If you look at the orientation of Lake Michigan, you can see that if you get a strong norther, the fetch (distance over which the wind travels over the open water) is more than twice that of Lake Superior when the storm winds travel from north to south. Even though in area, Lake Superior is bigger, the layout of Lake Michigan allows for much greater waves to develop. There are other factors as well, but all I'm saying is that Lake Michigan is notorious for massive sudden storms that rival some of those found offshore. Which does not always make for a bad sailboat ride, as you can surf down 15 foot regular rollers in 50 knot winds. Whereas if you get confused seas from winds half as strong but is switching direction constantly and you're falling off each wave because you can't predict the wave sets--that requires some serious dramamine. There's also a difference if you're cruising and you're caught in the occasional storm, but have options sometimes to sit others out, versus racing where you battle the weather and the other boats and you don't have the luxury of getting out of nature's way in a multi day race. All you can do then is make the best of it and start a contest rating each others' projectile vomit on distance, frequency, texture, color, etc...ahhh, the memories...
