4 boats exit, 330 left in Bayview Mackinac Race: "All out war"
Islanders pray for their fire chief, grocer sailing the course
Sometimes the goal is not to win first place.
Jason St. Onge just wants to cross the finish line.
“We don't have delusions of grandeur. We just don’t want to be the pickle boat, dead last,” St. Onge told Shifting Gears. “I don’t know how we’re going to do, but we’ll have one hell of a cheering section.”
He is racing on Rascal, one of the record-setting 334 boats that registered for the 100th Port Huron to Mackinac race on Saturday, July 20 to sail 204 nautical miles on a single course that follows the 1925 route created by the Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit.
From its traditional start in southern Lake Huron, the boats headed north along the Michigan shoreline, passing south of Bois Blanc Island, sailing west to east at the finish line between Round Island and Mackinac Island, organizers said.
The competition is intense.
Maverick shatters CYC record, then mast fails
Until now, the Bayview Mackinac Race record was 316 boats in 1985 and a huge contrast compared with the 200 boats that raced last year, said David Stoyka, Bayview Yacht Club spokesman.
By Sunday afternoon, four boats had pulled out of the competition, he said:
Miami Vice, a Santana 35 owned by Jayson Miller of Plymouth and based at the North Cape Yacht Club in LaSalle, Michigan, withdrew before the start.
Maverick, the carbon fiber Andrews 80 skippered by Sanford Burris of Kirkland, Ohio, suffered a mast failure. A week ago, Maverick broke the record in the 115th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, finishing the course of 289 nautical miles up Lake Michigan in 22 hours, 24 minutes and 23 seconds.
Against the Wind, a C&C 35 MKI owned by Robert Farr of Traverse City, Michigan
Accipiter, a Farrier F-25C owned by Mike Garam and based at the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club in Ohio
Last week, racers dealt with storms. This week, light air delayed the race.
Ken Meyer of Columbus Township, Michigan, owner and skipper of Freedom, a Catalina 42, received a text late Saturday that said, “Sending good energy for a safe and successful race.” He responded, “Screw all that. Send wind. LOL”
The race tracker doesn’t look anything like years past because all the little boats are clumped together. Boats split into two groups are now racing in one.
It’s a cluster.
By late morning Sunday, most racers had sailed past the Michigan thumb as they headed north on Lake Huron.
Tim Prophit, 65, of St. Clair Shores, Michigan, skipper of Fast Tango, a North American 40, predicted before the race began that it would be an “all-out war” on the water. The race tracker showed him consistently holding the lead in his class.
St. Onge reported that things were looking good on Rascal, the Catalina 34 owned by Bart Huthwaite Jr. of Royal Oak.
The six-man crew includes Andrew Doud, owner of the only grocery store on the iconic island, too. Their sponsors include Arnold Freight and Mission Point Resort.
“We’re about 30 miles off Oscoda,” St. Onge texted Shifting Gears at noon. “Heavy seas currently. We’re doing OK. Not the pickle boat but the day is young.”
He is racing against boats from 17 states: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin — as well as Ontario and Manitoba provinces in Canada.
St. Onge is the Mackinac Island fire chief, president of the school board, a member of the Mackinac Island City Council, owner of the Cannonball Oasis hotdog and ice cream stand and a board member of the Cleveland Electrical Cooperative, which delivers electricity to the entire eastern Upper Peninsula.
He left the island once, to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and returned to raise daughters Mia, 8, and Margo, 5, with his wife, a nutritionist who commutes to work the hospital in St. Ignace.
The family has been tied to the island for generations and long before Mackinac was established as a global tourist destination known for its charm, hiking and ban on autos. Everyone depends on horse and buggy or bicycles, including businesses.
“My dad drove the snow plow for the state park. He did maintenance at Fort Mackinac, too. Mom worked in shops and hotels as a clerk,” St. Onge said. “My dad’s side goes back to tribal times on the island. The earliest baptismal record is from 1823, attended by Father Gabriel Richard, who founded the University of Michigan. My dad is native American, Chippewa. Mom is from Grosse Pointe Woods.”
