Optima Wins Second Yacht Club Race in a Row

This story first appeared in the August 18, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

Four sailboats and their captains and crews braved choppy, angry waters in the Straits of Mackinac, glowering skies, and a small craft advisory to compete in the Mackinac Island Yacht Club’s annual Mission Point Mac to Mac Regatta Saturday, August 12. Only two of the four boats finished with Optima coming in first and Vagari second, while Alice and Carolina Moon were unable to finish owing to equipment failures. The race took sailors from the starting line outside the harbor across from the Yacht Club to the Mackinac Bridge, circling the south bridge tower, and then back to the Island.

Captained by LeRoy Pieri, Optima also came in first at the first annual Dave Rowe Memorial 4th of July Race sponsored by the Pink Pony earlier this summer. The second scheduled race, the Chicago Mac Round the Island Race, was canceled owing to lack of participation. Jay Schindler, who has raced with Mr. Pieri for years, said they were well positioned from the beginning and sailed upwind – beating, which requires sailing a zig-zag course – before a relaxing ride back, running with the wind. Mr. Schindler, sailing the Mac to Mac for his second time, praised Mr. Pieri for his outstanding skills as a captain and for managing his crew amid the rough conditions. Mr. Pieri, Mr. Schindler, and Chris Byrnes sailed Optima from Cedarville to the Straits the morning of the race. The rest of his crew, including Sue Bissell and mother and daughter Kim Kihnke and Lilah Laninga, had to be transferred to Optima from the committee boat just outside the harbor only minutes before the race started at 1:10 p.m. The committee boat was captained by Jeff Dupre. Ms. Kihnke and Ms. Laninga sailed their first yacht club race with Mr. Pieri at the 4th of July race, where they both recalled a great experience and looked forward to racing with him again, though Ms. Laninga was nervous to sail in such choppy waters. And she wasn’t the only one.

“We were a little surprised when they went ahead with the race,” Mr. Schindler said.

It was Ms. Bissell’s first time sailing the Mac to Mac race, and her first race at all in a while, she said. She’s an experienced sailor and met Mr. Pieri years ago when they worked together. Also on the crew, Mr. Byrnes has been sailing with Mr. Pieri for years and said they had won many yacht club race series together. Overall, Mr. Pieri said, it was a great race, even with the crazy conditions.

“It’s always great to sail with LeRoy,” Mr. Byrnes said.

Vagari, which came in second, was captained by skipper Mark Case. Mr. Case said even though they didn’t nail the start, he had a new crew who picked it up fast and they got better as the race went on. It was a wet race, and the crew recalled getting soaked.

Alice makes her way out past the Round Island Lighthouse in the Mission Point Mac to Mac Regatta, Saturday afternoon, August 12. The vessel did not circle the south tower of the bridge as laid out in the course owing to trouble with the sails and was unable to finish the race.

“It was a sleigh ride back, going about 10 knots,” Mr. Case said.

At the race party at Mission Point Resort after the regatta, the crew from Carolina Moon, made up of John Wininger, Robert Chambers, Dan Motz, Steve Sweet, Lake Sweet, Alex Kopaeka, and Thomas Rilenge – also known as the party boat – regaled anyone who would listen with war stories of what went down aboard their boat. They had a great start and were grinding the first half of the race, Mr. Chambers said, but ended up calling it because “mother nature wins.”

“It’s cool to see what you can get out of a boat,” Mr. Chambers said.

As they told the story, shouts of “Mother nature won,” and “Something’s happening, the deck is breaking,” and “Should we call someone?” rang out across the table over dinner and beer bottles. Barring disaster, they would have had an easy second most of the crew agreed. But they did have a disaster. Amongst their struggles, a chain plate on the boat came loose, which could have led to the boat being demasted. They may not have been the first crew to finish – or finish at all – but they were the first crew to the Pink Pony, they said, which to them seemed to be all that mattered.

Optima had a bit of a chaotic start, transferring half of its crew from the committee boat, which was in the harbor. Optima captain LeRoy Pieri sailed in from Cedarville that morning with Jay Schindler and Chris Byrnes, arriving in the Straits just minutes before the race.

“You gotta push it to the limit,” Mr. Wininger said. Mr. Chambers praised Mr. Wininger’s ability to lead the crew through such conditions. “And we found the limit.”

The next yacht club race and last one of the 2023 season will be the Horn’s Labor Day Race Saturday, September 2. 

Under full sail, Alice flies past the red roofs of Mission Point Resort, which sponsored the Mac to Mac Regatta.