The Supermac Race, an extension of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac and a precursor to this Saturday’s start of the Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race, wound up with 31 entrants, and after four dropouts, 27 finishers. Among those finishers, it was the smaller boats that fared the best, just as they had in the “Chicago Mac” (which started July 11 on Lake Michigan).
“Supermac racers are those that keep racing, without stopping, after their Chicago Mac finish (at Mackinac Island) to a Port Huron finish line, for a total of 500 nautical miles,” explained Supermac Co-Chair and Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Chair Peter Wenzler, who sailed aboard Bill Alcott’s 65-foot Equation. “The smaller boats started first in the Chicago Mac, but halfway through the race the fleet inverted and the big boats got ahead. However, the wind was such that the larger boats had to beat their way to the Supermac finish while the smaller boats got to run in 30 knots of breeze, so it became their race.”
This year marks the 91st running of the Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race and the 107th running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac.
