Steadily, methodically, and with a take-no-prisoners approach, the coronavirus pandemic claimed all of our showcase events. The NCAA basketball tournament, the Masters golf tournament, the Kentucky Derby, and the Indy 500. They will try to hold those last three at later dates, but who knows if the virus will have eased its grip enough by then for many fans to enjoy them in-person.
Undoubtedly, some of the luster will be lost with the delays, the tenuous rescheduling, and the specter of the pandemic still looming. Some will wonder if jumbling the calendar in an attempt to salvage the 2020 version of those iconic American happenings will lessen the experience, cheapen the reward, and possibly tarnish the legacy of the event.
On a regional scale, the people who value the tradition and the rich history of the Invitational Mills Trophy Race did not want that to be the way the 2020 event would be regarded, or remembered. They initially considered moving the date for the Mills, one of the most prestigious and history-laden sailing races on the Great Lakes, to late summer, but that notion was scrubbed. The race was formally and officially canceled last week, as much for honoring its well-earned reputation as it was for the snarl of logistical issues the pandemic has fostered.
“With something like the Mills race, it just came down to a case where it would have been disrespectful to all of the tradition and the history of the race to try and patch something together, just to be able to say we had a race in 2020,” said Duane Burgoyne, a past commodore at the North Cape Yacht Club on the Michigan end of Lake Erie who has raced the Mills more than 25 times. “This race is about tradition, and it has always been a first-class event, so if you can’t do it right, the best move is to just not do it.”
The Mills Trophy Race, which was first contested in 1907, is traditionally locked in on the Great Lakes sailing calendar for the second weekend after Memorial Day.
The Mills kicks off the summer racing season and attracts competitors from the Cleveland and Detroit area yacht clubs, as well as a strong western Lake Erie contingent. The race has been held every year since its inception, other than during wartime and a brief lull starting in 1978 when a severe storm forced the cancelation of the event at the urging of the U.S. Coast Guard.
“At that time, the Coast Guard said not to go, since they were already overburdened with rescue calls out on the lake,” said Mills Race historian Ron Gabel, a former commodore at the host Toledo Yacht Club.
“We were told that there were very high waves on the open lake — some 10-footers and a lot of six-footers, so we just couldn’t put the racing fleet out there. Back then, most of the boats were smaller, under 36-feet, and it just would have been very dangerous to have them out there on the lake.”
The Mills rebounded from that experience and after a couple of years of reorganizing has been gaining momentum ever since. The 2020 event was to be the 97th running of the Mills.
The unique format of the Mills Race calls for an evening start at the Toledo Harbor Light with the competitors racing through the night before finishing at Put-in-Bay in the Lake Erie Islands the following morning. Based on their class, the boats cover one of three racecourses — the Mills Trophy Course, the Governor’s Cup Course, and the President’s Trophy Course — depending on their size and rating. The three courses range from roughly 38 nautical miles in length to more than 70 nautical miles.
The Mills Trophy Race was the product of Commodore Merrill B. Mills of Detroit who donated the namesake trophy and expressed his intent to promote a great race “for the purpose of encouraging proficiency in the art of navigation upon the Great Lakes by means of popular contests in yachting.” Racing through the night in the shallow and frequently temperamental western end of Lake Erie presents the stern test of navigational expertise Commodore Mills desired, as well as a trial of the stamina and sailing skills of the competitors
The event has grown to include an awards dinner and gala earlier in the week where all of the previous year’s champions are honored and the stunning collection of Mills-related trophies are on display, plus pre-race parties and social functions at the Toledo Yacht Club, and a series of very festive celebratory events at Put-in-Bay the day after the start of the Mills. Burgoyne and Gabel said that with social distancing directives, potential conflicts with other Great Lakes regattas already locked in on the summer calendar, and the difficulty acquiring adequate insurance coverage for the event, it made little sense to try and put together a race in August or September and represent it as the Mills.
“Earlier in the year, everyone was optimistic that the pandemic would pass and things would get back to normal, but eventually we could see that was not the case. With so many other events being canceled due to the coronavirus, it kind of felt like it was inevitable we would lose the Mills,” Burgoyne said.
He said many of the local sailors involved in the Mills are content that calling off the event was the only route to follow. Burgoyne said that in the big picture, losing the race for one year was the smart and safe way to go.
“There were just too many hurdles out there due to the coronavirus,” he said. “And you don’t take something that has this much history and tradition attached to it and try to throw it together. I’m hopeful we’ll come back in 2021 and everyone will be hungry and ready to race, and we will do so in a safe environment for all.”
First Published July 6, 2020, 4:41 p.m.
