On Jul 13, 8:47�pm, wrote:
On Jul 13, 9:34�am, (N.L. Eckert) wrote:
The first boats will be arriving at Mackinac Island �and �the Unlimited
Hydros will be throwing roostertails on the Detroit River today. �Alas,
I �won't be there this time to see any of it, but to know its happening
makes it. � All is well with the world!!!
Happy Boating, �Norm
I have worked as a corner marshall at the Gold Cup a few times. A
great event, and America's oldest motor sport event.
The roster tails thrown up by the unlimited hydros are two miles long
as they speed by Belle Island.
Too bad Detroit's river is backed by the Jefferson Avenue ghetto.
Scary place. At night when we are tied off at Gregory's marina, we
always hear gun shots. Hell, if your car backfires, you will get
return fire in that hood.
I live right on the St. Clair river. We see a lot of sail boats
heading up river to the Mackinaw races.
I expect with rising gas prices, we may be seeing more sail boats in
the near future.
I have patrolled the Gold Cup in Detroit for 13 years as a member of
the Coast Guard Auxiliary. You haven't been to the city side of the
race course in quite a while, as your post indicates. There are new,
$500,000+ houses being built between the waterfront and Jefferson
Avenue today. The city completely tore down the existing houses,
installed new utilities and replaced the streets with new concrete.
Our boat is usually moored for the 3 days we patrol (Friday, Saturday
and Sunday) at the Edison Boat Club and I have never heard gunfire
while there.
This year, the organizers had to postpone the 100th running of the
Gold Cup until 2009. The wind was over 20kts from the west, which was
directly opposite the current on the race course. While some heats
were run with the off-shore class boats among other smaller classes
completing their programs, the unlimited hydros simply were in too
much danger of flipping over to have run on Sunday. Even one of the
off-shores (Motley Crew) overturned in the Detroit Yacht Club-
Roostertail curve. Saturday's heats were, in contrast, picture-
perfect.
Our boat spent over 34 hours underway during the three days, and it's
good to be back to work where I can get some rest (grin).
See
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...40/1048/sports