Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race - Il Mostro breaks monohull record
by Barby MacGowan 24 Jul 2017 20:55 BST
Il Mostro breaks monohull record for Cove Island course during Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race 2017 © Martin Chumiecki
Peter Thornton's Volvo 70 Il Mostro broke its own race course record today in the 93rd Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race. The newly established elapsed time record for the 254-nautical mile Cove Island Course is 21:45:12.
Il Mostro's previous record, set in 2015, was 23:39:54. Il Mostro missed breaking the course's multihull record (held by Rick Warner's Arete) by a mere 15 seconds.
Il Mostro was the first to finish of 207 boats in the race that started on Saturday from Port Huron; 124 of the boats (including 7 multihulls) sailed the Cove Island Course) and 82 of those sailing the shorter 204 nm Shore Course. The team crossed the finish line at 11:25:12 this morning.
Thornton described how at one point in the race, about 20 miles from Cove Island, his team was clipping along, approximately 30 miles in front of all other teams. "Then we sailed into a hole for two hours and Wizard was the only one who stayed with us; the rest of the fleet saw us stalled and went to the Michigan shore."
After Il Mostro got going again, a storm harbouring gusts of "mostly 25 knots, up to 30" carried the boat at an average of 21 knots up the straights to Mackinac Island.
Wizard, David and Peter Askew's Reichel/Pugh 74, crossed the finish line at 12:19:13. In the standings, they correct out ahead of Il Mostro.
"It was fun – a great race," said Thornton. "We're just happy to be out there doing this."
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