'Why do I do this?' sailor asks before the 101st Mackinac race
Day 1 forecast: thunderstorms and high temps
A longtime tradition continues Saturday morning as crowds gather in downtown Port Huron to cheer nearly 200 sailboats parading down the Black River, up the St. Clair River and under the Blue Water Bridge as the sound of bagpipes fills the air.
The first start of the Bayview Mackinac Race begins on Lake Huron at 11:30 a.m.
Sailors will likely be racing “ahead of and along a cold front” this afternoon that brings chances of strong thunderstorms and gusting wind, according to the National Weather Service at 3:59 a.m. Saturday.
“You go start the race and you expect to deal with any condition you’re met with. It’s storming and thundering? Yeah, they’re not canceling,” said Meghan Hoy, 18, of Port Sanilac, Mich., racing for the third time on Blue Eyes, an Erickson 35 MKII.
Blue Eyes is one of 191 boats registered and approved to race, Tim Prophit, race chairman of the Bayview Mackinac Race, told Shifting Gears late Friday.
Meghan Hoy will be on the deck with seven other sailors, including her mother, her father and her grandfather. Last year they finished the Shore course (204 nautical miles) in 52 hours, 44 minutes and 45 seconds.
(The other course is Cove Island at 259 nautical miles.)
Blue Eyes is determined to get to the podium again, having placed second in class (and second overall) in 2023 and fourth in class in 2024.
“I do want to win,” said Meghan Hoy of Port Sanilac, Mich. “Growing up asking my dad about his medal, when he won it, what the year was like. I want one for myself to prove I’ve done the race and I can do it with my skills.”
Her father and grandfather have earned the coveted Mackinac race medal that long-distance sailors wear every summer as a symbol of excellence.
“My daughter said to me one day that she’d like to go to Mackinac. That minute, I went and ordered four new sails and signed up for Mackinac,” said Pat Hoy, 55, of Port Sanilac, past commodore of the Port Huron Yacht Club and a planning manager at a food flavoring company.
“I did my first Mackinac at 18,” he said. “This will be my 30th race.”
Pat Hoy won in 2002 on Jewel, a Santana 35, owned by Bob Moak of Fort Gratiot, Mich. Moak’s son and granddaughter will race on Blue Eyes, too.
Keeping focused and doing prep work
“On Mackinac, I’m very good at not yelling or raising my voice. During the general races, I’m not so good about raising my voice. Family tends to talk back more,” Patrick Hoy said, laughing. “The big race, the one that counts, everyone behaves. Everyone is more focused, I think.”
Meghan Hoy, a Port Huron Northern High School graduate headed to Michigan State University, has spent her spring and summer cleaning, sanding, painting and waxing the sailboat.
Two days before the Mackinac race, she was standing under Blue Eyes, which had been pulled from the water at Desmond Marine, burnishing the bottom with her grandfather, Jimmy Paulus of Port Huron.
They used copper pads that work like super fine sandpaper to make the bottom of the boat even smoother so that it glides more quickly through the water.
“This is the reason I’m not retired. I did 10 Mackinacs on one boat and when the owner sold that boat, I was done,” said Paulus, 72, a printer and past commodore of Port Huron Yacht Club.
‘Never fathomed it happening’
“Being able to race with my daughter and Patrick and having Meghan on board — well, she’s my right-hand man as far as working on the boat. And she’s become quite the sailor,” Paulus said. “When she says, ‘Grandpa, are we going to work on the boat today?’ What a thrill it is to hear that. Sometimes we just sit on the dock and admire the tasks we did.”
He won first place in 1998 on Loon Magic, a Catalina 38, owned by Jamie Shinske and Bill Wilson, both of St. Clair, Mich., and now deceased.
“Doing Mackinac with my daughter and my granddaughter was always a bucket list item for me. I never fathomed it happening,” Paulus said.
His daughter Irene, at 5-foot-11 inches tall, was always asked to play basketball in school and she wasn’t interested. Sailing captured her attention, having started with her mom and dad on a sailboat called Irene, a Catalina 27.
‘Extra time to breathe’
Now Irene Hoy drives the boat and trims sails.
“I love the competition of it. On the other hand, that’s my Zen. I find it very peaceful,” she told Shifting Gears fewer than 45 hours before the start of the race. “
“Doing this race, you need to learn patience. Everything doesn’t happen right now. You have extra time to breathe. It’s not like you’re rounding a mark and you’ve got to get the chute up right now.”
Meghan reminds her mother of how she felt growing up, her younger days.
“She wants to learn. She works so hard on the boat. As a mom, I can’t be any prouder. We have a lot of fun. But I dread no wind and the lack of sleep” during the race, said Irene Hoy, 53, a public school teacher’s aide for special needs children.
“My joke is, ‘Why am I always doing this?’ Because I actually love it. My first night or second night of the race, it’s cold and I ask why. I think I’ve said that every single race,” said Irene Hoy, who will be racing for the 19th time. “This has brought us a lot closer, Meghan and myself. This is something we share now.”
Meghan explained why she has redirected to sailing the energy she spent practicing trombone as a longtime band member in school.
Sailing is “freeing,” she said. “I’m away, on the water, where you can see no land.”
Two years ago, Meghan said she did what she was told and going with the flow. Now she can think for herself without being told, like when to trim the sail to change its shape to capture more wind and make the boat sail faster.
“I’m also more focused and patient in many ways,” she said. “You just have to think about everything. You can’t run away from any frustration. You’re in the moment all the time. If there’s no wind, you’ve got to wait it out. You can’t just quit.”
Scared? Deal with it. No wind? Drink water
“Last year, we could see the bridge and sat there for three hours with no wind. It was hot,” Meghan said. “But I love sailing at night, knowing there are so many boats and you can’t see them. We can hear people around us talking and can’t always see them. You might see their mast light but you can’t see the physical boat. It’s eerie and really, really cool.”
Seeing her parents as sailors has changed Meghan’s perspective.
“Me and my grandpa, we spent maybe 20 hours coming down to work on the boat. We’ve done some engine work. I know how to do maintenance and understand the inner workings now,” she said. “My parents aren’t telling me to do something because I’m their kid. It’s because I’m a crew member and I’m part of the team.”
Phoebe Wall Howard covered sailing for The Detroit Free Press for seven years, until 2024. Find her recent sailing stories here. Editor’s Note: As a member of the Port Huron Yacht Club, Phoebe has known the Hoy and Paulus families personally.
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