Local solo sailor knows the Great Lakes
Richard Lappin of Rogers City has won 17 out 24 major single-handed races that he has completed on the Great Lakes in the past 25 years. Lappin has been sailing the same C&C 27 vessel, the Ginger Kay since 1972 and has sailed for 40 years in total. The yacht?s name comes from the first names of his wife and daughter respectively. He started single-handed racing in 1980. Single-handed sailing is a challenge for anyone who has tried it out in the local harbor but just imagine going it alone for 85 hours on Lake Superior! That?s exactly what Lappin did in August during the 2005 International Trans-Superior Yacht Race.
He was unfamiliar with the entry to Duluth Harbor and had to tack back to his destination after over shooting it. That maneuver cost him precious time and Lappin had to settle for second place ending a run of 11 straight wins in Great Lakes Single-handed Society sanctioned races. ?I do better on the second day,? he explained. ?That?s what separates the men from the boys and I have always done well at that point in the race.? Lappin also said his boat is better suited to heavy air sailing where his experience and stamina pays off in adverse conditions. ?I actually need crappy weather to do well in a race like this,? he said.
SLEEPING ON a race that takes two to three days is a matter of knowing how to catnap. Lappin explained how he uses a small kitchen timer that he attaches to his shirt to be able to nod off when the conditions are just right. ?I had a marvelous boating experience in this race from the Soo to Duluth. The race has been held every second year since 1969 for crewed boats only but this year was the first time single-handed boats were included,? Lappin said as he sat in his back yard overlooking Lakeside Park in Rogers City. ?The Rum Line distance is 380 miles from Gross Cap Reef to Duluth and I logged 412 miles by GPS. Overall, we had more problems with light air than heavy winds. The weather was great,? he continued. He explained that a ?Rum Line? is a throw back to the days of prohibition when rumrunners would race out to the 12-mile international limit to smuggle liquor in from Canada. ?I figured the best I would be able to do over the course was three days because I have a relatively short water line. I finished in three and a half days, which isn?t too bad for light air conditions,? he said.
ANY SAILOR knows good weather is not always the case on the Great Lakes. He dropped out of the race in 1992 when he was fighting 35 mph winds, temperatures in the low 30s and heavy seas. About 60 percent of the boats didn?t finish the race that year. ?We had to report in every eight hours, which actually got me into trouble. The race organizers scattered six or seven satellite phones throughout the fleet of 30 boats that were taking part in the race,? Lappin said. The idea was for each boat in a given group to report into the boat with the satellite phone to keep everyone informed of their whereabouts. ?We were scattered over the water in the later stages of the race and they didn?t pick me up for a couple of the reporting periods and that caused my family some concern. When I got within 30 miles of the finish line I heard the race committee people on the radio out of Duluth asking the guy ahead of me if he had seen me,? Lappin said.
HIS FAMILY was watching the progress of the race over the Internet from their homes in Michigan, Colorado and California and they became concerned when his location was not listed on the website. Sooner or later someone called the Coast Guard but the race committee said there was not much cause for alarm as the reporting was not 100 percent and the weather was not threatening. Lappin did manage to contact the race committee eventually to dispel the jitters his family was having. ?I contacted my wife on the cell phone when I got within range of a tower and she told me she had just got off the phone with the Coast Guard. It wasn?t 10 minutes after we hung up the phone that the Coast Guard called wanting to know where the heck I was. I told them everything was hunky-dory,? he explained.
Another boat lost contact with the race committee and the Coast Guard called Lappin back to ask if he would go looking for them. ?I told them ?No, I am racing and so are they,?? he replied. ?It was a great experience with the emphasis on safety, sailing ability, boat preparation, navigation and rest management,? he said.
LAPPIN described a fabulous spinnaker run at night over the top of the Keweenaw Peninsula with shooting stars blazing across a spectacular backdrop of northern lights. From there he had light-to-moderate wind
Fletcher is a master sailor who won both the Port Huron to Mackinac and the Chicago to Mackinac races earlier this year. Lappin said the other Santa Cruz 70 in the race is the boat called Stripes and is owned by Bill Martin, the athletic director of U of M. Martin also served as a past U.S. Olympic Chairman. Lappin is a former engineer from General Motors who chose to make Rogers City his permanent home after retirement in 1998. Also, he is the commander of the local chapter of the U.S. Power Squadron in Rogers City.