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FINAL RESULTS

Inside Chicago Harbor, the northerly wind blowing through the protected mooring field was deceiving. Conditions appeared benign enough to send the sailors out for the final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, but out beyond the breakwater, whitecaps frothed and the weather stations reported the truth: it was gnarly out on Lake Michigan, just too much for safe racing. Ahead of the official 0900 morning signals, organizers made the preemptive call and hoisted signal flag N over signal flag A on the yardarm: Racing was abandoned and the previous day’s preliminary results were toggled to final. With two solid days of racing in the books, the regatta came to early close, but competitors were happy to have a complete series.

From among the winners of 17 individual classes and 162 teams, one overall winner was later selected to represent the Chicago regatta at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in October.

Jeffrey Davis, skipper and owner of the J/111 Shamrock, emerged as the challenger and while his team delivered the boat back to its homeport of Cleveland, Ohio, the veteran skipper shared his thoughts on the weekend’s races and the developing dynamics of his winning crew of Bob Knestrick, Danny Corrigan, Samantha Foulston, Stu Johnstone, Michael Lis and Travis Odenbach. Shamrock won five of six races.

Sometimes, winning a three-boat fleet can be just as difficult as a larger fleet, especially when everyone’s at the same level, like it was for the J/111s this weekend in Chicago.

Yes, we’ve raced against each other in the past, so they’re fairly well-matched boats. The J/111 class is fairly strict, so we’re very competitive, all of us. I think this weekend was really a function of the fact that we tend to be light-air sailors and inland like sailors, and so for us, we really thrive in these kinds of conditions.

Flat water, light air, shifty conditions are your strength then?

They really are. The boat is really set up for light air. I think the crew, we’ve all been sailing together probably for about 15 years. And since our base is in Cleveland, Ohio, for us, it’s a light-air lake. So, these conditions really fit our boat, our rig, our tune and ourselves. We set up the boat for light breeze. But as most sailors know, you gotta pick the shifts. And there’s a little bit of luck involved.

In the first and second race, we did a good job of really picking the right shifts and the right side of the course to be on and we had good starts. In the third race, we wound up second and it was really a function of us being on the wrong side of the course. And it’s really hard to come back from that. You know, when your competitor keeps picking the right shifts, you just never catch up.

Having only two boats to beat, how did that change the tactical approach to the weekend?

We tended to stay pretty close together, in part because we’re using this for North Americans, which will be here at the Chicago Yacht Club later in the year. So, we wanted to see what kind of conditions we would have and what kind of conditions that we would be competing in and what the setup of our boat was going to be like compared to others. There was a little bit of match racing going on and a little bit of that in terms of our tactics.

Speaking of tactics, you had a new crew calling the shots this weekend.

We did. We’ve been sailing for about 15 years with Wally Cross who was unable to sail this regatta, so we had a new tactician. Travis just did a great job. He built on what we have been working on with Wally at Quantum Sails, and Travis just expanded the base for us. He brought in some new ideas, but he amplified some of the things that we normally do.

What were some of his ideas that made a difference over the weekend?

We’ve spent a lot of time maybe over tweaking the rig. He was more inclined to just set the rig to the standards that we have developed and not make as many changes. His focus was a little bit more on tactics, especially the start.

Did you notice the change from the first day of racing into the second?

I think each day and each race we got better and the chemistry developed more. We did have one day of practice which helped us a lot. Then, what you gradually see is we’ve developed a language. After you’ve been sailing with somebody like Wally Cross and the same team for 15 years, you get accustomed to the communication style everybody has. Travis was new and he had to try to adapt to our communication style and we had to adapt to his. It made a huge difference once we started getting on the same language especially in the starts and the comfort in the corners. The corners are where you’re usually gonna mess up. And because we all spoke the same language and we got more comfortable with each other, it just got smoother and the crew work got better.

You’ve got a big event coming up later this summer.

