Racing Division Sets Sail in Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac 2026 - photo © Ian Roman
Dear Recipient Name
Between cycling, soccer (read: football), tennis, and Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, sports have been enjoying a fine moment of late, and the sailing world is no exception. So, while cyclists in the Tour de France are huffing it over Stage 10's 103.52 mountainous miles from Aurillac to Le Lioran today, and while Spain, France, England, and Argentina are all trying to survive this week's World Cup quarter finals, sailing fans can get their saline fix from news coming from the Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac, the J/70 U.S. Nationals, the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta, the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 European Championship, and the ongoing Drheam Cup.
The fleet contesting the Chicago Yacht Club's 117th annual Race to Mackinac began its 289 nautical-mile course on Friday, July 10, when the 40-strong cruising division crossed the starting line on the waters off of the Windy City. The cruisers were joined some 24 hours later by 208 teams in the racing division.
For the fifth consecutive year, Peter Thornton's 104-foot ketch-rigged Whitehawk claimed line honors in the cruising division, completing the course in one day, 23 hours, and 11 minutes.
"It was almost a perfect race from our standpoint," said Thornton, who is a veteran of more than 40 "Mac Races", in an official race communication, noting that the team encountered some tricky airs in the course's Manitou Passage.
The GL52 class set the pace in the racing division, with Chris Duhon's Mockingbird taking line honors with an elapsed time of one day, eight hours, 31 minutes and 25 seconds, which, at the time of this writing (Monday morning, U.S. West Coast time) put them in first place on corrected time (one day, 18 hours, 18 minutes, and 12 seconds) for the Mackinac Trophy.
Switching gears from handicap racing across long distances on freshwater to one design racing on brine, the J/70 U.S. Nationals (July 10-12) unfurled over the weekend on the waters off of Santa Barbara, California. After seven scored races (and one discard), David Jannetti's Odd Racing's scorecard of 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, and 1 earned the team the top spot on the podium. They were joined by Andrew Loe's Dime and Ryan Cox's DJ.
"The top teams sailed incredibly well, and Santa Barbara was amazing," said Jannetti in an event report. "We had a terrific time, and we'll definitely be back."
Cox and his DJ team, it should be noted, won the event's Corinthean Championship, while Scott Deardorff's CAKE team took top honors for the fastest mixed-plus team.
"I got a boat about five years ago," Cox said in an event report. "I learned a lot sailing with Team Hedgehog, trimming before moving into the driver's seat. The goal was always to qualify for Worlds, and now we've done that."
Meanwhile, farther south down the California coastline, the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta (July 13-16) began yesterday (Monday) off of Belmont Shore, giving more than 100 Formula Kite and iQFOiL sailors the opportunity to sail on the same waters where the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics will take place.
"The Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta is an exciting opportunity for our athletes to test themselves against some of the world's best sailors while continuing to build momentum on the road to LA28," said Molly Vandemoer, Director of Olympic Sailing at US Sailing, in an event communication. "Competing in Long Beach allows our team to gain invaluable experience in the venue that will host the Olympic sailing competition, and we're eager to see our athletes embrace the challenge, learn from every race, and continue raising the standard for Team USA."
Speaking of Olympic classes, the 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 European Championship (July 7-12) recently took place on the waters off of Eckernförde, Germany.
New Zealand's Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush were the fastest gun in the 49er class, followed by Great Britain's James Grummett and Rhos Hawes, and by Poland's Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch.
Amongst North American athletes, the USA's Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid finished in 13th, Andrew Mollerus and Trevor Bornarth finished in 26th place, Nicolas Muller and Duncan Williford finished in 37th, Logan Mraz and Steven Hardee finished in 78th, and Liam Walz and Abie Griggs finished in 88th place. Canada's Jack Gogan and Hunter Hoy finished in 76th place.
In the 49erFX class, Canadian sisters Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance (again) proved dominant, beating out Germany's Maria Bergmann and Hanna Wille, who finished in second place, and France's Mathilde Lovadina and Lou Berthomieu, who took third.
Americans Paris Henken and Helena Scutt finished in 21st place, while Maddie Hawkins and Lilly Myers finished in 38th place.
And in the mixed-sex Nacra 17 class, Sweden's Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson took the win, followed by Great Britain's John Gimson and Anna Burnet, and by Willemijn Offerman and Scipio Houtman of The Netherlands.
Americans Stephan Baker and Sophia Fisher finished in 18th place, Carson Crain and Catherine Lindsay finished in 21st place, Sarah Newberry More and Hoel Menard took 29th, and Canadians Galen Richardson and Madeline Gillis finished in 30th place, while Caspar Lenz Anderson and Grace Poole finished in 34th place.
Finally, in big-boat circles, the Drheam Cup began on Saturday with a short inshore race (dubbed "The Prologue") between La Hague and Barfleur, France. This was followed up with Sunday's start of the much longer Drheam Cup/Grand Prix de France courses.
The "DC 600" course is being contested by Figaro 3s, Sun Fast 30s, Mini 6.5s, IRC crewed and doublehanded teams, and classic yachts, while Class 40s, multihulls (crewed and singlehanded), IMOCAs, Ocean Fifties, Open Grand monohulls (crewed and singehanded) and open grand multihulls are competing on the "DC 1000" course. The mighty Ultim trimarans will compete on the "DC 1500" course.
While these courses all sound challenging, we at Sail-World would far prefer to take our drubbings aboard a fast monohull or multihull in the Drheam Cup/Grand Prix de France than on a bike in the Tour de France, and we wish all teams good luck as they chase down their miles.
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor
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