12-foot waves on Lake Ontario pounded racers. Seasick sailors quit. Fast Tango wins.
Whitby 100 race chair: 'I would definitely call this a boat breaker.'
One boat shattered a tiller, destroying the ability to steer. Another boat took on water. Sailors battered by the high winds and 12-foot waves simply couldn’t function.
“Every boat had people seasick. I retired because I was concerned. When someone throws up five times in an hour, you really start worrying,” said Stan Naylor, race chair/fleet captain of Whitby 100 race on Lake Ontario that began the night of Friday, Sept. 19. “I thought, ‘Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.’”
Five boats pulled out for safety reasons, including Scallywag, the C&C 33 owned by Naylor, based at the Whitby Yacht Club, about 40 minutes east of Toronto, Canada.
“The wind started picking up to 17 knots and the wind kept building. I saw 29 knots on my boat,” he said. “Waves eventually hit 14 feet. It was a terrible night. I would definitely call this a boat breaker.”
Fast Tango crossed the finish line after 18 hours, 55 minutes, 26 seconds.
Skipper Tim Prophit, 66, of St. Clair Shores, Mich., is past commodore of the Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit and the Detroit Regional Yacht-Racing Association.
“This race was about who can outlast other(s) ... Tim Prophit and his crew just kept going,” Naylor said. “They came a long way to do this and weren’t going to stop.”
The crew on the North American 40 sailboat: Art LeVasseur of Grosse Pointe, Mich., R.C Paschke and Eva Paschke of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., Dave Simon of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., Molly Radke of Grosse Pointe, McKenzie Frame of Grosse Pointe, Magnus Clarke of Toronto and Andre Beese of Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
Simon told Shifting Gears, “It was a brutal race but we sailed well.”
Fast Tango sailed 100 nautical miles without mercy, Naylor said. “Tango’s crew is amazing. The only disappointment we had is that they couldn’t stick around longer because everybody used up all their vacation time.”
3,250 miles on a boat this summer
This 100-nautical mile event — the Whitby 100 — capped an unprecedented season for Fast Tango. The crew set a goal of competing in long-distance races on all five Great Lakes in a single season and did:
Mills Trophy Race on Lake Erie in June, First in Class (PHRF D), First Overall (ORC)
101st Bayview Mackinac Race on Lake Huron in July, Ninth in Class (Note: Prophit served as 2025 race chair of the Port Huron to Mackinac Island race.)
Chicago Yacht Club Mackinac Race on Lake Michigan in July, Third in Class
Trans Superior International Yacht Race on Lake Superior in August, First in Class and First Overall plus the Barthel Trophy for best overall performance in the two Mackinac races combined with the Trans Superior.
Whitby 100 on Lake Ontario in September, 1st in Class and 1st overall
In August, Prophit was called “The New Great Lakes Superstar” by sailingincanada.ca
Going into the final race, much of the Fast Tango crew had put in some 3,250 miles together on the boat — moving it from Ohio to Michigan to Illinois to Minnesota to Toronto. A few sailors swapped out for different races, based on schedules.
“We didn’t break anything. It was a shit ton of fun,” Prophit said after the race, which he finished just after 2 p.m. Saturday.
Fast Tango crew members flew home and drove home. Prophit, by Monday afternoon, still had 35-ish hours to go before reaching his boat dock in the U.S.
He spent his time thinking up a plan for next year, when he wants to get a group of 10 Detroit boats to caravan up to Port Colborne, Ontario, for dinner (possibly at Whiskey and Walleye again) then race against each other.
The journey would require passing from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario through the Welland Canal locks, an engineered structure — like an elevator for boats — that raises and lowers boats including freighters to allow for travel between lake levels.
“We could all travel together, go through the locks together,” Prophit said. “It would be a f*****g riot.”
Sailors from outside Canada must experience firsthand the people of the Whitby Yacht Club, he said. “Their harbor is tricky to get to. And they show up at 3:30 in the morning when it’s pitch black out. They sent a guy out in a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to guide us in. And they had hot pizza and cold beer waiting for us. Like, who does that?”
Simon couldn’t believe the music, the party, fruit baskets and even a greeting from the mayor. “Holy smokes, they were so nice. They rolled out the red carpet.”
After the race, and preparing to catch a flight on Monday for business, Simon said, “We were flying downwind. It was stunning to sail past Toronto and see that skyline. The waves were rolly, not sharp peaks. They had an up and down motion.”
What’s next in Canada
Prophit talked about the race while making his days-long journey home to the Detroit River. “The wind kept building. And when it blows out of the east on Lake Ontario, it’s pretty ugly.”
Areas of Lake Ontario are 200 to 300 feet deep, so we expected the time between the waves to be fairly long, Prophit noted. Instead we had a short wave period, which was more like Lake St. Clair, only with much bigger waves. This made some sailors really ill.
While the circumstances are stressful on some race boats, Fast Tango plans ahead for every wind condition and every sail that might be needed to harness the elements.
“It’s an aggressive ride but also a very in-control stable ride that lets you sail fast,” Simon said. “We had a couple people from Canada and picked up local knowledge. Outside of Toronto there are bluffs, so you go from flat land of the city itself to high land. Each of those shore conditions have different effects on the water. We had guidance on wind shifts, and that’s huge. When Fast Tango is out there, there are no mysteries. The hours Tim puts into the program allow you to not be distracted by questions.”
Everything involved with this last Fast Tango race leaves crew members sort of speechless, R.C. Paschke said. The logistics of getting the boat through the Welland Canal, coordinating with commercial traffic and being treated like a freighter, is unforgettable, he said.
