were held on the same weekend until 1939, when both clubs agreed to alternate the date of their Mackinac races, scheduling them a week apart. In even years the Port Huron race is first to allow participants of the Newport Bermuda Race to sail both events. The Chicago-to-Mackinac race is older, starting in 1898, and slightly longer. The Friday night before the start of the race is called Boat Night. Thousands of people: sailors and cheerful spectators, alike, line the banks of the Black River, Port Huron to view the yachts. The parties will last until well after dawn on Saturday. The race begins Saturday afternoon with the smallest boats starting first and the largest the last to cross the starting line. Boats typically begin finishing at Mackinac Island Sunday evening through Tuesday morning. The finish line can be viewed from a number of places including Fort Mackinac and Mission Point Resort. Boats are measured to determine handicaps. The fastest boat in the fleet is the scratch boat and has no time allowance. All other boats have time allowance handicaps which are subtracted from the elapsed sailing time. Over the years various handicapping systems have been used including CCA, IOR, PHRF, IMS, IRC and ORR. In 2016 the Cove Island course used the ORR handicap system while the shore course used PHRF. In 2017 the shore course will start using the ORR-EZ handicap system. Since 2009 the race has used internet tracking for all the participants. Throughout the event race fans can track the progress of the yachts. The last boat to finish the race is called the "pickle boat". The origin of the name comes from English yachting, where the last boat was called the "fisher." The boats used to stop to fish for herring and then pickle them. The pickling required the boat to take even longer to come into port. The race and an awards celebration, while held on the lawn of Mission Point Resort in a number of previous years, was held in Woodfill Park below the Grand Hotel from 2012 to 2021. That celebration moved back to the lawn of Mission Point Resort in 2022. Flags and trophies are presented to all the winning skippers of each division and class. Tradition Racers who have completed 25 of the annual Port Huron to Mackinac races are called "Old Goats," while those who have completed 50 are