July 24, 2002 Bob Hughes Heartbreaker takes first in one of the fastest Mac Races ever. For the start the fleet stayed pretty close together all using Jib Tops in 10-15kts. As the day wore on, boats started to split up with Bandit, Hot Lips and Sorcerer all heading for the Michigan shore, Program, Virago, and Heartbreaker all staying just to the west, and Pendragon, Flash Gordon, and Morrigan to the west.

On Sunday AM, the three boats in the middle were met with 20-40 Kts of wind sailing dead down. This was some pretty exciting sailing as the three crews were pushing the limits of their .75 spinnakers while maintaining boat speeds of over 16kts.

Warren Levins Program flies in 35 Kts TWS with the .75 doing 17Kts Boat speed.

By mid day the middle group was able to use the wind and waves to check in with the eastern group which had sailed well and were leading the pack. Heartbreaker was the first, and only, Farr40 to blow up their spinnaker as they headed east to check in with the other group.

By late afternoon Bandit was in the lead, closely followed by Sorcerer, Hot Lips, Heartbreaker, and Virago, with Program slightly to the west. With a little better breeze to the west Program made some short term gains, only to lose them when the wind faded away. The east group stayed closely bunched and lead changes started happening.

With about 7 miles to go to Grey’s Reef, a storm cloud started to build to the west. As it approached Program was sailing roughly 4 miles behind the lead pack. With the impending storm, when the wind hit 28TWS the call for the Jib Top was made, and the spinnaker doused. Morrigan had made some gains and were right next to Program when the storm hit. They elected to go with a Hv Jib. Right when the storm hit, Morrigan rounded up, and Program was shot out of a cannon. Morrigan recovered quickly and chased Program off into what was a little of an unknown.

How much wind, and how long would this last? This was the question we all soon found out. Virago tried the storm with their .75 up, and went past Heartbreaker as if she was tied to a pole. All fine until she stuffed the bow in 40TWS+ to the mast, and broached. Now knocked over, she was forced to drop her sails and re-organize.

Warren Levins Program in the storm with full main and jib top: Wind Speed 50+ Kts, Boat Speed 20+. Decks Awash.

The storm lasted for about 30 min, and when the rain passed, boats started to come into view. What happened, and how did the fleet fair? Incredibly, all of the boats were together again. Sorcerer now leading followed by Heartbreaker, Bandit, Hot Lips, Program, Morrigan and Virago. All rounded Grey’s Reef in a 10 Min period. Everybody pushed their boats to the edge, and the race basically started over. This is the way the fleet remained until the finish where Heartbreaker was just able to overtake Sorcerer 200 yds from the finish to take 1^st place.

This was one of the closest Mac Races for the 40 class ever. Never did a crew or boat hold back, and as a true testament to the durability of the boat and sails used as the only real damage was one .75 spinnaker, and one backstay ram. Other than that the boats and sails all held up without any other incidents.

Truly one of the most exciting distance races for the class yet.

1^st Heartbreaker

2^nd Sorcerer

3^rd Bandit

4^th Hot Lips

5^th Program

6^th Morrigan

7^th Virago

8^th Flash Gordon

9^th Pendragon

On one Final Note, The Overall Mac Race Winner was John Podmajersky and Rob Brandenberg’s Mumm-30 Illusion which finished just over 1 Hr behind the first Farr-40’s.