2008 Karma MAC Team- From Left: Steve Mathias, "Dino"Stamatis, Seth Morrell, Scott Seifert, Jack Buoscio, Cristina Cordero-Chadwick, Martin Sandoval, Lou Sandoval (photo credit: S. Mathias)

The 100th Running of the longest Freshwater Race from Chicago to Mackinac came to close yesterday. The First 36.7 fleet of twenty-four boats crowned another winner in the section. Fleet members convened from around North America and locations from as far away as Long Island, NY to compete in a race that started out ‘wet’ and finished ‘windy’. The fleet saw a variety of weather conditions ranging from light winds to fog to an Easterly breeze that greeted them enroute to the finish line as they competed for the Harbor Springs Trophy in the First 36.7 Section and Overall for the Mackinac Trophy Division. In the end, it was "Karma"-owned by Lou Sandoval, Martin Sandoval and Jack Buoscio in first, followed by Warren Levins’ "Program"in second, last year’s section winner Charles Bayer’s "Grizzly"in third, Claudio Martin’s "Critical"in fourth and Robert Foley’s "Tried and True"in fifth.

‘Karma’ battled back from a less than favorable start to the 333 mile race. "We were deep in the start sequence ...We must have been in 6th or 7th place in the start and just stayed offshore of Grizzly and Program who got very good starts"said Martin Sandoval. Karma is no stranger to the podium in this event- having won the section in 2004-2006. "This was the sweetest of them all. We had to get a huge monkey off our back from our finish in 2007"said Lou Sandoval. Karma withdrew from the 2007 contest while enroute to a strong second place finish. They ran aground two miles from the finish line at South Graham’s shoal- received assistance to dislodge themselves and were 4th to cross despite. "In the end, it was a strong team effort and focus that made it happen. There are many good racers in the fleet and it is not an easy job to win. Any boat out here can win, that is the tough part"said Jack Buoscio.

Karma crossed the line at 7:08pm CDT on Monday July 21st with an elapsed time of 58:38:38. They were the first boat to cross the line in the Mackinac Trophy division and corrected to 48:18:18 and a 3rd overall finish. The finish of the 36.7’s in the fleet bodes well for the design given the recent victory by ‘Tenacious’ in the Newport-Bermuda -Gibbs Hill Division. Five of the top 20 boats in the Mackinac Trophy division were Beneteau First 36.7s. The top 36.7 finished ahead of the entire 40.7 fleet. "Given the varied wind conditions ranging from light to heavy, the 36.7 loves to go and having a 24 boat one-design section just makes it all the more exciting"says Lou Sandoval.

Next for the Lake Michigan Fleet is the Verve Cup August 15-17 which will serve as a ‘warm up’ for the North American Championship September 3-6 at Chicago Yacht Club-Belmont Station.

About the Race to Mackinac-

Informally known as the ‘MAC’-It is the longest annual freshwater race that starts just off the Chicago Lighthouse and finishes at the Round Island lighthouse on Mackinac Island. The race is 333 statute miles in length (289.4 nautical miles). It was first run in 1898 as an informal race of five boats. The second Mac didn’t come until 1904 and then intermittently until after WWI. Every Year since 1921 has seen the running of the Race to Mackinac. 2008 marks the 100th running. Annually, the race is host to over 300 boats from around the world. The 100th running was host to a record number of over 430 boats.

For more information visit: www.chicagoyachtclub.org/racetomackinac

For information on the Beneteau First 36.7 North American Class visit: www.beneteaufirst367.org