Queen’s Cup race provides thrills, challenges for sailors
Winds howling out of the north east. Big choppy waves. Temperatures well below summer averages.
If there’s anything to be expected in the 80th running of the Queen’s Cup this weekend, the annual sailboat race from South Shore Yacht Club to Gran Haven, Mich., it’s that it is never the same race year after year. And that certainly was the case for the 160 boats that left Lake Michigan’s western shores Friday afternoon to head east for anywhere from 8 to 15 hours before finding eastern land and the sunrise.
Skippers and their crew faced 12-15 miles per hour winds on their departure, with some of them wondering if they’ll only turn back a few hours later, but the willingness to go anyway.
“The challenge of it; it’s always different,” said Kevin Wilcox of New Berlin.
“And the lake either lets you cross – or it doesn’t,” said Angel Wilcox.
This is the thrill of the Queen’s Cup and sailing on the Great Lakes, whether for serious contenders and swift boats, or cruisers with comfortable cabins.
Pete Engel traveled five blocks from his Bay View home to compete in his 30th or so Queens Cup. He was sailing a Nelson Marek 36-foot boat, which he named Rogue – something fitting for the challenge of sailing it.
“I have not won! But I’m going to keep trying,” said Engel. “It’s going to be big waves out there. The problem is, the winds are going to die down, and you’re going to be left with big waves out there and not a lot of wind to power the boat. It’s just pretty challenging driving.”
He has a crew of seven and they spend most time up in in the cockpit. Engel said they were expecting to be soaked for much of the night, but he’s been lucky to work with the same crew for years.
“You’ve always got to be thinking ahead,” said Engel.
Kevin and Angel Wilcox work well together on their boat Adventurous.
“I think it’s nice to get an escape out of your regular life,” said Angel Wilcox, a former meteorologist sailing with her husband Kevin, who’s done nearly every Queen’s Cup since 1990.
He’s endured thunderstorms that ripped off sails and stole spinnakers, only to place anyway. His teenage son and daughter will likely sail here too next year, the popularity of this race still growing with the new generations.
The story behind the actual Queen's Cup trophy is a source of pride for the yacht club. On August 19, 1853, the American racing sloop Silvie won second place in a regatta scheduled by the Royal Yacht Squadron that was raced off Cowes, England, according to the SSYC.
The first prize - a cup valued at 100 guineas - was won by the English yacht Gaily, six minutes and 38 seconds ahead of Silvie. This outstanding performance by both boats led the squadron to award a special prize to Silvie, a 50-guinea cup, now known as the Queen's Cup.
Nothing more is known about the cup until about the turn of the century.
Sailor Walter Hull treasured the cup for the rest of his life and kept it in his possession until 1938. At that time his good friend William Lawrie - later Commodore of South Shore Yacht Club in 1944 - persuaded him to deed it to South Shore Yacht Club.