Views and Comments
from
Our Membership
This section is dedicated to the views and comments of our membership. It is a place to express their feelings about the Great Lakes Single Handed Society and the Port Huron/Chicago to Mackinac Island Solo Challenges, the Sault Ste. Marie to Duluth Solo Challenge, and the Lake Erie Solo Challenge.
If you are a member, and wish to express your views or comments, send them to the GLSS webmaster. In particular, we are interested in hearing how and why you started doing the challenge, and what you get from the challenge, or your membership.
Mike (Al) Merrithew completed his first Pt. Huron - Mackinac Solo in 1986. He has completed 13 races, winning 3. He was the GLSS President in 1994, and has served on the Board of Directors several times.
"Merrithew, if you had one hair on your butt, you’d be out there with us for the Solo Race!" That is how I was approached by friends Larry Remer and Dick Lappin, both of
whom had completed two or three races. "Even with your wife and kids aboard you sail the boat by yourself most of the time." They were right. My wife said I was nuts, but I wanted to see if I, too,
had the guts for such a challenge. "A man has to do, what a man has to do," is what I told my wife.
Larry and Dick coached me over the next few weeks. Food and equipment lists were compiled and revised. Meals prepared and frozen, and the boat inspected and re-inspected. My qualifier was a blast.
Having completed eleven races, dropped out of two others, and failed to start one other, I still feel that I was more organized for my first race than any of them. After I finished the first race, I called my wife to say that I doubted I would ever do it again. Lo and behold, there I was the next year out on the starting line looking 42 degrees Northeast toward Goderich.
Do you have the guts?
Home 
