Miracle rescue after storm tosses sailor

The 2025 Bayview Mackinac Race got underway for the 101st edition on July 12 with 191 entrants on either the Cove Island Course (259 nm) or Shore Course (204 nm). While favorable weather promised a fast race, the brisk conditions at the start were not, however, without cost.

Several entries suffered breakdowns in sails, rigs, rudders, along with two crew-overboard incidents. In this report by Phoebe Wall Howard, she details one of the rescues:

A sudden storm carrying strong winds pounded Trident, a Santa Cruz 70, just hours after the 101st Port Huron to Mackinac race started on Saturday — washing overboard a veteran sailor lost from sight for nearly an hour.

Gusts pushed the 70-foot boat onto its side, causing the crew to tumble.

“Our deck was at 90 degrees to the water,” Skipper Kent Colpaert of Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., said during an exclusive interview with Shifting Gears at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Crashing waves swept Pete Pryce of New Hudson, Mich., into Lake Huron. His crewmates worked to get emergency flotation devices into the cold water. They threw everything and anything with hope it would help. – Full report