Great Lakes sailors love a fast Mac. This year’s Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac was so fast it broke the elapsed time record when the Andrews 80 Maverick crossed the finish line Sunday afternoon, July 14. But it was a strong line of storms that swept over the fleet Saturday night that caused the most drama, with several dismastings and one crew overboard rescue that was called so “textbook perfect” that US Sailing immediately awarded the Arthur B. Hanson medal for seamanship to the crew of the Santa Cruz 52 Madcap for plucking Shawn Dougherty from Lake Michigan only 20 minutes after he fell off the J/125 Callisto.

“We were in the middle of a letterbox drop, and I unclipped to move back from the bow to go down the companionway to take in the spinnaker when the boat lurched, and in a nanosecond I did a back flip off the boat,” Dougherty said. “I said, ‘Oops, here we go.’”

At the time, Callisto was sailing at 15 knots under a full main and spinnaker. The front of the fleet at the northern edge of the squall line had been spared the worst, but embedded cells after the front had passed continued to vex the sailors.

“At the onset of the storm, we were conservative and had taken down the spinnaker, hoisted the J4 and reefed the main, but the storm abated and we soon went back to race mode,” said Jim Murray, owner and skipper of the J/125. “Then things got a little bit sporty when a cell collapsed on us.” 

The crew was in the middle of dropping the spinnaker when Dougherty went overboard, and in the chaos, the sail dropped in the water and the boat sailed over it.

“I went about six feet down before the life jacket inflated, bringing me up,” Dougherty said. “I said to myself, ‘Now I have to just do what we practiced.’ I reached into my fanny pack and pulled out the AIS and the strobe light and turned them on. I looked at my watch and thought this will probably take a few minutes. I realized my glasses were on, and put them in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose them,” Dougherty said. “I was very calm. The water was warm and I had trust in my crew that they would get me.”

Skipper Murray said he was surprised, but had faith in his crew.

“In all my years of sailing I never thought I’d say ‘man overboard,’” Murray said. “We had faith in Shawn doing the right things, and when we saw his strobe light go on, we knew he was okay. It allowed us to slow down. Everything was calm and completely businesslike.”

The Callisto crew immediately hit the distress button on the DSC VHF, which transmitted the alert to nearby race boats, and hailed a man-overboard call on the radio. Madcap was sailing two miles ahead of Callisto under a double-reefed main and No. 4 headsail when the man overboard alert sounded.

“During a storm our practice is to have someone in the nav station to keep an eye on the radar and monitor the radio for just this type of emergency,” said Marian Hoskins, who owns Madcap with her husband John. “John heard the VHF call of a man overboard followed by the AIS beacon.”

He clicked on the AIS icon, locking the coordinates into the GPS, which gave the course and bearing to Dougherty’s position. Hoskins called over VHF, saying they were the closest boat and were offering assistance. The crew started the engine, dropped the sails to give the helmsman better visibility and headed back.

“We were so surprised how fast he was drifting,” Marion said. “We finally were able to pick out Shawn’s light from all the other lights once we were about a mile away.”

Onboard Callisto, the crew worked at cutting away the sail, never losing sight of Dougherty’s light.

“We had quite a mess to clean up, but I was so relieved to hear John’s voice come on the radio and say, ‘This is Madcap. We have the AIS coordinates,’” Murray said.  “I knew Shawn would be rescued.”

Madcap quickly approached Dougherty, setting up slightly to windward in the confused seas.

“All I could see was a masthead and bow light and was blinded by a super big spotlight,” Dougherty said. “I was expecting to see Callisto, but when they pulled alongside and asked how I’d like to get onboard, I saw that it was Madcap.”

“We slowly drifted down toward Shawn,” Marion said. “Shawn shouted ‘I’m OK,’ and we flung the Lifesling to him. We pulled him around to the transom step where the crew grabbed him and lifted him out.

“I am so proud of our crew, all the practice and drills made everything go so smoothly,” she said. “Everyone was so calm and took their positions. It seemed we found him instantly, but it was about 20 minutes.” 

Once sorted out with all sails and lines aboard, Callisto neared Madcap, but the sea state made it unsafe to transfer Dougherty back to Callisto and he remained onboard Madcap until the finish. The crew shared some dry clothes and food.

“The crew was just wonderful, I said ‘feed the crew first,’ but they had plenty,” Dougherty said. “Coming from a freeze-dried grab-what-you-can situation, I didn’t realize that life aboard a Santa Cruz 52 was so good.”

Both boats finished in the early evening the next day. In the debriefs that followed, the sailors agreed that training allowed the crews to remain calm, communication between the boats allowed for a speedy recovery and the safety equipment worked as it should.

“I think the practice made it perfect,” Marion said. “And the equipment made all the difference. I don’t think we even had all this stuff five years ago.”

At the awards ceremony, in addition to receiving a flag for second place in Class 2, the Madcap crew was awarded US Sailing’s Arthur B. Hanson rescue medal for outstanding seamanship resulting in the rescue of a fellow sailor.

“The folks from US Sailing said that it’s rare to give the award so quickly, but that this rescue was so textbook perfect they didn’t need an investigation,” she said.

“The Chicago Yacht Club has done an excellent job of creating a culture of safety,” Murray said. “In a zero-failure scenario, this case worked perfectly. No two MOB situations are alike, but all the training and safety at sea lessons worked.”

For complete results of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac presented by Wintrust, visit www.cycracetomackinac.com.