About 60 out of 202 boats had yet to finish in the 95th edition of the annual Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race. Still, the overall winner of the race has already been recognized on the Cove Island course. Santa Cruz 70 Stripes, owned by Bill Martin, reached the top position out of 107 boats on his 259 nm course. It was corrected out over another, Equation, which is a Santa Cruz 70. It is owned by Tom Anderson and Bill Alcott. They finished the race in the second position at a gap of just two minutes.
Bill Martin finished the race before 10 pm at night. It was known that Bill turned in an elapsed time of 32:09:33. According to a statement made by Martin, there were a lot of things involved within the race. There was a bit of running, reaching on time, a nasty storm, and most importantly a lot of beating as well. He said a heavy storm threw in on the very first day of the race. It included torrential rain with winds more than 30 knots. Bill is the proud owner of 51 races under his sailing belt.
Bill Martin, the winner of the yearly Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race also stated that the race becomes fun when you can compete with somebody so closely. In fact, other two Santa Cruz 70s were also there which made the competition even more fun for him. He said that beating it after the Cove Island Buoy which is almost halfway, was pretty difficult as it was more than 100 miles. The winds were within the 20s for sometime before picking it up at 30 knots.
Robert Nutter is the Chairman of the Bell’s Beer Bayview Mackinac Race. He said that it rained for more than three hours because of the storm. But everyone carried on with the race and enjoyed amidst all the breakdowns.