Karma Sailing Group-USA 55367

One of our "many" textbook Gybes ( big wink) during the 103rd Running of the Race to Mackinac.  This one was done in 16-18kts of breeze on a heading of 54 degrees just shy of Point Betsie.  Based on the camera record it was Sunday evening 18:53 hours on 7/17/11 just before the mother of all storms.   Good teamwork everyone!  Go Jason and Marty!  Go Smiley!!

Team Karma. Front Row: Left to Right- Jack Buoscio, Martin Sandoval, Lou Sandoval.  Top Row: Steve Mathias, Seth Morrell, Phil Toth, Cristina Cordero-Chadwick, Jason Veatch Mackinac Island, MI  July 20, 2011 -  Karma Sailing Group won the Beneteau First 36.7 One-Design section in the Annual Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac.  Their boat 'Karma' finished on Monday July 18th at 11:35:38 with an elapsed time of 46:55:38 ( a new team best time).  Their finish time had them rank third in the Mackinac Cup division on elapsed time.  Handicapping would have their corrected time equal 40:58:02 a respectable sixth overall in the cup division. The respectable finish in the 103rd Race to Mackinac is the sixth section title for Team Karma in the past eight years.  This year's race is significant for the Chicago based team in a year that saw one of the fiercest storms hit the fleet in possibly the entire history of the race.  The storm loaded with thunder, lightening and wind speeds

Watch live video from onthewateranarchy on Justin.tv Live Feed Video from the Start of the 103rd Race to Mackinac by Alan Block (aka Mr. Clean) from On-the-Water Sailing Anarchy.  There are some technical difficulties in the audio, but you can see Karma (Sail # 55367) with her Genoa up on the right side of the course.   Audio kicks back in at about 02:26 of the videocast just in time to hear our commentator opine that "For whatever reason, they want out to go out onto the lake.. It's an interesting move to let the fleet get inside leverage on them like that..."   Big Smiles from everyone.

 We Rounded buoy in the straights at 0800 hours behind 'Mental' J111. Our nearest competition appears to be Weatheredge 3 and Tried n True approx 1 to 1.25 miles behind us. Reaching in the straights on a heading of 095 doing 7.44kts.  It's all about maintaining consistent VMG from here to the line. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Karma Team is ok and still in the race after making our way through a severe weather front that hit the fleet in the Manitou Passage. In anticipation of the fronts we observed on the trajectory with the rhumbline we prepared our boat by changing to our blade. Crew donned safety tethers and braved the front as it made contact with us. We sailed through challenging seas and winds.  The storm front hit us at about 2400 hours.  There have been distress calls throughout the evening.  This is the first opportunity to be able to update our families.  For those of you following via our blog.  All are ok. _____ post note 7/20/11:  The photo above represents the Wx picture of the storm.  We started seeing the storm over Wisconsin at about 2300 hours on 7/17/11 and made preparations with the crew and sails.  Our boat is depicted by one of the small black dots closest to shore on the lower right side of the screen.  Our initial estimate was that we might be able to go in between both storm cell