Chicago Mac 4:12 PM Sat. Heading 0 TWS=11 TWD=110 AWA=55

After a pretty good start, we went into our mode of working left of the fleet. It did not take long before we had worked to the left, and about ½ hr after the start we changed to the jib top. At 45deg apparent the boat in 8 TWS is 4 10^th’s faster with the jib top. The wind has filled in nicely, and we have 11TWS doing 8.3kts with the jib top. The rest of the Farr-40’s to the left of us have in the past hr dropped back 15 deg. It appears that we have a few things going for us right now.

1. We were able to go to the jib top sooner than the others.
2. It performs very well in the lighter air.
3. Our forcast appears to be right at least so far, and the wind out in the lake is dieing.

SO the next plan is at about 5:30, we are planning a pretty aggressive course change to the right. In another Hr, we should have put the others back almost 30 deg. Morrigan is the closest to us about ½ Mile to weather of us. She is also Jib Toping. At last clear sight the other boats had not gone to the Jib Top.

Off

6:16am Sunday Heading 20 TWS=8.5 TWD=238 AWA=85

The night was busy, the SW breeze filled in at arund 10PM, we sailed 60 deg for some time before gybing. The timeing of the jibe was critical. If we stayed at 60 and the others jibed earlier, they would have crossed our bow. If we jibed first, we would maintain our leverage to the left. We jibed at about 10:45 and our new heading was 6deg. Not too bad, and it is also forcing us North towards the front. At 12:30 we changed to the runner as the breeze was building. After a few Hrs we continued to get knocked, and We changed to the .75 at 3:30AM. We were sailing 30 deg going 8.5 for an hr. Just as it started to get light out the wind went to 285, and we went back to the Jib top for about 15 min before going back to the VMG. As the sun rose we find ourselves very well placed. We have Virago and Flash Gordon well aft and to leaward. This ment our jibe was timed well, and we were the first to get off to the North. We have been putting bearing on them since 4:30AM. In that most of the race so far has been down wind, the crew is pretty rested. We keep 5 people doown below unless we need everybody on the rail. We are getting the new wind first, and it is helping out position. We cannot see Heartbreaker, but have a feeling that they may have stayed on the other gibe for longer last night. It looks pretty light by Virago and Flash, and that would be a good indication of why we are putting bering on them. Pretty easy sailing so far. The air Temp just dropped, and it is colder now than all last night. It will be interesting to see what happens later today. We do see some other boats, but cannot pick them out right now with the exception of the Tripp-47 Undaunted who is about ½ mile directly in front of us.

10:25 AM Sunday Heading 40 TWS=9.8 TWD= 200

A big morning. We sailed into some very shifty wind. The wind went from 260-175, and then back again. We followed the puffs, and sailed through it prefectly. Flash and Virago are now about 5 miles directly to weather. They sailed into a hold and we sailed right around them. Now the wind is back up and we are making good progress towards Pt. Betsy. The next 10 hrs will be critical as we try and extend our lead. Still no sign of Heartbreaker. We suspect she is behind, but who knows.

2:31 Pm Sunday Heading 23 TWS 12.5 TWD-235

Heartbreaker sighted. The SW breeze has once again filled in. Flash jibed about 20 lengths in front of us, and about ½ hr later both Flash and US jibed in front of Virago by about 40 lengths. We have now soaked inside of Flash, and we should be pretty close. Heartbreaker has finaly showen herself, and is now about 2 miles astern and slightly outside. We are moving along and wondering if Sayanora is close to finishing. She was turboed for this race with one of the biggest mains I have ever seen. Now the big question for us how long will we have this wind, and what will happen when we hit the front later tonight. It will surely shake things up a bit. Still no signs of any of the other Farr-40’s so we are either in the top 4 or last 4. Only time will tell. Blair and Jeff have opened the lemonade, which means they are manufacturing it with a little Kettle One for a little afternoon pick me up! We thought we had seen Sorcerer and Contentious on the horizon ahead of us, but they were too far away to confirm that, so we are still not sure where they are.

