- Date
- 2011-07-18
- Kind
- Accident
- Where
- North Fox Island
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- maritimeemergency-responsedeathweather
- Within
- North Fox Island
On July 18, 2011, the 35-foot sailboat WingNuts capsized during the Chicago-to-Mackinac race in Lake Michigan near the northwest Michigan coast and North Fox Island area. Skipper Mark Morley and crew member Suzanne Makowski-Bickel died; a competing vessel rescued the other six crew members. The Beaver Island Forum preserved local thanks to the Coast Guard and links to contemporaneous coverage.
The location is approximate. The forum uses “Fox Islands,” while the newspaper describes the accident as off the coast near Charlevoix; neither source provides a precise coordinate.
Evidence limits
The newspaper reports the accident and later investigative findings. The forum adds community response but is not an independent accident or search-and-rescue record.
Sources
- Island participants publicly thanked the Coast Guard for search-and-rescue work in the Fox Islands and linked contemporaneous coverage. The thread is community response and does not establish the accident facts or exact location.forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 03 · t003760
- The held newspaper corpus reports that WingNuts overturned on July 18 during the Chicago-to-Mackinac race near the northwest Michigan coast off Charlevoix, killing skipper Mark Morley and crew member Suzanne Makowski-Bickel; a competing vessel rescued six others. It also preserves the later sheriff and U.S. Sailing findings. The newspaper's “near Charlevoix” wording and the forum's “Fox Islands” wording support an approximate North Fox location, not a precise wreck coordinate.
Added 9 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “WingNuts capsizes near North Fox Island during the 2011 Chicago-to-Mackinac race”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-wingnuts-capsizing-near-north-fox-island-2011/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Forum, “United States Coast Guard,” July 18, 2011. (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-09. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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