We do have North Americans coming back here and it’s something that we’ve been working on for most of the year. Last year we had a very disappointing North Americans for us. It was based in Cleveland, but we were over early in the first two races and the fleet is so tight and so competitive. We wound up fourth, but this year, we’re really looking forward to coming back and we’ve got something to prove.

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Final Results

Four minutes. For Daniel Koules’ team on the Beneteau First 40 Badge, that was difference between finishing and not finishing after navigating a patience-testing 30-mile distance race on the second day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago. Earlier this morning 35 teams set off from a starting line near the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse with one hard deadline: finish by 1600. Only 13 boats managed to do so and Badge was almost another casualty to the time limit.

“We knew that when we made the turn at Montrose [the final mark of the course near Montrose Harbor] we had to get to the finish, and somehow we were able to make up some time,” Koules says. “It was a good point of sail for us and we were comfortable with what we were doing, and the crew made every effort to get us across the line.

What exactly transpired over the nearly 30 miles, five hours, 10 sail changes and nine-mark roundings was a blur for helmsman Koules, but his navigator, Jim Gignac, plotted the course says the key to both finishing within the time limit and winning the ORC1 division was one easily identifiable point in the race. “The forecast called for the thermal to build in the afternoon, but it came early and that was where things changed. There was a battle between the thermal and the southeasterly and you had to find your way through. It was a matter of understanding where the thermal was and where it wasn’t and not going to where it was dying…you could see the light spots creeping across the course.”

At one point, Gignac says, they were making their way north under jib on port tack, and 100 yards east of them was a boat with flying a spinnaker. “We elected to just live with jib, fight through it, and wait for the shift. When it finally came, we popped the spinnaker and got away from rest of the fleet.”

Jeff and Jane Hoswell’s Nelson Marek 46 Skye was the only other boat in the 10-boat ORC1 division to finishing within the time limit, but in the ORC2 division, which sailed a shorter course, all but one completed the course on time, but even then, they were cutting it close.

“There was a huge park-up at the southern end of the course,” says Luke Wolbrink, who’s C&C35-3 Zella topped its fleet of seven. “We were stuck there for about 30 minutes trying to make any headway—1 knot at times,” Wolbrink says. “We were fortunate enough to get just enough separation from our fleet and get our kite up first.”

As the slowest boat in its fleet, a heavy-displacement classic of the 1980s, Zella not only won its fleet but won boat-for-boat, which Wolbrink says, is “miraculous.” “Our boat is terrible in those conditions, but we sail in this area lot and we knew what the wind would likely do.”

The two PHRF Distance Race classes were not so fortunate: none of the PHRF 1 or 2 entrants finished in time, but the smallest boats of PHRF 3 did all managed to finish behind Bill Bartz’s Hunter 355 Ranger. For these unfortunate teams, redemption should come on Sunday for the final day of the regatta where the wind forecast is promising fresher breezes and a much rougher sea state from the north.

While the Distance Racers were battling farther out on the lake, the regatta’s one-design classes were enjoying shifty, but moderate conditions closer to shore once the sea breeze established itself later in the afternoon, allowing race committees on those circles to complete three more races to bring the series for most fleets to six races to date. Here, Gary Powell and Scott and Yvonne Rhulander’s Mojo continue to shine in the Beneteau First 40 fleet with a second and a pair of firsts to pad their lead to an impressive 8 points. Jeffrey Davis’ J/111 Shamrock went on a winning streak as well and now sits 5 points atop its three-boat fleet.

In the J/109 division, Team Northstar won two of three races to move into the overall lead by a single point over George Miz’s Smee Again.

Shawn O’Neill’s Eagle, with a four-legged crew onboard to sniff out the windshifts, padded its lead in the ORC division to 3 points with a run of seconds in the three races and in the PHRF 1 fleet, Tod Patten’s J/112e ran the table with three wins to put them solidly at the standings with one more race day to go.

