When bad things happen at night

With the final group of starters underway on July 13, the 2024 Chicago Mackinac Race got plenty spicy for the 247-boat fleet as Phoebe Wall Howard reports on the carnage occurred during the 115th edition:

A fast-moving summer storm on Lake Michigan left carnage in its path after three huge sailboats snapped masts and a fourth boat had to rescue a man after he fell overboard, all in the middle of the night under total darkness during the first day of Chicago to Mackinac race.

“It was about 11:30 eastern time and we outpaced a couple storms. The team was getting ready … when a squall hit us. The wind picked up from about 18 knots to over 30 knots and shifted 80 degrees,” Skip Dieball, 53, of Wilmette, Illinois, a tactician racing on the 52-foot Usual Suspects. “Sometimes in the daytime, you can see some of the shifts coming, the wind pattern on the water. But it was so dark we couldn’t see anything. We told each other we would prepare early. We were, and it just came really fast.” – Full report