Albacore North American Championship 2026 at CORK, Kingston

Albacore North American Championship at CORK, Kingston © Christian Bonin / www.tsgphoto.com

The 2026 Albacore North American Championships brought the fleet of Canadian and American sailors to Kingston, Ontario, for three days of racing from September 25 to 27. The regatta was more than capably hosted by CORK / Sail Kingston at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, one of the pre-eminent venues in North America, having hosted sailing for the 1976 Olympics.

The Albacores weren't the only fleet enjoying the end of summer at CORK, with ILCA sailors from all over the Americas also racing in a Pan Am qualifying event. The boat park was buzzing with the high and mid-to-low performance athletes getting ready for the windy weekend ahead.

Day 1 started in six knots from the North East and a UFD flag, with Race Officer Peter Van Muyden following World Sailing's official advice to put the fear of god into the sailors right from the start (or something like that). While the wind oscillated chaotically like one of those cheap plastic fans one finds in a divey restaurant, one competitor noted that the race committee still managed to set "infuriatingly square start lines".

Albacore North American Championship at CORK, Kingston - photo © Christian Bonin / www.tsgphoto.com

With the wind under 12 knots, the course for the first two races was windward/leewards, and the dramatic shifts meant there were a lot of tacks and gybes, with the left side generally paying more dividends than the right. Left certainly paid off in race one when the wind backed from about 080 to 035 and Darren Monster/Mabel Chan and Barney Harris/Ernest Ayukawa, who were first and second respectively to the leeward mark, couldn't find the substitute windward mark. Raines Koby/Steph Mah picked it out first and earned the bullet for their good eyesight.

Races three and four hit the 12-knot threshold and the course was changed to include reaches. Van Muyden was using the "Buoy Zone" app, where you enter the wind speed, boat type, target race time, and it spits out the ideal reaching angle to waterboard the poor crews. This is indeed more proof that technology is going to destroy us. Once the boats were half packed away, the competitors gathered in the sail hall to share some junk food and collective knowledge and/or delusions about what transpired that day.

Day 2 started in 12 knots from the NE that steadily built to 18 as the four races for the day progressed. That meant long reaches and hike-maxxing, and for some others, a bit of breast-stroking. Unlike Friday, the wind was much steadier and Barney found his groove taking three bullets. After racing, the sailors once again gathered in the sail hall for the debrief, and rumor has it that many of them are still there being unable to muster the strength to get out of their seats.

Albacore North American Championship at CORK, Kingston - photo © Christian Bonin / www.tsgphoto.com

Day 3 opened with 20 knots with gusts into the low thirties and the probability of the wind ticking up a few knots. The fleet was asked to vote about whether to race, and the majority said not a chance in hell (and Barney Harris is still complaining that the process was rigged). So that was the end of that, and awards were quickly given to what Van Muyden called the "mature" fleet (old. He meant old) so we could all get home to watch Downton Abbey.

To paraphrase (or bastardize) Oscar Wilde, "sailboat racing is the triumph of fiscal irresponsibility over intelligence, and racing against Barney Harris is the triumph of hope over experience."

Barney has been collecting trophies all summer like Thanos collected infinity stones, and rumor has it that if Barney wins the U.S. Nationals in a couple of weeks, he's going to snap his fingers and half the Albacore fleet is going to disappear into a different class of boat. But I digress. Big congrats to him and Ernest Ayukawa for their victory.

The only joy I personally took was that Barney was missing his heavy air crew so he had to ride the struggle bus like the rest of us. Congrats also to Kaitlyn Lucey who was the top female helm with her solid crew Lars Rathjen.

The Albacore fleet would like to thank CORK and all the volunteers on and off the water, and Fogh Marine and Tony Zakrajsek for their donations of some sweet swag that was shared with the non-podiumers.

The outstanding on-water photos were taken by Christian Bonin whose website is www.tsgphoto.com

Albacore North American Championship at CORK, Kingston - photo © Albacore Association

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