Richard Witzel’s Rowdy, with tactician Carlos Robles calling the shots, remains the top J/70 with top-5 consistency in what is a fleet stacked with pro talent. Rowdy goes into the final day of racing with a 14-point lead over Fernando Perez Ontiveros’s Black Mamba, from Mexico. Bob Willis’ Rip Rullah is the top Corinthian, currently sitting seventh overall in the 24-boat fleet. William Howard and his junior sailing teammates on the Grom Squad are the top junior team, in 14th overall after six races.

The standings tightened in the 18-boat Tartan 10 fleet with Timothy Rathbun’s team on Winnebago winning back-to-back races after posting a sixth in the morning’s first race.

Brian Kaczor’s Erica is sitting on 3-point overall lead after putting up a pair of top-five finishes, setting up what will surely be a final-day battle for T10 bragging rights.

The Battle for the Beneteau 36.7 title a now a 4-point affair between helmsman Jim Clouser and his team on Joie de Vie, yesterday’s leader and Jarrett Altmin’s Soulshine, the defending champion. Clouser did himself no favors with a terrible start in the day’s first race in which he was “absolutely buried,” but they came back from the depths of the 12-boat fleet to salvage a sixth. After another bad start in the next race, they once again clawed back to finish third. At that point, frustrated with his performance, Clouser committed to winning the final race of the day. “I said we were going to win it, and I know I’m not supposed to because we’d jinx ourselves,” Clouser said. “But we able to get off the start, get right and a get a jump and do all we could to stay in front of Soulshine. They’re the team to beat and that’s not easy.”

With Sunday’s wind forecast to be a strong northerly with high seas and heavy rain, there’s a strong probability today’s results might stand, which would be fine for Clouser and Roman Plutanko who’s running away the regatta in the ILCA fleet. But for the top two teams in the J/88 and J/105s fleets, tied respectively, there’s hope for at least one race to shake out the standings without having to resort to a tie-break finale.

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Final Results

While Daniel Floberg was at work on a glorious summer Friday in Chicago, he turned the his J/88 Misty to his crew, which did their skipper proud on the opening day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series by not just winning the first race of the morning—by a Lake Michigan mile—but then winning the next one and finishing fourth in the third to close the day with a 1-point lead in the seven-boat class. This was, of course, easier said than done with flat water and an easy breeze that slowly built but often shifted dramatically, catching some teams off guard.

For the first day of this early-season Chicago summer classic, three races were scored across all four race circles and with winds on the tamer side, conditions were ideal for race teams new and old to re-acclimate with their boats and their positions after the long offseason. But for Tod Patton, the professional sailmaker and skipper of the J/122e Blondie, today was an opportunity to better understand a boat that is new to the team. “This is the first buoy race regatta we’ve done since we’ve gotten the boat,” Patton says, “and given that we’re happy with our results today—the crew work was great and that certainly helped.”

With a trio of second-place finishes in the six-boat PHRF division, Patton’s Blondie padded themselves a 3-point lead over Robert Smeeter’s Ohana, a Dehler 34c, but it’s not Ohana that Patton is most worried about. He says Joe Hummel’s C&C 115 Archimedes III, sitting in third, seemed to be the fast boat they’ll have to keep tabs on over the weekend. “They had good speed,” Patton says, “but for us, everything worked pretty smoothly, so that made for a good day to start with.”

Gary Powell and Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s Beneteau 40.7 Mojo, past overall champions of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, got off to a good start with a second in the first race and race wins in the next two to establish a 2-point lead over Thomas Weber’s team on La Tempete, which won the day’s opening race. Jeffrey Davis’ team on the J/111 Shamrock also put a pair of wins on the scoreboard to lead its three-boat division.

In the J/109 fleet, George Miz’s team on Smee Again got off to rocky start with a fifth in the first race after seemingly getting caught out on the morning’s first big wind shift, but with that result behind them, they rallied with a 1-2 for the next races and closed the day tied at the top with Peter Priede and his team on Full Tilt, winners of the final race of the day.

