Optima Wins First Dave Rowe Memorial 4th of July Race

This story first appeared in the July 7, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

The first annual Dave Rowe Memorial 4th of July Race was off to a slow start Saturday, July 1, as seven boats lined up on Lake Huron across from Mission Point Resort. With little to no wind that morning, there was a brief discussion about whether to hold the race at all. Beholden to a four-hour time limit and moments of 0.00 knots (the nautical curse of no wind speed), only three of the seven boats finished the race. Rascal finished in third place, Turn the Page in second, and Optima in first. Four boats didn’t finish, including Panache, Kanani, Carolina Moon, and Hot Sheet. The top three, and only finishers, won gift certificates to the Mackinac Island Yacht Club.

The annual race, previously known as the Pink Pony 4th of July Race, was recently renamed to honor longtime yacht club race chairman and past yacht club commodore, David Rowe, who passed away last year. The race is sponsored by the Pink Pony and organized by the yacht club.

Jay Schindler (back, from left), Lilah Laninga, David Meninga, Kim Kihnke (front), and skipper LeRoy Pieri crewed Optima, winner of the first Dave Rowe Memorial 4th of July Race Sponsored by the Pink Pony. 

The winning boat crew included captain LeRoy Pieri, Jay Schindler, David Meninga, who had all competed in the race before, and newcomers Kim Kihnke and Lilah Laninga. Ms. Kihnke and her daughter, Ms. Laninga, found Mr. Pieri online through a sailing app and came to the Island from the Petoskey area for their first Mackinac Island 4th of July regatta. Ms. Laninga said she rode the ferry to the Island wearing her life vest because it was the easiest way to carry it with the rest of her gear, earning her some strange looks.

Ms. Laninga, participating in her first “real” sailboat race, said she had an amazing experience even if she’s still a little afraid of sailboats.

“Sometimes I think we’re going to turtle, or capsize, or something,” Ms. Laninga said. “It’s really fun. I think I did a good job of manning the lines.”

Most of the skippers arrived at noon on the porch of the Mackinac Island Yacht Club for the skippers meeting, except for the skipper of Kanani, who met the boats on the water just before the race. At the starting line, engines cut at 1 p.m. and the race began at 1:10 p.m. sharp as Jeff Dupre staffed the committee boat. Kanani started the race far behind the starting line and the rest of the boats. The racers sailed counterclockwise around the Island.

The Optima crew described a good start as the race got going until it began to go downhill. At one point, when they were stuck with no wind to carry them, Mr. Meninga jumped off the boat for a dip in the water.

“He was our ‘Wind Fairy,’” Ms. Kihnke said.

With his bright pink nail polish and neon yellow shirt, every time Mr. Meninga went below deck or jumped off the boat, the wind came back.

During the race, the skippers encountered a wide variety of wind conditions, including the dreaded 0.00 knots of wind. But lack of wind wasn’t the only obstacle the seven boats encountered. As Optima picked up speed and made it to the end of the course, it got a little too close to the lighthouse, Ms. Laninga recalled.

After the only three boats to complete the race finished, some remaining crews were within view of the yacht club just minutes before the time limit. Most of them got stuck in the currents outside the harbor and started going backward as yacht club general manager Tim Mc- Cleery watched with binoculars from the porch and called the race over via VHF radio channel 69.

When all the crews finally arrived for a short awards celebration, they were awarded yacht club hats.

After the awards ceremony Saturday afternoon, Mr. Pieri and his crew remarked again about the varying wind conditions they encountered. It seemed to be the defining character of the race.

“The pendulum was all over the place,” Mr. Schindler said. “Moments of no moving, triple zeros.”

They were dead in the water, they all agreed. And it’s hard to win first place when you’re dead in the water.

“I was a little hard on the crew today,” Mr. Pieri said as the skippers began to part ways.

But they won anyway.

The next races hosted by the club will be the Chicago Mac Round the Island Race Wednesday, July 26, followed by the Mission Point Mac to Mac Regatta Saturday, August 12, and the Horn’s Labor Day Race Saturday, September 2.