

GPYC Sailing Director Wally Cross raced on Heartbreaker, which won this year’s Bayview to Mackinac Race.

Photography by Martin Chumiecki

Yellowbrick GPS tracker on their boat. This tracker would let anyone know how each boat was doing in the race and show the boats track. If the race committee saw that a boat sailed in Canadian waters, then the boat was penalized. This tracker was also used at the finish line to score the time it took for each boat to sail from Port Huron to the finish.

The shore course race is shorter, but this year it felt plenty long. Fortunately, I was on a fast, big boat, yet it still felt long. The wind was coming from the North which meant we could not sail straight to the island at any time during the race. We were tacking back and forth within the boundaries to navigate up to the island. We tend to be serious, so that required the crew to stay up all night. We saw some beautiful shooting stars, and we are pretty sure we spotted a meteor flash across the sky. It is special to be that far north without lights, allowing us to see all that nature has to offer.

As daylight approached, we now could see the shore. Again, this was a first for me after sailing over 40 races to Cove Island buoy. The Northern shore with numerous light houses once again did not disappoint me with its pure beauty. The shore seemed to never end as we rounded the last island approaching Mackinac.

We all have been up for 28 hours (which I do not recommend) and nothing looked better to us than seeing Mackinac with the Grand Hotel in the background. Once we finished, we knew we were the first boat to the island, yet we also knew there were plenty of boats behind that could save their time.

Sailboats racing to Mackinac sail with a handicap system that allows smaller boats to compete against larger boats based on their handicap. I sailed on Heartbreaker which was the fastest boat on handicap relative to all the other boats. Fortunately, we did get a place to dock the boat overnight and after a very tired dinner, we also now knew we had won the race.

I guess now I can say my two favorite Bayview to Mackinac races were my first and 50th.