For Mark Fruin and his teammates on the J/105 Nyctosaur, today on Lake Michigan was a banner day and an even better start to their season. After winning the first-race wire-to-wire they finished second to Josh and Laura Lutton’s Kinship in the next. Their win in the third race, Fruin says, was all on account of a full-speed start. From there, however, he doesn’t remember much. He was doing his job concentrating on driving and letting the crew do the rest of the good work, including his tactician, Bob Bernstein, a local champion with plenty of experience on Lake Michigan.

“It was all about the right side today and Bob put us in some great places.”

For Saturday’s coming races, Fruin says the plan is to stick with what’s been working: “We’ll just listen to Bob, put ourselves in clear air and sail fast.”

On the regatta’s one-design circle, which features the two largest classes—the J/70 and the Tartan 10s—it was all Richard Witzel’s team on the J/70 Rowdy, which went undefeated to build a 9-point lead over Dick Kalow’s crew on Superior 1. For the Tartan 10s, last year’s winning team on Brian Kaczor’s Erica remains on form with 1-3-2 scoreline which puts them 3 points ahead of their rivals on Edward Mui and Craig Roehl’s Meat.

“We were expecting lighter winds all day and were happy to have the breeze we did,” Kaczor says. “For the first race, we had the boat set up for lighter winds and it was quick, but when the wind built for the scone we didn’t shift gears very and missed some shifts, but were happy to claw back from seventh to third in that race. Overall, we’re pretty happy with being a bit more consistent than the rest of the fleet. The crew did great and I think we are sitting in a good place but we know there are a lot more races to go.”

With a good forecast for Saturday’s races, the regatta’s Distance Race fleets, topping more than 30 boats, will join the action with longer courses across the lake. Once ashore, all competitors will gather at host Chicago Yacht Club’s Monroe Station for the weekend’s biggest party and the ultra-competitive remote control racing with the Dragon Force 65 fleet.

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When the calendar in Chicago finally rolls over to June, the entire city, from the Lake Shore to the West Side comes alive with an unmistakable urgency and hustle: like, hey man, summer’s too short, so let’s get to it, and make the most of it. There’s a seasonal switch for Chicago’s sailors, too, because once the annual Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series kicks off the action in a big way on June 8, summer—and all the sailing that comes with it—bursts to life. And this year especially, with an early departure of Lake Michigan ice and seasonable weather for on-time yacht launches, the regatta will welcome more than 150 teams set to race in 14 divisions.

“Team Mojo is as prepared as it can be,” says Yvonne Ruhlander, co-owner of the regatta’s past winner of the Beneteau 40.7 division. “The boat has received all the love we could possibly give her: the bottom, the woodwork…you name it.”

Mojo’s sailing squad of 14 sailors has gotten its season off to a good start with a few practice days to acclimate two new additions to the team. The new sharp-looking team uniforms are in, and all the pieces are in place for another successful regatta, adds Ruhlander, especially the crew. “I think our secret has really been the greater Mojo family over the years,” she says. “We’ve been consistent in our positions—we kind of believe in position specialties if at all possible.”

The Beneteau 40.7 class lineup includes most of the Chicago area’s regulars, and as the entry window was closing, the fleet was calling in at six boats, with a possible seventh, which will guarantee the close racing the fleet has enjoyed for many years.

The Tartan 10 class has been a permanent fixture of the regatta series since its inception in the early 1990s, and while the fleet numbers aren’t what they used to be in the heydays of the T10 era, past champion Brian Kaczor, says the crème of the fleet that exists today is what makes it one of the toughest one-design classes on Lake Michigan.

Kaczor’s Erica is one of the most immaculately maintained T10s of the fleet, but even for this perfectionist, the long offseason has given him a chance to make a few upgrades to make the yacht even better after winning last August’s Tartan 10 North American Championship title. “Hopefully we’ll have another good season,” says Kaczor. “Last year was remarkable. I didn’t expect it to be that good, so we’re hoping to at least make it the same as last year.”

What was the magic of 2022?

“Everything started to click,” he says. “We were just really in tune to the boat and to each other, making it go fast, and I think it was just the amount of sailing we did every weekend. Sailing with the same seven people makes a big difference.”

