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The 114th Chicago to Mackinac boat race is this weekend, and for a Valparaiso man it continues more than three decades of setting sail on that Lake Michigan journey. Mike Jones says 2023 will be his 36th year taking part in Chicago to Mackinac as his boat, Mrs. Jones, leaves harbor Saturday. He tells us how after completing a quarter of a century’s worth of races, you can become part of something known as the “Island Goats Sailing Society”, whose logo features a goat and whose members are “involved in many activities to perpetuate and commemorate the Chicago Mackinac Race”, the group’s website says. Jones, a longtime personal trainer at the Valparaiso Family YMCA, says his first race was actually more than 36 years ago, in 1976, and this year, for the first time he and his team will take part in the Ugotta Regatta, which is scheduled each year in Harbor Springs, Michigan, after the second of the Mackinac races, the first one being Port Huron to Mackinac, followed by Chicago to Mackinac. You can hear more at Region Newsmakers at News Audio on Demand here at our website.
