Leighton’s Blog

Unleashing the beast on the Great Lakes by Leighton O'Connot   Chicago's light fixture mogul Peter Thornton purchased PUMA's Volvo Open 70 il mostro, which they sailed in the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race, in hopes of breaking the elapsed record of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac on July 21. And he's reuniting il mostro with its previous skipper for the 333 mile race up Lake Michigan to Mackinac Island.... Kenny Read Roy Disney set the current record in 2002 on his Reichel Pugh 75 Pyewacket, an elapsed time of 23 hours 30 minutes and 34 seconds. This year Thornton will be up against the very well sailed MaxZ86 Windquest. Thornton had been out of sailing since 2006, but got the bug again and was itching to go sailing again. What a big itch! His previous boat was the GL70 Hula. His track record was pretty good with a first to finish in the 2005 Mac and winning his division 5 times. "Some people think that we have may have over stepped o