Website for registration will be posted April 9th 

Bayview Yacht Club and Chicago Yacht Club are announcing that they will jointly sponsor a 490 nautical mile sailing race known as the "Super Mac" in July of 2009.  The start of the Super Mac will coincide with the start of the 101st Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac on July 18, 2009.  The Super Mac will finish in Port Huron, Michigan, and serve as a feeder race for the 85th sailing of the Bayview Mackinac Race, which will start on July 25, 2009.  Port Huron Yacht Club, located in Port Huron, Michigan, will provide critical logistical support for the Super Mac. 
 
The Super Mac was last run in 2000, starting in Port Huron and ending in Chicago.  This year, the Super Mac will reverse course, beginning in Chicago, up Lake Michigan, through the finish line of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, cross to the north of Bois Blanc Island and continuing on through Lake Huron. The Super Mac will finish in front of the Acheson Venture's Maritime Center at the intersection of the Black and St. Clair Rivers and across from the Port Huron Yacht Club in Port Huron, Michigan. 
 
"The 'Super Mac' will offer a unique challenge to sailors around the world," Frank Kern, Chairman of the Bayview Mackinac Race, noted.  "This 490 nautical mile event will be the world's longest and most challenging freshwater race in 2009," Kern added.  "We are proud to collaborate with Bayview Yacht Club on the 2009 Super Mac," Greg Miarecki, Chairman of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, noted.    
 
All entries must be officially entered and participate in the Chicago Race to Mackinac to qualify for the Super Mac. Registration will begin April 9th. A link to the registration website and notice of race will be provided at www.chicagoyachtclub.org/racetomackinac and www.byc.com/mack. The entry fee will be $135 per yacht to cover incidentals and flags.
 

A variety of sponsorship packages are available for corporations that desire to effect a positive impression on this hard to access group. Extensive radio and television exposure would create brand awareness for your company and sales. The media reach for coverage of the race is in over 300 newspaper and magazine articles. Website and internet reach to more than 1 million web page views.

For more information contact Bruce Babiarz - babiarz@comcast.net
 

We will give the first time offshore sailor all the things that need to be done to get prepared and have some additional tips for the experienced sailor. Although information is available on the BYC Mackinac website we can help you get started.
 

Through the depression the race continued
"On the way to the 85th sailing"
 
The race hit a high of 20 yachts by 1928 but in 1929 when the depression started to dig in the entry list dwindled down to 13. That same year the Bayview clubhouse burned down on Motorboat Lane putting further financial strain on the organization. By 1930 entries climbed a little with the entry of BYC Commodore Alger Sheldon's Trident, a new John Alden built yawl specifically to win the Mackinac Race. With her long overhangs and sprit she was ideal for Great Lakes sailing. And she showed it by taking the race overall two years in a row in mostly light air with a few squalls thrown in and later winning two more Mackinacs in her class.

In 1933 it was decided that spinnakers were banned for the sake of safety and most likely for just being too expensive in those poor economic times. In the early thirties although the gaff rigs were being replaced by marconi rigs, heavy cotton sails were still being used. By 1935 the economy improved and the desire to spice up the race resulted in a course change that would involve the rounding the Cove Island Light located off a small Canadian island. To quote Commodore Esmond Avery, "a 306 mile course...would discourage shore sailing, put a premium on navigation ability, and make a sportier race. The barking dog - apple tree method of navigation, employed now, will be at an end." The opponents to this course Perc Williamson and Race Chairman Trent McMath felt the opposite, "Such a course would present hazards possibly dangerous to men and ship, and would interupt, if not erase, the tradition of past Mackinac races." While this would not be the last time this argument would surface the Commodore won his effort for the new course. However he appeased McMath by outlawing the use of high tech radio direction finders which cost hundreds of dollars and were beyond the pocketbooks of many boat owners.

This race was started with 16 yachts in a light southerly breeze. Alsumar, newly purchased by David Sloss and Herm Petzold steered a rhumb line course to the Cove Island Light and rounded Sunday afternoon with a ten mile lead. The next morning a dense fog and a calm beseiged the fleet but Alsumar continued to move like a ghost in the straits. At 1400 hours on Tuesday with the rest of fleet becalmed Alsumar got the gun, winning class B and the fleet overall. The rest of the fleet drifted in for the next two days and this course was not sailed again until 1972.