Search For Sailor Overboard At Race To Mackinac
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A sailor is missing after falling overboard during the Race to Mackinac event in Lake Michigan.
CBS 2's Audrina Bigos has the story from Navy Pier.
Earlier in the day, sailors CBS 2 spoke to talked about the gusts and the waves they would face during the race heading out from Chicago on Saturday.
Firefighters, paramedics and the scuba team are at Navy Pier. The search is taking place about five miles off the pier.
The Coast Guard called race organizers around 3:00 Saturday afternoon notifying them that someone went overboard on the Imedi. That's a sailboat out of the Chicago Yacht Club. Several nearby competitors stepped in to help.
The Chicago Fire Department and Police Department were alerted to help.
According to Ron Dorneker, Deputy District Chief with the Chicago Fire Department Marine and Dive Operations said the incident happened approximately four miles northeast of Navy Pier.
The race has never been cancelled because of the weather since it began in the late 1800s.
It isn't the first time there has been an accident at the Mackinac race. In 2011, two people died after their craft capsized.
Mark Morley and his girlfriend died after their boat was hit by huge waves and 60 mile-an-hour winds.
That crash near Michigan caused the first accidental deaths in 103 runs of the Race to Mackinac.
One sailor died of a heart attack in a previous race.
