Slow ride to Chicago

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 26, Joe, Jim, Veronica, Matthew, and myself will leave Harbor Point for Chicago. We should arrive sometime on Friday, and with any luck get the mast put up the same day. Then we move onto the mooring and some fun fresh water big lake sailing....finally.

Bus Ride Back From the Island

The Chicago Mac Race has post the bus ride information from Mackinac Island back to Chicago. The bus will leave Mackinaw City at 10 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 25. The cost is $95 per passenger. You can book your ticket online here:

http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org/viewCustomPage.aspx?id=1&cid=217

We have been issued our ORR rating for the Mac Race, and it is 0.864 All-Purpose TOT (time on time) and 0.856 Offwind TOT. The race committee will most likely follow history and use the All-Purpose rating.

So what do these numbers mean? Well, the higher the number the faster boat, in the rated conditions, and the lower the number equals a slower boat. The race committee will use one of the following formulas at the end of the race to calculate our corrected finish time.

Time on Time Scoring:

Corrected Time = TOT x Elapsed Time

Time on Distance Scoring:

Corrected Time=Elapsed Time - (Rating - Rating Scratch Boat) x Distance

And then there were six

Mike Tomsu has withdrawn from the Mac Race this year for personal reasons. So instead of seven we're going with six: David Stevenson, Cody Stevenson, Joe Levanowicz, Jim Sliger, Jason Wiggins, and myself, as I had originally planned.

Our sistership, Absolute, is going with 10 crew, and is betting on heavy air, while I'm betting that the race won't be much different than most, a little of everything. It is going to be of the utmost of importance for us to make sure that the off-watch get some sleep or we are going to run out of steam by Sunday night.

I also wanted to thank everybody for getting their liability waivers to me as quickly as you did, I'll sent them into the race committee tomorrow.

Valour taking on Newport to Bermuda

A sistership of Bootlegger's is racing in the doublehanded division of the Newport to Bermuda Race this Saturday, June 15. Ernie bought Valour, hull #1, about the same time that I bought Bootlegger and we've traded ideas, research, and a lot of questions ever since then. You can track Valour and wish them good luck at the Yellowbrick tracking site.

Yellowbrick is doing the tracking for the Newport-Bermuda Race and the Chicago - Mackinac Race so this a good chance to play with the tracking site and see what all it can do.

If you go to the "Other PETERSON WIGGERS 37'S (sisterships) " section of www.sailingbootlegger.com you'll find more information and some photos of Valour.

Mac Schedule

Because of travel and other distractions (lack of water, Chicago's marinas not opening because of OWS, etc.) Bootlegger hasn't left for Lake Michigan...yet. I haven't nailed down a departure date, but will let everyone know as soon as possible when I have one. Here are the dates that you'll want to put on your calendar:

• Saturday & Sunday, July 7 - 8  -  We'll have a practice, do a million chute changes, MOB, try our watches out, try out different food, etc. Depending on the weather I would like to go sailing Saturday morning and practice MOB drills, then go for a long sail to....depends on the weather, which would include a night sail. Then Sunday return to the harbor. Joe and I will probably go up on Friday.
• Saturday, July 21st - The start of the Mac Race. You'll probably want to get to the boat on Friday to participate in the pre-race chaos. I'll try to have the boat on the end of the pump out pier till about 9 PM Friday night, but then I'm going to move it to the mooring in order to get a good nights sleep. Joe and I are heading to Chicago on Wednesday, July 18 in order to take care of the required last minute paper work and to get the tracker installed. I'll post more information as soon as possible.
• Wednesday, July 25 - We leave the island for the trip back to Chicago. I'm not in a hurry so we'll probably not be back in St. Louis until Wednesday, August 1. Joe and I are the only one's doing the return trip as of now, which is plenty, but anyone else is welcome. I'll post the bus back to Chicago information as soon as the race committee makes it available.