Local boating: Put-in-Bay hosts 111th Race Week
7/29/2004One of sailing oldest traditions - the Inter-Lake Yachting Association's 111th annual Race Week - will be making waves at Put-in-Bay next week.
And sailors can expect all the traditional Bay Week activities: three days of high-level competition sandwiched between lots of parties offering complimentary beer and rum drinks.
"We'll have the first Deep Water Race [tomorrow] and then'' the parties start and it gets wild, said race chairman Don Bartels of Cleveland.
The three-day series, slated Monday to Wednesday, will bring together a large fleet of cruising auxiliaries, keelboat one-designs, multihulls and centerboarders hailing from Detroit to Erie and everywhere in between.
In addition to the regular races, the regatta will include about 38 boats competing in the 2004 Tartan Ten National Championship.
Bartels said he isn't up to date on the number of entries because race applications were sent to Put-in-Bay. The registrar is at the Bay, but he's been busy wth the ILYA Powerboat Regatta.
"The last I heard," Bartels said, "there were about 70 boats, in addition to the Tartans, one-designs, and multihulls."
Bay Week attracts serious racers because it's an opportunity to race against boats from all over Lake Erie. It also determines the ILYA PHRF Class Championship.
However, the three-day series also includes a division for more laid-back crews and novices. The Casual Cruising Class races on various courses that wind around one or more of the Lake Erie islands. To qualify, the boat must be a true cruising boat or a racer/cruiser with a comfortable interior, not a racing machine on a "trophy hunt."
The Toledo Deep Water Race will feed the local fleet from North Cape Yacht Club to the Bay on Saturday. Starting time is at 9 a.m.
Other feeders are scheduled from Cleveland tomorrow, Port Clinton and Sandusky on Saturday and Detroit on Sunday. The Sandusky Steeple Chase, limited to catamarans and centerboards, will get underway Saturday.
Another big event for boating enthusiasts, and spectators as well, is the third annual Great Maumee River Dragon Boat Festival slated at International Park from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
The event will showcase 34 Hong Kong-style canoes - each propelled by 20 Toledo-area paddlers and a steersman - competing on a 500-meter course in the Maumee River off International Park. The celebration also includes food, live music, colorful dancers, Karate and Tai Chi demonstrations, and a children's activity area.
Proceeds will benefit Partners in Education of Toledo, a not-for-profit organization that devlops partnerships berween area schools and northwest Ohio businesses, governments, civic organizations, and churches.
For more information, contact Marilyn Levine, 419-242-2122.
LOGBOOK:
Only two weeks are left before the River Roar blasts off on the Maumee River in downtown Toledo. The exciting Champboat races will feature about 20 powerful tunnel boats racing side by side for 50 laps on a course between The Docks and Promenade Park, Aug. 13-15.
Advance tickets are available at the Toledo Sports Arena Box Office, Ticketmaster, and the Toledo River Roar Web site (http://www.toledoriverroar.com.).
MACKINAC RACE:
MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. - Earth Voyager, Esmeralda and Bozo's Circus have won their divisions in the 96th running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac.
Light winds hampered the 333-mile competition up Lake Michigan, and at least 90 of the 300 plus boats that started the race Saturday dropped out. Forty had yet to finish by late Tuesday, race organizers said.
Bozo's Circus, owned by Bruce Metcalf of the Chicago Yacht Club, won the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Division in a corrected time of 43 hours, 59 minutes, 38 seconds.
Esmeralda, owned by Makoto Uematsu of Seabornia Yacht Club in Japan, won the Mackinac Cup division in 37:05:17.
Earth Voyager, owned by Ryan and Todd Howe of Genesee Yacht Club, won the Multihull Division in 53:15:10.
AUGUST BOATING EVENTS:
July 31/Aug. 6-Thistle National Championshiop, Michigan City Yacht Club
2/4-111th Inter-Lake Yachting Association Regatta, Put-in-Bay Yacht Club
5-Brown Trophy Race, Vermilion Boat Club
6/7-Toledo Power Squadron Commanders Rendezvous, Toledo Yacht Club
7-Doublehanded Race, North Cape Yacht Club
7-Annual Regtta, Maumee River Yacht Club
7-46th annual Regatta, Ford Yacht Club
7-ILYA Travelers Series Regatta, Buckeye Lake Yacht Club
8-Women's Race, Monroe Boat Club
13/14-Nite Race, Ford Yacht Club
13/15-River Roar Champboat Championship,downtown riverfront
13/29-Olympic Games, Athens
14-26th Irene Southworth Memorial Race, North Cape Yacht Club
15-Adam and Eve Race, Ford Yacht Club