Two new champions at ORC Sportboat North American Championship at Charleston Race Week
by ORC 21 Apr 15:30 AEST
April 15-19, 2026
After four days of racing in conditions ranging from 8 to 20+ knots, and on courses that ranged from short intense windward/leeward races to long 16 and 20 mile tours of Charleston Harbor, two new ORC Sportboat North American Champions are crowned at the 30th edition of Charleston Race Week.
ORC Sportboat Class A was composed of a mix of 11 Cape 31's and Melges 32's who fought hard throughout this event for results that in most of the 8 races were resolved by mere seconds in corrected time. While Chris Duhon's Cape 31 TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD looked hard to catch after the first two days of racing and scores of 2-1-2, it was Joost-Olan Sheehan's Cape 31 WARRIOR WON who were not far behind in the rankings and eventually emerged victorious even after a disastrous mistake made in the first race of Day 3 by missing a change mark.
"I'm incredibly excited and honored to win this great regatta," said Sheehan. "As a whole this event was fabulous - I thought the race committee did an excellent job and it was absolute champagne sailing conditions. I have to give a lot of credit to our team. We put in a lot of hours, a lot of work and a lot of thought about strategy. The current in Charleston Harbor is major factor and I think we executed on that very well. Everyone did a great job of executing their specific jobs in order to make the boat go faster and we had great team chemistry."
Besides Sheehan, the other Gold medal-winning team members on WARRIOR WON were Zeke Horowitz, Reed Baldridge, Brady Stagg, Tyler Woodworth, Javier Amezcua, Pete Dill, and Patrick Farrell.
Four points back the runner-up Silver medalist team in this class was TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD, and a further five points back was Ryan Ruhlman's Cape 31 HOBBES winning Bronze medals.
Finishing in 8th place in this class, the top all-amateur Corinthian team winner was Thomas Loutrel's Melges 32 GUILLOTINE.
In ORC Sportboat Class B the new champion is no stranger to the top podium position, having won on the inshore race course at this event several times in previous editions of Charleston Race Week. This year Mike Beasley teamed up with Joe Gibson, Jacob Boertlein, Diane Bevington and Lydia Jabin to race his J/80 BLACK SHEEP to Gold medal honors. Among the 6 other rivals in their class they earned victory not by being fastest on the water but by being slower, able to sail in clear air on the otherwise crowded race courses and letting their ORC ratings equalize their chances.
Beasely and team know this event well: they raced a Farr 280 and a GP 26 to five class wins over the past several years.
"We put a lot of time in beforehand just getting the boat ready for this and there are lots of people I need to thank, and all credit to my team," he said. "Joe Gibson is just an incredible machine: he's so darn good at trimming sails and making the boat go fast. Joe also does a great job of keeping me calm, he's the voice of reason. Kate Chaney was our shore manager and takes a huge load off my mind to have that type of support. I'm so proud of the whole team - we got better every day and just sailed consistently strong. When you have a team that is so committed to winning it means a lot and I think the friendship builds speed."
The Silver medal team in this class is Mark Shortz's GP 26 RATTLE N RUM, which, ironically, was previously owned and raced successfully by Beasley and his team. They had a mediocre start to the first half of the event but came on strong on Days 3 and 4 to take and hold the runner-up position in the class.
The Bronze medallists were led by Luca Hynnek and his team on the Farr 30 MAGGIE, whose team member Sam Rosenbaum won the ORC Sportsmanship Award for facilitating the commissioning and measurement of four entries in this class in the run-up to the event and also found a spare sail to lend to rival Tristram Coffin's Farr 30 LISA J. when their mainsail failed in the strong breezes of Day 2 of racing.
ORC Sportboat North American Championship Results: (top five)
Class A
1. WARRIOR WON Cape 31 Joost-Olan Sheehan (USA)
2. TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD Cape 31 Chris Duhon (USA)
3. HOBBES Cape 31 Ryan Ruhlman (USA)
4. SITELLA Cape 31 Ian Hill (USA)
5. SQUIRT Cape 31 John Heaton (USA)
Class B
1. BLACK SHEEP J/80 Mike Beasley (USA)
2. RATTLE N RUM GP 26 Mark Shortz (USA)
3. MAGGIE Farr 30 Luca Hynnek (USA)
4. BOTTLE ROCKET Cheetah 30 Patrick Gavin-Brynes (USA)
5..30-.30 Farr 30 Andre Beese (CAN)
Complete race results available here.