Allstate Sugar Bowl J/22 Worlds returns to New Orleans with generations of sailors on the start line
by Hannah Noll 6 Oct 20:47 PDT
October 5-10, 2026
The talk around the bar at Southern Yacht Club on Tuesday was split between two things: the World Championship about to begin on Lake Pontchartrain and a developing weather system in the Gulf that may have something to say about how the week unfolds.
46 teams have converged on New Orleans for the Allstate Sugar Bowl J/22 World Championship, with racing scheduled Wednesday through Saturday. Up to 11 races are planned, with the first warning signal scheduled for 9:55 a.m. each day.
It is a major international championship, but the story of this particular fleet may be just as much about longevity.
The J/22 was the second boat developed by J/Boats, and roughly 1,600 have been built. With racing across North America, Europe, and South Africa, J/22s have weekly local club racing, intercontinental championships, and an annual World Championship rotating between Europe, USA, South Africa. Yacht clubs maintain fleets of J/22s for members, and family teams remain a familiar sight throughout the class.
That depth is easy to see in New Orleans. Ten boats represent Texas. Four hail from J/22 Fleet One, Wayzata Yacht Club in Minnesota, where as many as 26 J/22s regularly meet on the starting line for Thursday night racing. Women are well represented throughout the fleet, and the J/22 Class also supports opportunities for young sailors through its youth program.
That history and community are perhaps most visible in the families sharing the racecourse.
The Community
For 2015 J/22 World Champion Chris Doyle, this World Championship is a family affair. Doyle is racing with his son Nick. His brother Kevin Doyle is also entered, while Kevin's son, Jake Doyle, is at the helm of Piñata alongside his wife Whitney Kent. Together, five members of the Doyle family are competing across three boats, with the rest of the family in New Orleans to enjoy the regatta experience.
The fleet has lots of father-son duos sailing together: Victor & Aaron Snyder, Jeff & Steve Hayden, David Boylard & David Bolyard Jr., and Thomas & Tommy Meric. Ted & Jack Lischer will line up against one another on separate boats.
Couples sail together too - Abby & Mike Gemperline, Erin & Jeff Progelhof, and Nancy & Chuck Goff will go to the start line.
The family connections are only part of the championship pedigree gathered at Southern Yacht Club.
Reigning World Champion Jean-Michel Lautier has traveled from the Netherlands with FRAPORITA for his first J/22 World Championship in the United States. Lautier won the World title in 2019, 2023, and again in Naples in 2025. He now brings one of Europe's strongest J/22 programs to Lake Pontchartrain.
Recent World Champions are scattered throughout the fleet. Travis Odenbach, who won the 2024 Worlds driving Honeybadger, is racing this week, while 2021 World Champion Jeff Progelhof returns. Chris Doyle adds another World title to the starting area.
Glenn Darden's Baby Doll also arrives as one of the teams to watch. Darden finished a close second at the 2024 World Championship and has been a consistent presence at the front of major J/22 championships. Jackson Benvenutti, Willem Van Waay, and Min Min Kelly join Darden aboard Baby Doll this week.
The Host
For Southern Yacht Club, the championship continues a relationship with the J/22 Class that stretches back decades.
Founded in 1849, Southern Yacht Club has hosted generations of J/22 racing, including the 2011 World Championship. That event arrived at a significant moment for the club: six years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the clubhouse, the J/22 fleet gathered beside the newly rebuilt waterfront home of SYC.
Fifteen years later, the Worlds are back.
Southern Yacht Club Commodore James R. Sanchez Jr., who races J/22s, welcomed competitors Tuesday evening and promised the visiting fleet the full Southern Yacht Club treatment:
"We're gonna roll out the red carpet," Sanchez said, encouraging sailors to make themselves at home at the club. "We want you to have a great time on shore and a great regatta."
The relationship between the event's title sponsor and sailing in New Orleans reaches even farther back.
The Sugar Bowl was founded in 1934 around the idea of bringing "a carousel of sporting events" to attract tourism and interest in New Orleans. Sailing was there from the beginning. The inaugural Sugar Bowl Regatta was held in December 1934, before the first Sugar Bowl football game was played on New Year's Day 1935. More than 90 years later, sailing remains the only non-football event to have continued throughout the Sugar Bowl organization's history.
That history fits naturally at Southern Yacht Club, where the World Championship experience extends well beyond the racecourse.
As always, the social scene at SYC is set to be lively. Competitors will return from Lake Pontchartrain each afternoon hors d'oeuvres and beverages on the lawn. Wednesday brings a South Louisiana shrimp boil, followed Thursday by the Regatta Piñata Party, and a Friday night rendezvous in the French Quarter. The championship closes Saturday with an open bar, heavy hors d'oeuvres, and the trophy presentation in the East Dining Room.
It is a distinctly New Orleans way to host a World Championship: race hard on Lake Pontchartrain, come ashore for seafood and cold beer, send the fleet into the French Quarter for a night, then gather everyone back together to crown a World Champion.
First, though, everyone is watching the Gulf.
A developing disturbance in the southwestern Gulf was becoming better organized Tuesday, with the National Hurricane Center expecting further development as the system moves east before possibly turning north or northeast toward the northern Gulf Coast later this week. Specific impacts to Louisiana remained uncertain Tuesday, but the NHC advised interests from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle to monitor its progress.
That uncertainty is now part of the strategy for a championship already built around adaptability. Should sailors take more risks because of the possibility of fewer races? It's all part of the game.
For now, the boats are measured, crew weigh-ins are complete, the families are gathered, and 46 teams are ready.
Racing begins Wednesday morning.