Do you DARE Challenge the Door of Death? HOOK Race, July 20, 2024

The legend lives on, from the Chippewa on down,

Of the Big Lake they call ‘Michigami,’

The Lake it is said, never gives up her dead,

When the Porte des Morts passage is thread.

(apologies to the late Gordon Lightfoot and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Summertime Dream album 1976)

The channel between Door County and Washington Island, Wisconsin, is called Porte des Morts (Death’s Door) for a reason. In the 17th century, a war party between the Winnebago and Potawatomi was struck in a sudden squall which sunk most of the war canoes and resulted in the deaths of up to 600 warriors. In subsequent years, so many wooden sailing ships were sunk or damaged in the shoals and dangerous currents of Death’s Door that the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal was cut. Yet, many boats braved the Door of Death to avoid canal tolls and tug fees.

Do you feel lucky, Sailor? You do? Well, go ahead and make your day!

Come join all your fellow adventurous and death-defying mariners in challenging Death’s Door in the 41st continuous running of the Racine (Wisconsin) Yacht Club’s HOOK Race on July 20, 2024. That’s a perilous 189 nautical mile journey from outside the harbor of Racine, Wisconsin, “hooking” through the legendary and fearsome Door of Death into Green Bay, and ending in Menominee, Michigan.

Registration for HOOK Race 2024 is now open!