While St. Onge, 50, sailed the Straits of Mackinac on a Catalina 22 back in the day, he decided this year was the time to race Mackinac and put together an island crew.
‘You can’t wait forever’
“I always wanted to do the race but just taking three or four days off in the middle of the summer season has never been feasible,” he said. “But sometimes you just have to. You can’t wait forever. This is bucket list for me.”
Unable to sleep, obsessed with tracker
Veronica Dobrowolski, 54, of Mackinac Island is co-owner and CEO of Arnold Freight (which delivers all food, beverages, horses and other non-human cargo to the island) and a sponsor of Rascal.
Not all boats have individual sponsors but this one does because, well, you know.
“Everyone on this island is aware of Rascal,” Dobrowolski said Sunday. “I couldn’t sleep. I looked them up on the tracker and thought, ‘Oh, crap. They haven’t gone too far.’ It’s weird being downtown and not seeing Jason or Andrew. You walk by the grocery store and see Andrew. You go downtown and you pass Jason on his bicycle.”
Before they left for Port Huron, she went to Patrick Doud’s Irish Pub for breakfast with Jason and Andrew. “I said, “I want you to come back alive. I need you.’”
Tim Hygh, executive director of the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau, said Sunday, “Andrew and Jason are lifelong friends, so how cool is it that they can do this together? These guys work 24/7, which makes getting some time off the island even more special.”
Prayers at mass
Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud said after leaving Sainte Anne’s Catholic Church, that Jason St. Onge and Andrew Doud are top of mind right now.
“It was a bit of a head scratcher when I heard they were both sailing. But then I thought, what a great experience they’ll have together,” she said. “The Mackinac crew and the entire fleet were in my prayers at Mass today. Looking forward to greeting them when they get back to the island.”
Margaret Doud, who was first elected in 1975, is now America’s longest-serving mayor. She runs the Windermere Hotel on Main Street on Mackinac Island, just down the street from her cousin’s grocery store.
“I own the grocery story. I control all the ice for this race. That’s the most power I’ll ever have in my life,” said Andrew Doud, 49, of Mackinac Island. “My expectation is to be intense and do the best we can. I bought a foul weather jacket. I haven’t sailed in 25 years. This is an absolute bucket list with great guys.”
Bucket list wishes — make the time
Bart Huthwaite Jr., 56, management consultant from Royal Oak is the owner/skipper whose family has had a home on the island for 36 years. His mom ran a shop called Nina’s Brass across from the famed Pink Pony.
After 16 races to Mackinac, both Chicago and Port Huron courses, said, “I’ve always been the crew. I’ve never been the person in charge. I’ve been working on the boat getting it ready for months. This is a huge milestone for me.”
His son, Chaz Huthwaite, 18, of Rochester Hills will be racing his first Mackinac race, too. A recent graduate of Stony Creek High School, he’s headed to the University of Michigan in the fall. Also on the boat: Mike Hegarty of Farmington Hills, Michigan, rear commodore of the Mackinac Island Yacht Club, Mike Gidley of Franklin, Michigan, past commodore of Mackinac Island Yacht Club.
All crew have multi-generational ties to the island.
Gidley, 62, a retired manufacturing company owner, said, “The opportunity to be on the boat with these guys for three or four days? I could not pass it up.”
Hegarty, 57, a high school social studies teacher from Wixom, Michigan, said crew represents so many pieces of a very special island.
‘This is the first all-island crew. This way the island finally has a boat to cheer for,” St. Onge said. “I bought new foul weather gear. I’ve been drinking lots of water. Bought all the updated safety gear. Thanks to my wife Marielle for letting this happen.”
Editor’s note: Headline and content have been updated since the initial post, reflecting additional boats withdrawing from the race.
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