Call the 111th Mac the Ice Cream Race.

Peter Thornton in Whitehawk, a different boat than in recent years, was first to finish in the 111th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac at 2:21 p.m. Sunday. Joseph Haas in Infinite Diversion was second to finish at 3:59.

Thornton, of Burr Ridge, was known for sailing Il Mostro. This year he was in the cruising division with Whitehawk, a 104-foot ketch. He and his family donated Il Mostro to the Merchant Marine Academy.

“We had never raced the boat before,’’ Thornton said. “We had no idea how fast it was. We just sailed hard.’’

They had only sailed it three times before, including once to test new sails in Chicago.

“The boat is a real thoroughbred,’’ Thornton said. “That boat weighs more than 10 tons. That is probably the equivalent of the weight of the all boats in our section.’’

The next boats in the 270-boat fleet will begin to finish late Sunday and early Monday. The bulk of the fleet, even in a relatively slow Mac, should finish Monday. The race officially ends 24 hours after the first boat in the last division finishes.

“The most breeze we had was the end of the Straits when we were coming to the Bridge, nine to 10 knots of breeze,’’ Thornton said. “[In the race], we had eight knots, down to double 0 [becalmed]. This was not a fast race.’’

Whitehawk finished in 47 hours, 1 minute, 14 seconds. Corrected time — the Mac is handicapped — was 52:45:59. Infinite Diversion finished in 48:39:54, corrected to 50:59:45.

Infinite Diversion, a Hanse 630, is regularly among the first boats to finish in the Mac.

“We had line honors; they took the chalice,’’ Thornton said.

The cruisers left from Chicago on the 289-nautical-mile race Friday afternoon. The bulk of the fleet, the racing divisions, left Saturday.

Finishing is taking some time this year, a change from the stormy years of the last two Macs.

The Twitter account of Maggie Mae had this play on words Sunday morning to capture the essence of the 2019 Mac, “It’s a drag race. We see several in our class. Looks like light air all day. Eating oatmeal now.’’

By Sunday evening, the Twitter account of Rowdy offered this, “The breeze is slightly better. It’s been a lovely day out here on Lake Michigan. [Many]-tons of sun. We’re all pretty crispy.’’

Beautiful is the word from Thornton on Whitehawk’s first race.

“Beautiful, beautiful yacht,’’ he said. “We are very happy. A chef prepared our meals. One crew member [Dean Tank], his wife [Donna] is a chef and prepared outstanding meals. We had ice cream for the first time ever racing. We had wine with our meals. I had my grandchildren along, and they were used to pouches of freeze-dried food last year. They were going back and forth for seconds and thirds.’’

Thornton appreciates it and said, “Beautiful boat, people really enjoy seeing the thing. I am glad that we are the custodian of it.’’