(06/25/2002) With the start of the Bacardi Bayview Mackinac Race just weeks away on July 13, Secretary of State Candice S. Miller is preparing to crew aboard the Insatiable, owned and skippered by Dr. Norm Silverman.

This is the second year Secretary Miller will sail with the Insatiable and her 26th year sailing the Bayview Mackinac race.  Secretary Miller has been named this year’s honorary race chairperson.

“The Bayview Mackinac race is the greatest fresh water sailing event in the world,” Secretary Miller said.  “Since 1925, Lake Huron has tested the skills of sailors who accept the challenge of this two-day event.  From the start at Port Huron to the finish at Mackinac Island, the race embodies the camaraderie and sportsmanship that typifies sail boat racing.”

The Insatiable is a 46-foot Tartan owned by Dr. Silverman, head of the Division of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery and Co-Chairman of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Henry Ford Hospital.  Last year, the Insatiable placed third in its division and class, with a corrected finishing time of 43 hours, 9 minutes and 38 seconds, just minutes behind the second place finisher.

More than 280 boats and 3,000 sailors have entered this year’s event.  The prestigious race, which featured 12 yachts in 1925, has grown to host thousands of sailors from the United States and Canada, along with tens of thousands of spectators and racing fans.

On race day, boats will begin leaving the docks along the Black River in Port Huron and sail to the starting line in lower Lake Huron to prepare for the first start of the race at 11:30 a.m.  The fleet is divided into classes and divisions, each with a designated start timed at 10-minute intervals until the last boats leave at about 2 p.m.

Skippers may choose to race the 235-mile Shore Line Course up the Michigan coastline, or the 290-mile Southampton Course, which directs sailors toward Southampton, Canada, and then to the finish line at Mackinac Island.  The Insatiable will sail the Shore Line Course.

As this year’s honorary race chairperson, Secretary Miller has produced a 30-minute video touching on the history of the Port Huron-to-Mackinac race.  The video, which was made in cooperation with the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts, features interviews with this year’s Bacardi Bayview Mackinac race chair, Greg Thomas; one of the sailors who sailed in the first Mackinac race, Robert Roadstrum, the owner and skipper of the Tomahawk, which sank during the 1985 race, T.K. Lowry; last year’s race chair, Marcia Everingham; the mayor of Port Huron, Mark Neal and the Mayor Pro-tem of Mackinac Island, Armand Horn.

The Secretary of State’s Office is responsible for registering watercraft in Michigan.  With nearly 900,000 watercraft registered, Secretary Miller oversees one of the largest files of registered watercraft in the nation.