 4:30 PM Sunday Heading 25 TWS=12 TWD-100

Ok the front has hit us. We had just soaked inside of Flash Gordon, when we both hit the new wind. Flash

hit it a few minutes before us, and got the jump on us. She worked the early shifts well, and extended out on us. We did the same to Virago and Heartbreaker. We put about a mile on them in about ½ hr. We are now nearing the Manitou passage, and hopefully the wind will allow us to reach through the passage.

11:00PM Sunday Heading (North Manitou Light House) TWS=15 to 5 TWD 130

We made some really big gains here. As we approached the Light we could see a number of lights just stopped. We were Jib Top reaching in at 8 kts, and as we looked for the passing lane, we struggled to make the light. Steve Mash went down to check the chart, and we ended up sailing about .65 miles to the inside of the light house. Many of the boats were struggeling to get jibs up to come up, and that was a bit of a problem. We decided to leave the Jib Top up, and just sheeted it in a hard as we could. It was pretty ugly with the Battens bashing into the lower spreader, and the clew wrapped around the Cap shroud. We slowed to 3.5kts and watched Virago and Heartbreaker take the high road, which worried us initially, as they made up significant ground. They eventually stopped, and we were able to get away. We had seen Flash round the light, and figured that we had to just stay in front of Virago and Heartbreaker. The wind had gotten real shifty, and there were about 30 boats all trying to round the light. Because they were so many boats around, we lost track of Virago and Heartbreaker.

4:00AM Monday Heading 34 TWS: 14-20 TWD=130-145

Ok now I am tired. We are about 5 miles from Grey’s Reef Light, and I just finished a two hr spin on the wheel. We have been jib Top reaching as tight as possible and the boat is just going along fully loaded. There have not been any lights ahead of us which is good except for we think we lost Flash as it appears she made it through the Manitous without ever slowing down. We have had some crew down as people were getting pretty tired, and we needed to make a full push down the straights which is typically one of the toughest parts of the race. Just before I came down one of the Tri’s passed us going at least 18kts. He was just flying. We were going 9.5 when he passed us and he went by like we were tied to a pole. I am beat, and need to get some rest. We have been working the boat 110% the last 8 Hrs

5:00AM Monday Heading- To The Mac Bridge Up Wind TWS:15

Back to work. I was called up to trim the main as Blair and I have sailed a bunch in the past.I came up on deck with the turning mark about 1 mile behind us. It was just getting light enough so we could start picking boats out. Much to our amazement Flash Gordon was just behind us followed closely by Sorcerer. It did not take us long to figure out that Flash must have parked somewhere 4 hrs ago, and that Sorcerer and Contentious had as well. Now with everybody on the rail, it is a dash down the straights to the bridge. With Terry Hutchinson on Flash Gordon we new we were about to have a big fight on our hands …Please let the wind stay.

7:30AM Monday Heading to Finish just under the Mac Bridge TWS-15

The wind has stayed thank god. The last 2.5 hrs we have just been covering the competition It has not been a real big game and fortunately the other boats made it somewhat easy as we all simply covered each other. Heartbreaker would tack, Contentious would tack on them, Sorcerer would tack on them, Flash would then cover, and of course we followed. We played a few shifts to our advantage by sometimes extending a bit longer before tacking, and have managed to double our lead on Flash. In theory, this sounds good, but we doubled a 40 length lead into a 80 length lead. Not much considering the people sailing on the boats.

8:10 AM Monday Finish

Chicago-Mac Final Finishes:

1^St Hot Lips Dr. Steve Mash

2^nd Flash Gordon Helmut Jahn

3^rd Sorcerer Mark Landwer

4^th Contentious Rick Woodworth

5^th Heartbreaker Bob Hughs

6^th Virago Stuart Townsend

7^th Morrigan Kevin Boyle

8^th Sea Hawk Jim Johnson

9^th Bandit Fred Pipin