By Stephen Ryan

There is something special about the start of the Chicago – Mackinac sailboat race. Its not just the sheer numbers – three hundred and fifty five boats crewed by over three thousand sailors – numbers that make the Chicago-Mac race the world’s largest freshwater sailboat regatta – but the glorious setting is unmatched anywhere in the world . The spectacular Chicago skyline majestically frames the starting line while burgees, class flags, and spinnakers paint the waters of Lake Michigan in a way that would exhaust even the most energetic impressionist painter to duplicate.

Despite the race’s festive atmosphere, just before the start, each competitor silently contemplates what lies ahead – a three hundred mile race on one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world – a lake renowned for violent summer squalls. Demastings, capsizes, and sailors dumped into the lake in the dark of night are common occurrences.

Our start was at three o’clock in the afternoon and we rushed to the line trying to squeeze into a open slot among the thirty boats in our class all trying to get to the same spot at the same time. After the frantic start things settled down and the first day and evening were pleasant and efficient and our boat “Luna Sea” moved up the lake, on course, in a southerly breeze. We were thankful for the steady winds and dry air – no thunderstorms tonight we thought.

Free keepsake Wooden Cross from Tappist Monks

As the sun came up on Saturday morning the wind began to ease and the dry cool air slowly moved away and still humid weather arrived like an unwelcomed uncle. We sat on the lake for the next twenty hours crawling along at .5 knots, then 1 knot, then 0. That day, lots of music, lots of water and Gatorade, and an epic battle against the notorious Lake Michigan flys. By the end of the day the boat’s cockpit looked like a war zone. As the sun set we looked to the skys for signs of storms but nothing developed that night.

On Sunday morning the winds finally began to fill and we had one of the greatest sailing days I can remember – 15-20 knots, gusts to 25. It was a big day for our relatively small thrity-five foot boat. We flew our spinnaker for most of the day until we were overpowered by a big gust of wind. Our boat rounded up into the wind and we were knocked down and we struggled to get our spinnaker down. Getting knocked down in a keel boat with a spinnaker flying is a relatively common occurrence. It is nerve racking but it is a part of the racing game. To compete, boats and crews have to be pushed to the limit. We kept our big sail up until the boat could simply not carry it any longer. Once we got the spinnaker down we continued the race under mainsail and genoa headsail.

At about 8:00 p.m. I went down to get some rest – my watch was over. The winds were still firm at 15 to 20 and seas had been building all day. It had been an exhilarating day. I dozed off for a couple of hours and then still half a sleep I noticed the crew on watch scramble to get their foul weather gear on. I cleared my thoughts, got up and then poked my ahead above the companion way and looked at the gauges then I looked up at the sky. “Holy Mother” was my first thought. In the distance was a lightning storm unlike anything I had ever seen. Huge, thick bolts of lighting were pulverizing the water. The storm was still a long way off and the thunder was just making its way to our boat. When the lighting lit up the sky we could see the enormity of the storm. Across the Lake Michigan horizon – east to west – as far as the eye could see was not so much thick dark clouds but something different – the clouds glowed from the huge amount of electricity in the atmosphere.

I had read a lot about summer squalls on Lake Michigan before the race – I felt I understood their ferocity – so I quickly urged the skipper to drop sails. After another enormous lighting bolt, this time accompanied by a cannon shot of thunder, the sails came down with no further discussion. Then we waited. Waiting for the storm to hit we watched the spectacular, terrifying light show move towards us.
I began to pray – not because I thought we were in any great danger at that moment, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. It always brings me comfort.

Minutes before the storm was on top of us, our VHF radio came on with a frantic May Day call to the Coast Guard. I had never heard a live May Day call and our stomachs sank when we heard a boat named “Wing Nut” had capsized just ahead of us and all eight of its crew members had gone into the dark rough seas. Then the wind began to hit us. Starting from a calm five knots the wind indicator quickly shot to twenty. Rain followed. Then the storm really hit.

I was sitting in the cockpit, eyes on the wind gauge, when it occurred to me the most inexperienced sailor was at the helm. The twenty five year old New York banker who was driving the boat was the least experianced sailor on the boat but since the start of the race I had really gotten to like and trust the young man. He was smart, tough, and strong as a bull.

As the wind climbed to forty the rain began to feel like needles against our faces. I looked at the young man at the wheel and he was pulling his rain hat down below his eyes desperately trying to keep the boat on course. I wondered if he could really see anything. Then forty five knots of wind. The VHF radio which had been filled with voices of sailors involved in the frantic search for two missing crew members from the capsized boat was suddenly punctuated with a new crisis – two boats had collided in the storm and one was taking on water.

Fifty knots. Then it hit me – despite the huge winds our boat seemed calm and under control. Again I looked at the helmsman trying to keep the rain from stinging his eyes. It seemed he could not see a thing. I looked at our course – steady as she goes. I thought what a remarkable job the kid on the wheel was doing. As the winds continued to howl, I now feared that the summer squall could turn into a dangerous full blown gale. The squall just seemed to be lasting to long. Then a pleasant but eerie sensation overcame me. I realized that despite the cataclysmic conditions surrounding us our boat was on course and completely stable. It was about then I began to think that perhaps a guardian from the heavens had joined us on board. A little miracle it seemed was taking place on our boat.

Then as quickly as the winds climbed to near hurricane force they left us. As soon as I saw the wind drop under thirty knots I knew the worst was over.

