Around the water cooler — Sailing with Alice O. Martin

Each week I will highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.

Alice O. Martin has been on water since about age 3.

Her father owned many powerboats that they used on Lake Erie. By the time she was a teen she was joining racing boat crews.

Now a partner and co-chair of the life sciences practice group at Barnes & Thornburg, she’s been racing in Chicago since about 1976 or 1977.

It’s not unusual for her to be one of only a small group of female skippers competing in a boat race. Her gender often makes her more noticeable, which can be good and bad. If she makes a mistake, then everyone notices it, she said.

“More women are getting involved at the crew level, and on some smaller boats,” she said. “But it is still basically a man’s sport. It’s a little rough. You have to be a little bit more aggressive, and a bit more thick-skinned.”

She plans to compete in the 100th Race to Mackinac, which begin July 19 off of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse. With the largest fleet in race history, more than 400 crafts will make the 333-mile trek. The race centennial will be celebrated on Mackinac Island with a gala fireworks display on July 22.

She’s competed in about 15 Macs. She plans to do most of the driving of her boat, “Painkiller4,” which is named after a drink that uses Pusser’s rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and hallucinogenic nutmeg.

Her crew for the Mac will consist of nine people and herself.  Her crew will alternate shifts in four-hour increments, unless the weather gets bad.

“It’s very challenging,” she said about racing. “It’s one of the places where it is you against the elements. It promotes teamwork. I’ve met a lot of interesting crews, and it’s very physically demanding. It keeps you in good shape. And it’s unpredictable, so it’s a good problem-solving activity.”

Sailing helps her connect with some of her clients, Martin said. She’s brought some clients out on her boat for social sails, and a few clients have been on past crews.

Clients tend to trust her lawyering skills even more after they see her on her boat maneuvering through potentially challenging situations, she said.

Her boat at the Mac may be easy to see because it has a very large, pink, shiny wheel; and she sometimes wears a pink flamingo hat and pink boa.

“We do win races,” she said. “We are serious about the races, but when we finish we like to have a lot of fun.”