Rock Star Recalls Scary Sailing Voyage

[tondelayo29]

I just read this Associated Press article and wanted to share with every one.
Having lived on and learned to sail on Lake Michigan for 15 years of my life it brought back lots of memories. Like a surprise storm when I was 3 miles off-shore on my 16'' Hobie (1974) and ended up in 12'' wave and 65 mph gusts. I lived through it and learned a lot that day.

Rock Star Recalls Scary Sailing Voyage

07/24/2002

Associated Press


PONTIAC, Mich. -- Rock star Bob Seger said this year''s Race to Mackinac was scary because of severe storms that forced at least 18 boats to drop out of the 333-mile contest from Chicago to Mackinac Island.


Seger and the crew of his 52-foot sailboat, Lightning, finished the race, but winds up to 70 mph and torrential rain split one of the boat''s sails and tipped it hard to one side.


"It was like a blow dryer blowing Lake Michigan," Seger told The Oakland Press for a story Tuesday.


"The cold water was hitting the lake and steam was rising, and the water was moving almost laterally in the wind," the 57-year-old singer said from his cabin in Good Hart. "We were OK, but it was scary. I was saying, ''Do I want to do this anymore?"''


Lightning also lost steering at one point, but finished in 33 hours, 39 minutes and 34 seconds.


Last week, Seger skippered the boat to a victory in its division in the 78th annual Port Huron-to-Mackinac Island Sailboat Race.


In the Race to Mackinac, Roy Disney''s 75-foot Pyewacket missed the storms and earned first-to-finish honors in 23 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds.


Nearly all the 296 boats that began the race Saturday had finished by Monday evening, the sponsoring Chicago Yacht Club said.

[MaryBeth]

Thanks for sharing! It was nice reading a story that I otherwise probably wouldn''t have gotten to see. Not to mention learning something about Bob Seger!

Thanks again,
MaryBeth

[Lfagel]

Not only did his boat have problems, but the boat that actually finished in first place overall on time adjusted, was involved in rescuing two crew from a trimarian that had capsized in the dark during that race. The two crew in the water could see and hear the other boats looking for them, but the boats not hear their yells for help. They both had PFD''s, but one guy''s was not bouyant enough to "hold" his head above the water. They stayed together and managed to keep afloat. They were eventually found and rescued. They were in the water for about an hour. It was a good thing that in the straits, the water temps was about 70 degrees that day. They did not have whistles or strobe lights on their pfds. At least it all had a happy ending.

[Denr]

This is a common misconception about the Great Lakes. These bodies of water are more like inland oceans rather than the placid lakes most of us are familiar with. Lake Michigan is no millpond like the Chesapeake or long Island sound. Treat the Great Lakes with respect or the weather gods will bite you in the ass!

[sailingdog]

Yes, the Great Lakes definitely qualify as bluewater in many ways, far more so than the Chesapeake Bay. The risks, the weather, the conditions are far more similar to sailing on an ocean than on a smaller freshwater lake.

[paulk]

Summer thundersqualls happen up there. After getting a half-inch of hail on deck, we managed to hit 8 knots dead downwind with no sails up, when the windspeed hit 50 knots. (We saw it coming.) At least the breeze cleared the decks and helped keep us from slipping overboard on our way to Mackinac.

[Dewey Benson]

I had been ignoring the heading "Rock Star" for as you all know a "Rock Star" is not a Musician in the sailing world he/she is a small sailboat racer of excellent reputation. Reputation as in " Aw hell, I have to race that guy in the first round to qualify for the olympic team!"

In any case I was reading the first post and got to the part about "Pyewacket" did a double take. Roy Disney stopped racing a bit ago and Pyewacket was donated to Orange coast college. Then I looked at the posting date.

Why do these old tatty things keep popping up???

Dewey

[tdw]

Dewey,
I do this myself. Get bored with work, log on and have a quick scan of topics, see something that interests me , whip of a quick reply only to realise that the original post is five years old.

Tatty old bits are always popping up, it's the well kept cuties who choose to hide.

cheers
tdw