Rare British entry is ‘bloody tough’
Lett primed to tackle Lake Michigan waters in his ‘Velocity Girl’
The Mac gets a royal guard. Family yacht racing is the soul of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. But in recent decades, the Mac also has attracted top sailors and adventurers — Steve Fossett to Roy Disney — from around the world.
This year is no different. Richard Lett, fresh off finishing the singlehanded trans-Atlantic OSTAR, takes on his first Mac.
“I have known about the Mac for years,’’ Lett said. “It is one I have always aspired to race.’’
The 105th Mac begins Friday, with the cruising division setting sail east of Navy Pier for the 333-mile race to Mackinac Island, Mich. The bulk of the fleet sails Saturday in the world’s oldest freshwater distance race.
Lett, who retired from Metropolitan Police as a Personal Protection Officer to the Royal Family, was made a member of the Royal Victorian Order by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2013 New Years Honors list. He will be racing in the doublehanded division with Harry Vogel from Holland on “Velocity Girl,’’ a VQ32 designed by Dick Koopmans.
“For a little boat, she is bloody tough,’’ Lett said. That 32-footer is a rare British entry in the Mac.
Sailing is more than gallivanting around the world for Lett.
He is racing for “Pathways to Children,’’ a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota ( pathwaystochildren.
org). He met his new wife in Mumbai, India, where she was a director of the organization, which provides education and health for children of Mumbai and volunteering opportunities for American youth.
“I am trying to get to Minne- sota,’’ cracked Lett, who said he would have taken the Hudson River and come by water to Chicago after finishing the OSTAR in Rhode Island, if he had had the time.
Instead, Great Lakes Boat Transport hauled it to Chicago.
Lett will get to Minnesota by water. He plans to race the Trans Superior in early August and finish in Duluth, Minn.
Just in case it seems Lett is overly serious, know the nickname of “Velocity Girl’’ is “Flossie.’’
“When you have a beer, it becomes ‘Flossie,’ ’’ he said. “It is a morph.’’
He understands conditions on Lake Michigan can morph from noair to deadly storms very quickly.
“I am pretty geared up for this to be a serious yacht race,’’ he said. “I sailed across the Atlantic and cleared my mind.’’
Waves and winds are different challenges on Lake Michigan than they are on the ocean.
“It is a proper seaman challenge,’’ he said. “Other competitors will be canny on the wind. I will be embarrassed. I am quite prepared to come in last.’’
With that in mind, he expects to not play the winds on either shore and simply take the rhumb line straight there.
“I don’t think I will get the wind shifts, unless I get real lucky and look good,’’ he said.