Port Huron To Mackinac Race / Yacht Clubs and World War II
In 1924, members of the Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit raced a schooner named Lloyd W. Berry and won the 731-mile race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda. Later that year, members of the Bayview Yacht Club, Port Huron Yacht Club and other sailing clubs organized a long distance fresh-water race on Lake Huron. The first annual race from Port Huron to Mackinac Island was held on July 25, 1925. Steamships towed boats from Lake St. Clair sixty miles up the St. Clair River to the starting line at Port Huron. Twelve boats began the 261-mile race to Mackinac Island, but only six boats finished due to high seas, strong winds and broken equipment.After the first Port Huron to Mackinac Race in 1925, entries in the sailing competition increased. A month after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, race organizers wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking if the Port Huron to Mackinac Race should be suspended due to the war. In a letter dated February 6, 1942, M.H. McIntyre, Secretary to the President, responded, “The continuation of yachting on the Great Lakes is encouraged by the Navy.” McIntyre urged Bayview Yacht Club and other Great Lakes yacht clubs to continue teaching young men navigation and seamanship skills and increase instruction in Morse Code and radio communication.
Plaque via Michigan History Center