Dog Smokes Fleet

[lightfoot30]

"WATCH THE DOG" A little known entry from a little sailing club in the little lake of St Clair has SMOKED the FLEET in the 101'st Chicago Mackinac race. Dog Dayz from North Star Sail Club, in Lk St Clair is in striking distance of being 1st to finish, and POSSIBLY even finishing tonight, Sunday!....

Other posters have targeted such boats as the turbo's, GL 70's and much larger, and far more expensive boats as "those to watch"..

The big boyz are apparantly duking it out in the doldurms while Dan Vandenbossche and his motely crew have found the breeze.

Vandenbossche is within 30 miles of the finish, while the much larger boats that can easily sail twice as fast, are more than 100 miles behind him. Vandenbossche with his meger Tartan cruising sailboat would have to suffer a major melt down, similar to striking a rock and sinking, to lose at this point.

I've bit my tongue predicting the winner till now, in fear of jinksing the DOG, but feel safe now in doing so. This crew from the little club in Lk St Clair is mainly a bunch of unknown's but still formatable sailors. I know, I've sailed against them.

"WATCH THE DOG"

[drd]

It's nice to have a 24 hour head start.

[unknown_lady]

I didn't think the fleet was competing as a whole since Cruising Divisions 1 and 2 started on Friday and the rest at staggered times on Saturday. I had assumed there would be a winner in each division. Did those boats start a day earlier because they were slower and to even the odds?

[WhoaTed]

DOH! They only had a day's head start w/better breeze overall. But fortunately they're "formatable" sailors, ha ha...

Props though, Dan did a great job several seasons back in the Bayview Mac.

wt

[lightfoot30]

Every dog has it's day. Give 'em some credit. They're still over a hundred miles ahead of the 70's and going the same speed. Without the start staggering, the little guys would never have a shot at 1st to finish. Even so, often times the big boats finish well ahead of the pack, in a dying breeze. Maybe this time, the wind will fill in from behind and the bulk of the fleet will catch up. The single biggest truth about long sailboat races is that the wind usually changes.

[Mrs-G]

Yeah, I dunno. a 22 hour start AND a Friday breeze. The luck 'o the irish was with them. I'm kinda wondering how "the cruisers" got put at the front of the pack. It is a RACE after all...