Vernon Hills resident part of winning Mackinac crew
This year, Vernon Hills resident Craig Warner sailed his 35th Mackinac Race. That record puts Warner in sailboat racing's most exclusive club: the Island Goat Sailing Society, which requires 25 races to become a member.
The Chicago to Mackinac Island race is 288 nautical miles (333 statute miles). The start time was 11:50 a.m. on a Saturday, and they finished 60 hours and 55 minutes later. This amount of time is longer than usual, and crews were physically drained by the end of the race.
This year was the 112th running of the Mackinac Race, which started in 1898 and is sponsored by The Chicago Yacht Club. This year 233 boats participated with some 1,700 crew members.
The weather was a mixed bag of wind straight ahead, no wind and wind from behind.
The boat Warner was on was a J105 named SEALARK, owned by Clark Pellett. The boat is 34½ feet long and is manned by a crew of seven:
• Clark Pellett (skipper and owner)
• Sonny Jenema
• Russ Radke
• Steve Radke
• John Schussler
• Ned Sher
• Craig Warner
The crew won the J105 Division. A J105 is a "one-design sailboat," meaning that all the boats are built exactly alike. It is up to the crew to use tactics and boat handling to make their boat faster. This one-design concept makes for exciting and close-quarter racing.
During the race, SEALARK was far back in the pack. The boat picked off the competition one by one and finished just 10 seconds ahead of the last competitor. The crew realized that they had just raced 288 nautical miles and beat the second-place boat by a mere 2½ boat lengths. That is what sailboat racing is all about.
Upon reaching the island, there is a busy social schedule and opportunities to discuss the race. The awards ceremony is in front of the Grand Hotel.
This was the second time Warner was on a winning boat. In 1987, his boat was the overall winner in a T-10. Winning the Mackinac Race is a great honor, and Warner feels lucky to crew with a great bunch of sailors.
Of particular note, this is the second Mackinac Race Warner has done since being diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in June of 2018. His health care team at Lake Forest Hospital, headed by Dr. Dean Tsarwas, put him on an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda. He has not had any detectable cancer for nearly a year, and has been off all cancer medication since October 2020.
At age 69, he hopes to do a lot more Mac races.
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