Chicago to Mac

Published 13:55 on 6 Aug 2026

Photo Credit: Stacey Bodner

Thank you to Matt Bodner and crew for the write up.

In 1964, the Beatles went to America.

62 years later, the Corinthians went too.

I am, of course, not drawing any comparisons between the two events. 3,000 adoring fans celebrated the arrival of the Beatles. The number of people who even knew about the Corinthians numbered maybe somewhere in the dozens. Mostly friends and family, and the Department of Homeland Security.

All the same, what matters is that the LCSC race program has gone international.

An elite team under the command of Ruaraidh Plummer and Matt Bodner traveled to Chicago in early July to compete in one of America's great races: the Chicago to Mackinac Race.

This is a 289 nautical mile race across Lake Michigan, and 2026 was its 117th running. The organizers at the Chicago Yacht Club like to say it's the world's largest annual offshore race. Fastnet fanatics should note the operative word, "annual."

Lake Michigan is interesting. It's huge. It's non-tidal, but there are local weather induced currents. The weather is erratic. There's not a lot of buoyage, but its topography is not all that interesting. It's a giant glacial crater, and it gets quite deep. The waves can get brutal. It's a lot of fun to sail on.

One of the features of this race is that the people who do itdo it a lot. Most crews seem to have at least one person aboard that have done the race 25 times. These types are known as GOATs. Non-GOAT locals live in aspiration of GOAT status. I also now want to be a GOAT.

Corinthian participation in this legendary race was facilitated through a partnership with the Great Lakes Youth Sailing Academy. We raced their boat, Tango in Blue, a CM-1200. And she was quite a vessel. Very fast. Deep keel. Hard to broach. Spartan. Blue.

We are very grateful to our friends at GLYSA for helping us to make this all happen.

In 2018, GLYSA won their class with Tango. We did not live up to that. But for more than a fleeting moment, in the first third of the race, we were leading our class. This lead disappeared as we made our way further north, and it became less of a drag race and more of a local's race.

It's a race in at least three parts, maybe four. Lots of variety, very rewarding and interesting. But as we approached a series of islands about two thirds of the way to Mackinac, the fleet was treated to an infamous Great Lakes Storm.

It certainly wasn't the worst the lakes can throw at you. That was saved for the sailors who competed in the sister race a week later, the Port Huron to Mac, over on Lake Huron. 75% of that fleet withdrew in the face of their storm.

I don't have much to say about the storm myself, sadly. It happened shortly after my night watch had ended. Having unsuccessfully slept on my previous 2 or even 3 off watches, I may have been the only person in the entire fleet to have not experienced the storm.

So, you will need to attend the team's talk at the clubhouse on September 8th to hear all about it. I will be attending so that I can hear about it too. Sign up here: https://www.lcsc.org.uk/event/race-talk-chicago-to-mackinac-

Overall, the Corinthians performed beautifully, for first timers. We finished about mid-fleet. We had a grand time. GLYSA tells us we delivered Tango's best results since 2018. I'll take it.

The party on Mackinac Island was epic. There are no cars on the island. Only horses and bikes. A bar on the island makes an incredible variation on the Dark and Stormy that they call an Edmund Fitzgerald.

But the journey did not end there. Half of the team had to get the boat back to Chicago.

The voyage home was fraught. The morning that the fleet was ordered to vacate Mackinac, we awoke to a demonic haze. It was the Canadians. Massive wildfires had blanketed the entire Great Lakes region in dense, suffocating smoke.

(Delivery team selfie with smoky Mackinac bridge behind us)

And so we sailed another 300 miles back to Chicago with N95 masks and low visibility. But, we will share more about that at the talk (sign up!).

And if these sorts of adventures sound fun to you, also sign up for the 2027 Fastnet Campaign launch night on September 22! Link here: https://www.lcsc.org.uk/event/2027-fastnet-campaign-launch-

Also shoutout to the Chicago Yacht Club, they were very kind and helpful and made us feel very welcome in this very American race. If you ever make it to their bar, you should ask for their signature cocktail, the Thunderhead.

(Delivery team with Tango's owner, Dave, enjoying Thunderheads at the CYC bar upon completion of the mission)

Last updated 18:27 on 6 August 2026