July 17, 2023
Naval academy sailors drive up from Annapolis to race to Mackinac
Phoebe Wall Howard Detroit Free Press Navy Sailors prepare to hit the water for the Bayview Mackinac race More than two decades have passed since the U.S. Naval Academy entered a sailin
Phoebe Wall Howard
Detroit Free Press
Navy Sailors prepare to hit the water for the Bayview Mackinac race
More than two decades have passed since the U.S. Naval Academy entered a sailing team for the Bayview Mackinac race.
But this year, a group of six sailors and their varsity coach climbed into their white Ford Transit van at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and drove nine hours to Port Huron on July 9. There they met up with the Avenger, a J-105 sailboat that’s 34.5 feet long, sitting on stilts (called “jack stands”) in a shipyard. It had been trucked to Michigan.
Preparation would happen all day for five days before the 99th annual race that will take nearly 200 boats from Lake Huron, just north of the Blue Water Bridge, up to Mackinac Island on Saturday. The race runs from the south end of Lake Huron to the Straits of Mackinac, between the Upper and Lower peninsulas.
These future Navy and U.S. Marine Corps officers are racing 290 nautical miles on the Cove Island Course. This team is part of a 70-member (or so) sailing team at Annapolis, which has been spread out all over the country to compete in seven races and raise the profile of the U.S. Navy for potential recruitment.
Colin Caraher, 19, center, of Sayville, N.Y., works on setting up the bow of the racing sailboat with teammates Chloe Cowan, 19, left, of Norfolk, Va., and Nate Bramwell, 21, of West Plains, Mo., as members of the U.S. Naval Academy ready their racing sailboat at Desmond Marine in Port Huron on Monday, July 10, 2023, to race in the upcoming Port Huron to Mackinac race on Saturday, July 15. The boat named “Avenger” was shipped from Maryland and these officers in training were working to put it together. Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
“We’ve been spending 12 hours at the boat or on the water for the past three days,” said Pat Fisher, 21, an aerospace engineering major from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. “We’re super excited and a little bit nervous.”
The team will race all day, and through the night, taking no breaks for food or sleep. They plan to eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when not eating freeze-dried meals that just require adding water. Some of their competitors will cook hot meals or have meals packaged and catered ahead of time or eat simple foods like hard-boiled eggs that sailors tuck into their float coats — a coat with a built-in life jacket to handle cool temperatures, as well as safety.
“We hear the wind is absolutely nuking or it’s a float fest,” said Elliott Brandicourt, 20, a history major from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Shark-free waters
On the first morning of their weeklong stay, spent with host families in Port Huron, the Annapolis sailors were dressed in disposable coveralls sanding the bottom of their boat and washing it and polishing it to make it smooth, as is routine for competitive sailors. They took a doughnut break but pretty much worked relentlessly to put their boat back together, reattaching the boat rigging disassembled during shipment.
Elliott Brandicourt, 20, of Cincinnati, sprays down the bottom of a racing sailboat while sanding it with other members of the U.S. Naval Academy as they ready their boat at Desmond Marine in Port Huron on Monday, July 10, 2023, to race in the upcoming Port Huron to Mackinac race on Saturday, July 15. The boat named “Avenger” was shipped from Maryland and these officers in training were working to put it together. Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
- Isabelle “Bella” Navolio, 21, a math major from Bethesda, Maryland, said she’s happy to be racing in water without sharks. Her father was a Marine.
- Nate Bramwell, 21, a math major from West Plains, Missouri, looks at this race as his finale because this is the last race season the senior will sail for Annapolis. He’ll find out in November whether he gets to fly for the U.S. Marine Corps. His father was a Marine.
- Colin Caraher, 19, an aerospace engineering major from Sayville, New York, will be the primary driver during the race. He said he’s thinking about wave formation and how the boat will ride the water in various wind conditions. He has sailed all his life, having taught sailing. He is the third member of his family on the Navy team, following his sister and his brother, who are both in flight school now. He hopes to fly fighter jets for the Navy one day.