“It’s like being part of this machine for awhile,” Paschke said. “You communicate with the canal, and they talk to you in a certain language … ships and boats going up and down are sometimes separated by maybe 50 feet of concrete. You can look down on one freighter while looking up at another freighter. It’s awe-inspiring.”
By the time the crew made it to the race course, they didn’t need to think too hard about how to sail the boat because the team had so many hours racing together this season. Rough conditions don’t hurt, they help, Paschke said.
“A little fear is good. I think it’s a good emotion to have,” he said. “It makes you think about things, analyze your situation, makes you prepare for what you need to do and deal with it.”
Conditions on the long upwind beat felt a little like Lake Michigan in July, when violent winds sunk Red Herring — a 55-foot sailboat owned by Canadian philanthropist Fredrik Eaton of Toronto. (A week earlier, they’d placed second in the Port Huron to Mackinac race.) Sailors fought for 90 minutes to stay alive until their rescue.
A sailor who survived that sinking, architect Magnus Clarke, raced on Fast Tango. He talked with crew about his experience, Paschke said.
Every sailor has a unique style in terms of managing challenges on the water.
“My mouth gets a little dry and I’ve got to have a bottle of water when I’m driving the boat in big wind maneuvers. Shit could break. Someone could get hurt. You want to win. All this runs through your head,” Paschke said. “I can make boat go in the right direction at the right time, anticipating the boat action and crew work. But it’s a Zen thing. Everyone feels what’s happening without having to look. We’re going into battle. That’s what we say.”
While Sam Irwin didn’t race on Fast Tango, he and Tommy Godmair played a critical role in delivering the boat to Lake Erie. Irwin said he has wished for more than 30 years to race all five Great Lakes one day as a crew member of Stripes, a Santa Cruz 70. Skipper Bill Martin of Ann Arbor, Mich., came up with the idea.
“I never did let it go, and it has been in the back of my mind,” said Irwin, 65, of Forest, Ontario, Canada.
He wondered if Prophit might be able to make the unrealized dream happen.
Sailors including Irwin know about Fast Tango’s unbroken record of four sets of unique major victories in back-to-back years, first a Santana 35 sailboat and now the North American 40:
Port Huron to Mackinac, and Chicago to Mackinac, in 2023
Port Huron to Mackinac, and Chicago to Mackinac, in 2024
Port Huron to Mackinac, and Chicago to Mackinac, in 1992
Port Huron to Mackinac, and Chicago to Mackinac, in 1993
“When Tim did that and then the Trans Superior, I got to thinking, he’s the right one to do it,” Irwin said.
Now Canadians credit Fast Tango and its crew with resurrecting a once-prominent race that’s already being planned for 2026.
After the COVID pandemic, what once had two dozen racers declined to very few.
Because of his desire to race on Lake Ontario at the end of the season, Prophit worked to inspire enthusiasm for the race — which initially had 10 competitors registered. But the impact of his efforts aren’t lost, Naylor said. “He has made a lot of magic happen.”
Whitby Yacht Club officials are already negotiating with the Lake Ontario Offshore Racing officials about giving priority to the Whitby 100 — Naylor said. “We’re anticipating over 100 boats. We hope Fast Tango will be back.”
Heart repair mid-season
Before racing Port Huron to Mackinac, Prophit was warned by doctors to take it easy because he needed to have a heart procedure. A hospital mixup pushed it from July 3, before the Port Huron to Mackinac race, until late July, after the Chicago to Mackinac race.
But the medical condition wasn’t actually addressed until after the Trans Superior race. A transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) took place on Aug. 22.
Prophit spent one night at the University of Michigan, discharged 29 hours after check-in. This is his third heart procedure following:
In 2004, a biocardial infarction, which resulted in heart stents
In 2018, a triple bypass that required cracking the chest open
His body grows its own blood vessels to compensate for blockage, known as conditional anomalous LAD, Prophit said. “I’m not wired like most people.”
Over the past year, he has needed to nap after every meal and couldn’t walk long distances without resting because of reduced blood flow. “My medical diagnosis was severe aortic stenosis. Because I’m an idiot, I decided I didn't want to f**k up my sailboat racing. So I did the Trans Superior race with my old valve. Now I’m part pig (heart valve). Oink. Oink.”
At 5-feet-8-inches tall and 140 lbs., Prophit’s legs no longer hurt. He doesn't need extra sleep. He doesn’t get winded from walking. He raced on Lake St. Clair two weeks after surgery to get back into shape.
“A had a lot of people doing thoughts and prayers and witchcraft and whatever they do to wish good luck on their pals. I’ll take it all,” Prophit said. “I recognize that I was probably in worse shape than I thought I was when I did the other races. I feel like a lean mean fighting machine now. My crew was very cool about picking up a lot of my slack. It feels good to be back.”
Pro tip (from Prophit): “You’ve really got to be proactive about your medical shit. If something doesn’t feel right, call your doctor and have it checked. A lot of shit goes sideways fast … Catch it while something can be done.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to focus exclusively on sailboats that raced the 100-nautical mile course. One boat raced the shorter, 88-nautical mile course.
Phoebe Wall Howard covered sailing for The Detroit Free Press for seven years, until 2024. Find her current stories about racing, rescuing and sinking here.
PS: As a former political reporter at The Des Moines Register, I am honored to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, a roundup of news, commentary and feature
Hell of a piece! I grew up summers on Lake Ontario and it is a serious body of water! A third of a mile offshore it can be 300 feet deep. I’ve sailed on the lake and I’ve sailed at night, by the light of a full moon. 14-foot waves happen, but best to know when to head home!
It's so refreshing to read articles about sailing where the journalist know something about sailing. Thank you Phoebe, great work!!