I stood up and gave our driver a standing ovation for keeping the boat on course. I then asked him how did he do it? How could he see? He said he wasn’t really sure. He then noticed that the wheel was turned completely to the right “Hard to starboard” in sailboat parlance. He really had not been steering, but the boat had kept its course. A little miracle? Perhaps. There is an earthly explanation. The driver had accidentally done exactly the right thing. The driver had “Heaved to” – In sailing, heaving to is a way of slowing a sail boat’s forward progress, as well as fixing the helm and sail positions so that the boat does not actively have to be steered. It is commonly used for a “break” to wait out a strong wind.

So the mystery remains. Did “Luna Sea” get a little help from the heavens or did our young helmsman simply get the job done?

All I can say is I have sailed thousands of miles on the ocean and endured many storms and I have never been on a boat that seemed so calm in the face of such ferocious conditions.

On a somber note two crew members of the boat “Wing Nut”, Skipper Mark Morley and his girl friend, Suzanne Bickel, both of Saginaw, Michigan were lost. They had been tethered to the boat when it capsized and were unable to free themselves before drowning. This was the first time in the 103 year history of the Chicago – Mackinac race that lives were lost due to a weather related accident.

A perfect two-minute reflection on the true meaning of Christmas. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas.

By Stephen K. Ryan

On June 14, 2007 a George Mason University student was legally drunk when she veered into the path of a tractor-trailer on a ramp of the Capital Beltway, near Washington D.C. killing herself and three friends from West Potomac High-school. “Police said they found an open gallon of vodka, with about half of it gone, and a six-pack of beer in the white convertible Volkswagen, which was upside down, its roof gone. Reaction from family members of the victims ranged from resignation to anger yesterday.” – Washington Post

My daughter, a recent graduate of West Potomac High School, knew these girls. She told me, without asking, that the girls had been drinking Vodka that night because it was less “fattening than beer”, and that one could get “drunker faster without feeling full.”‘

With the tragic news and my daughter’s revelation of the increasing use of hard liquor by under-aged kids I found myself steamed – mad as hell. I am a big sports fan and I had noticed hard liquor advertising – ads for Vodka, Rum, and Tequila seep onto the nations television screens. Promotions for spirits are now plastered all over ESPN and other sporting events but most noticeably these ads have stormed NFL broadcasts and inside pro football stadiums.

After the horrific events in my community I found that I needed to express my feeling about “spirits” advertising on NFL football games, advertising that is seen by millions of impressionable kids, to someone. I picked up the phone and called “Mothers Against Drunk Driving”. I not only wanted to tell MADD the story about the young girls but I also wanted to share my opinion that the NFL encourages underage drinking and glamorizes the drinking lifestyle and they should do something about that.

It had been bothering that beer money – Bud and Miller Lite – was not good enough for NFL owners. They needed more. More dollars to pay for their yachting bills. Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins just launched his 234 foot “Mega Yacht” thanks to the extra coin he gets from the big contract he signed with Diageo – the largest seller of hard liquor brands in the world.
I called M.A.D.D. hoping to get a friendly ear but they erupted in anger at me for suggesting that the NFL encourages or glamorizes drinking.

I hung up the phone in disbelief. But it did not take me long to find out why MADD was so sensitive and defensive towards the NFL. Turns out that MADD, last year, took on the NFL as a gigantic new sponsor. I was dumbfounded. I could not believe that Mother’s Against Drunk Driving made a deal with the NFL who, lets face it, makes most of its money from booze.  The rich TV deals are a function of alcohol advertising and MADD, in an astonishing money grab, took on the NFL as a major partner, a partner that is arguably the single largest contributor to glamorizing the culture of drinking.

EXCUSE ME? – MADD gets money from the NFL. I would have thought they were the sworn enemy.

I called back: Kimberly Earle, MADD’s new US chief, said the group does not want to keep adults from drinking alcohol.
“Mothers Against Drunk Driving is supposed to be against drunk driving, not the act of having a drink or even having one too many drinks. We are against drunk driving and we want to help children not drink before they’re 21,” Earle said. “That doesn’t have anything to do with people making responsible choices.”

I asked them if they believe that the NFL contributes to underage drinking and if their advertising partnerships with liquor companies increases demand for hard liquor by young people
Answer: “Click” they hung up on me.

Even before the three girls in my community died I had been troubled by the rise of liquor ads inside the Washington Redskins football Stadium. A few years earlier Dan Snyder owner of the Washington Redskins became the first NFL team to accept money from a spirits company. Mr. Snyder signed the deal with Diagio, makers of Smirnoff Vodka, even though the NFL commissioner’s office was at the time uncertain if the agreement violated sponsorship guidelines.

Dan Snyder pushed hard to get his advertising deal. Dan got his money, his high priced free agents and his boat, while our community in Alexandria, Va. is left picking up the pieces of a tragedy, impart, caused  by Vodka that is promoted by Dan Snyder and the N.F.L.

For thousands of children who come to watch football games in the “family friendly” Redskin’s stadium it is their first exposure to hard liquor brands. MADD knows this but they have chosen to look the other way. MADD who works very closely with police forces across the country seems more intent on having young people arrested, young people who have been seduced into drinking by the onslaught of advertising on TV rather than reducing demand for alcohol products.
The most galling aspect to all of this is that the Washington Redskins have led the charge to advertise higher margin, higher paying “Hard Liquor”brands while our United States Congressman and Senators sit in their cushy seats at the Redskin’s Ballpark oblivious to all that is around them.

Whenever I go to a Washington Redskin’s game and I see the Smirnoff Vodka sign just below the scoreboard, I think of my daughter’s classmates who died drinking Dan Snyder’s best client’s booze. I think about those girls a lot and I get mad as hell and I wish MADD would think about those girls as well and help us get hard liquor advertising out of football stadiums out of sports stadiums.