- Chloe Cowan, 19, a physics major from Norfolk, Virginia, attended summer camps on tiny sailboats as a kid and joined the Navy team on a whim. After playing crew, rugby and field hockey, she said the collaboration on a boat is unmatched and coed sports are uniquely fun. Her mom is an Annapolis graduate who retired as a naval commander, and her father served in the British Royal Navy.
Fisher, who serves as the skipper on this race, said the crew will be split in half, working four-hour shifts for the race that starts about noon on Saturday and may end late Sunday, late Monday or midday Tuesday, depending on the wind. Carrying enough food and water, but not too much to limit weight, is part of the strategy.
Last-minute repairs
Things aren’t without adversity.
On Wednesday, the Avenger went out for a practice sail and the engine died. The boat had to be towed and now the team needs to replace a part. The team hoped to go out again on Thursday night, after the repair, Fisher said. A working engine is required to charge batteries and get into harbor after the race. It’s also a safety issue if there’s an emergency.
U.S. Navy sailing team members Colin Caraher, 19, of Sayville, N.Y., left, Chloe Cowan, 19, of Norfolk, Va., and Nate Bramwell, 21, of West Plains, Mo., work on setting up lighting on the bow of their racing sailboat at Desmond Marine in Port Huron on Monday, July 10, 2023, to race in the upcoming Port Huron to Mackinac race on Saturday, July 15. The boat named “Avenger” was shipped from Maryland and these officers in training were working to put it together. Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
The rest of Port Huron will be celebrating with live music, carnival rides, food trucks and cocktails as part of the annual Boat Week celebration.
“This is a totally new experience for us,” Fisher said. “We mostly do our racing on the East Coast. We’ll just sail as fast as we can.”
State Rep. Andrew Beeler and his family helped find local homes to host the Annapolis midshipmen. His parents, Port Huron Yacht Club Past Commodore Steve Beeler and his wife, Lynne, have delivered doughnuts and helped the young sailors with boat issues. Andrew Beeler captained the offshore sailing team at Annapolis his senior year in 2014. This year, he’ll race his ninth Bayview Mackinac race on Fifty-50, an X-102 sailboat. Beeler, 30, a Port Huron Republican, has made the podium in four Mackinac races.
Race to win, head to Chicago
Coach Pete Carrico of Annandale, Virginia, the seamanship instructor and assistant director for the offshore sailing team at the naval academy, noted that the team competed in 2001 on a C&C 48 sailboat, placing in the top third of 21 boats in the class.
“It was a good experience,” he told the Free Press. “We’re trying to get sailors to come sail at the naval academy. We’re hoping we might inspire some young person to attend the naval academy. We compete at a high level at offshore distance races; we did Annapolis to Newport and placed second and third in class. It was a heavy air race where half the fleet dropped out. And we prevailed.”
U.S. Naval Academy sailing team members Elliott Brandicourt, 20, of Cincinnati, left,, Pat Fisher, 21, of Sheboygan, Wis., and Isabella Navolio, 21, of Bethesda, Md., take a doughnut break as they ready their boat at Desmond Marine in Port Huron on Monday, July 10, 2023, to race in the upcoming Port Huron to Mackinac race on Saturday, July 15. The boat named “Avenger” was shipped from Maryland and these officers in training were working to put it together. Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
The team races a 640-mile race to Bermuda every year, Carrico said. “That took us 4.5 days. It was light air. It’s a celestial navigation race, where you’re not allowed to use GPS. We were first and second in class and won. We were the first celestial boat to finish. We competed against boats that do have GPS, and they have a 3% advantage on time.”
When the team finishes this event, it’ll sail to the Windy City for the Chicago to Mackinac race on July 22.
“We race not just to compete, but to be on the podium,” Carrico said.
More than 1,200 sailors will compete in what is the longest consecutively run freshwater yacht race in the world. The debut Bayview to Mackinac race took place in 1925 with 12 yachts participating.
Editor’s note: Phoebe Wall Howard, an autos reporter, also writes about sailing and Mackinac Island. She is a member of the Port Huron Yacht Club and part of a longtime sailing family that has visited Mackinac since childhood. Her husband will compete in the same class as Avenger.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.
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