Mackinac Island fire chief throws pickle party to celebrate epic loss
Sailor quotes John Belushi when voting on whether to quit big race
More than a week later, things still seem unreal.
Jason St. Onge knew hundreds (if not thousands) of people were rooting for him and his crewmates. They had one goal: Do not finish last.
In a bucket list wish come true at age 50, he put together a crew of men to sail the 100th race from Port Huron to Mackinac Island.
Everyone aboard Rascal, a Catalina 34 owned by Bart Huthwaite Jr. of Royal Oak, had ties to the iconic destination site on Lake Huron in northern Michigan.
The six-man crew included Andrew Doud, owner of the only grocery store on island.
St. Onge took time off to race, too. He’s 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 Cloverland Electric Cooperative, which delivers electricity to the entire eastern Upper Peninsula.
With little racing experience, he hoped for the best.
But on Saturday, July 20, organizers delayed the start of the Bayview Mackinac Race because there was too little wind.
Boats simply couldn’t get to the starting line.
Most sailors ever
As a practice, slower boats start the race first and fast boats start later.
While waiting, fast boats have the luxury of monitoring technology to see where sailors are finding wind. Boats closer to shore were going faster.
The first of 334 boats finished the 204 nautical mile course in 22 hours, 7 minutes, 34 seconds. Wizard, a TP52 yacht owned by Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan natives David and Peter Askew, sailed the original 1925 course designed by the Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit.
Meanwhile, days passed for Rascal with no action.
Little air.
No movement.
Many competitors struggled to get to the finish line, and some dropped out with broken gear. Others ran out of time and had to get back to work.
Boats that didn’t finish the Bayview Mackinac Race included Maverick, Painkiller 5, Sufficient Reason, Valkyrie, Triple Threat, Against the Wind, McQueen, Phantom, Bullitt and Water Lilley.
The crew of Rascal voted four times on whether to quit.
It was simply miserable.
Sizzling hot under the July sun. Boat speed was so slow, in fact, that there were portions of the race course they could have walked more quickly.
Their race lasted 66 hours, 4 minutes.
‘We didn’t think anybody cared’
They sailed over the finish line at 7:09:11 on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, just as other sailors were getting out of cozy hotel beds, showering and heading over to the Pink Pony bar at the Chippewa Hotel to sip Bloody Marys. People would soon be heading to the awards ceremony party at Mission Point, a party headlined by the Endless Summer band that sailors remember for decades.
“It’s easy to say ‘the hell with it, I’m leaving’ when the going gets tough,” St. Onge said. “But then you find you’ve got people counting on you not to quit, counting on you to persevere.”
At points during the race, when they felt the most alone and hopeless, fans made clear they were following the race online — a popular feature that’s made possible in sailing now through GPS technology with tracking devices affixed to each boat.
“We didn’t think anybody cared. But then people were tracking us at 3 a.m., waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom,” St. Onge told Shifting Gears. “I said, ‘Holy cow, it’s pickle boat or nothing.’”
Hours before the start of the race, he confessed his only goal was to not finish last.
Yet that’s exactly what happened.
Lake Huron was dead calm, silent
Not dropping out wasn’t an easy decision.
“We couldn’t come to terms. We kept saying, ‘let’s talk in an hour.’ We were just sitting there doing nothing,” St. Onge said. “The boat wasn’t even faced in the right direction. You can’t steer because there’s no wind movement. At one point, we put a can in the water to see the current and we stayed side by side with that can for 45 minutes.”
But then they realized that finishing last is not as bad as quitting.
“We were six miles from the finish line at 1 a.m., and it took us six hours to get there,” St. Onge said. “We were trying to remain friends. The boat is only 34-feet long and six guys are in close proximity for what turned out to be 66 hours. Nobody was talking. We said everything there was left to say. None of us could control the wind.”
They expected to float into the harbor quietly, only to be greeted by nearly two dozen people awaiting their arrival.
In the last 4 minutes of the race, the boat picked up wind and it felt like sailing, St. Onge said. “I could hear the phone in my pocket, ding-ding, and people sending pictures of us crossing the finish line. It made us feel so good.”
66 hours of togetherness
At the finish line, the crew scattered the ashes of William Barton “Bart” Huthwaite Sr., past commodore of the Mackinac Island Yacht Club who died in July 2020. The Detroit native, who lived in both Punta Gorda Isles, Florida, and on Mackinac Island, never did race to the island.
“He said he didn’t want to sit around swatting flies,” his son said, laughing on Wednesday. “But he sailed with us.”
Meanwhile, Huthwaite Jr. has raced 16 times total to Mackinac, some from Port Huron and others from Chicago. He knows what it’s like to win first in class, too.
“It’s a lot of fun coming in first place,” Huthwaite Jr., said. We did have one big meeting, I was off shift and they came and woke me up to hear the discussion about dropping out. I was toeing to support the team whichever direction they wanted to go. We talked about how long it would take to motor up to the island. And it was Mike Hegarty who said, ‘No, we need to stay in.’ Everybody got on board.”
After Hegarty voted no, he referenced John Belushi’s character Bluto Blutarski in National Lampoon’s Animal House, and said, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” (Hell, no!)
Hold the bacon, bring syrup
The crew met for a warm fresh breakfast at Douds Irish Pub, where St. Onge ordered pancakes he had been craving. Everyone disappeared for a few hours to power nap before the party. And shower and scrub, with soap.
Winning sailors heaped praise on Rascal.
“Huge props for their patience and perseverance,” said Molly Radtke, a member of the Fast Tango crew based at Bayview Yacht Club, which won first in class.
At the big awards party, Rascal took the stage to accept the Pickle Boat flag.
The crowd cheered.
“I couldn’t wait to get home. I yelled, ‘Dad’s home!’ and my youngest, Margo, she grabbed a pickle she drew for me,” St. Onge said. “She kept hearing we were the pickle boat, so she drew pickles.”
You’re invited …
Now it’s time for an island celebration that includes non-sailors.
St. Onge is throwing a pickle party — with jumbo pickles on a stick for everyone — at his Cannonball Oasis ice cream and hot dog stand on Saturday, August 3.
People will need to walk or run or bicycle to the location, mid-way around the island.
Tourists often ride the popular 8-mile loop on the island, which has banned cars for as long as anyone can remember and depends mostly on horse and carriage.
Get ready for pickles and family games on Saturday to celebrate the loss.
“We’re embracing it,” Huthwaite Jr. said.
Organizers couldn’t decide whether to give prizes for first place or last place.
Editor’s note: As a former political reporter at The Des Moines Register and a guest lecturer at the annual Okoboji Writers Retreat in Iowa, I’m grateful to be part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. See below for a collection of smart, funny and fabulous work by good people.
Phoebe- To me, the idea of a pickle boat flag is very enticing. It’s definitely caught my attention!
We were just in front of Rascal which was in our class on a another Catalina 34, Kaos, with a broken engine, second to last place. We couldn't retire, we had to sail to the Island for the engine part we needed, and the 6 of us was hoping Rascal didn't retire.