Other prominent one-design classes in attendance include the J/70, which remains the regatta’s largest one-design fleet, at 24 entries. The class is sailing at a particularly high level these days with the J/70 World Championships to be contested in Florida this fall. For the top and professional-laden teams of the class, the next several months are about getting maximum races ahead of this rare domestic championship opportunity, so the Helly Hansen Regatta in Chicago marks the beginning of the big summer push toward perfection.

One key initiative of the regatta is to provide access to keelboat racing for junior sailors at all stops of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series, and in Chicago, three all-junior teams will be competing in the J/70 fleet—two for their first time. Three 15-year-olds will skipper these entries, alongside their respective yacht club and high school teammates, and will be mentored by other fleet members.

Jarrett Altmin’s Beneteau 36.7 Soulshine, last year’s winner in this highly competitive local fleet, which will be training hard ahead of the class’s North American Championship in September in Chicago. In 2022, Soulshine won the Helly Hansen Sailing World regatta in the final race, with a winning delta of only 3 points after seven races.

“It was a heck of a regatta last year,” Altmin says, “and obviously, it was hard fought and we were awfully proud to get that one. This year, we have a similar lineup, but we also have two new boats that have joined the fleet. The boat called Tried and True won the Beneteau 36.7 championship here in Chicago for years and years when the fleet was new, and now the owner’s son has taken over the boat, so this will be their first regatta after a number of years. We’re excited about that, and that our fleet numbers remain strong.”

Altmin, who has raced Soulshine for longer than he can recall, says he’s confident going into the season because his team of regulars “continues to rely on our strength, which is effectively that the same crew has raced together for more than a decade. That has certainly been the secret to our success—consistency with the crew work is so important in these boats.”

While many recurring regattas often feature returning fleet winners like Soulshine, one interesting trend to note for this year’s Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series stop in Chicago is the absence of several 2022 winners on account of their boats being sold outside the area. Last year’s winner in the J/111 fleet, John Kalanik’s Pura Vida, for example, has traded hands, as has the winning J/109 Callisto, of Kate and Jim Murray, and last year’s top J/88, Banter, of Ben Marden, will not be sailing, opening the door for other teams to lay claim to their respective class titles.

While the event’s founding in 1989 as the National Offshore One-Design Regatta Series reflected the yacht racing scene of the time—that being larger one-design keelboats—the growth in popularity of handicap and distance racing in the US has since skewed the entry lists of the events toward the mixed fleets of PHRF and ORC. Host Chicago YC’s Race to Mackinac later in the summer is the bucket list sailing experience for area sailors, so the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series’ addition of two days of long-course racing around navigational marks is an opportunity for teams to rattle the off-season rust, train new crew, and prepare new sails and hardware for the big race to come.

In Chicago, these 31 teams will navigate day-long courses on Saturday and Sunday only, with only one race per day starting and finishing in the vicinity of the Chicago YC, allowing competitors to stow sails and gear and head straight to the nightly parties at the club, which are considered the best sailor parties of the summer.

On Thursday night at the Club, Sailing World will host and roast six-time Kiteboard World Champion and four-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the year Daniela Moroz, and Saturday night, alongside the bulkhead of the club, the regatta’s smallest fleet of racing yachts, the 25-inch remote controlled DragonForce 65, will provide dockside competition for those with controls in hand, and party side entertainment for those with Mount Gay cocktails in hand.

While all the action and entertainment will be hosted at Chicago YC’s Monroe Station, regatta organizers have added dinghies to the mix as well, with ILCAs and ILCA6s sailing out of Montrose Harbor further north and closer to their racecourses.

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During the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, Quantum Sails will be providing free in-depth daily weather briefings with Sailflow’s meteo guru Chris Shea, via Zoom. Sign up here to register.

Combining my five years of experience on Lake Michigan with the wisdom of sailors who’ve been here far longer, we look at the typical—and atypical—conditions we’ll see the during the second weekend of June. For additional advice I’ve tapped Seth Morrell, a successful Chicago area racer, who offers his insight on local knowledge. So read on and get the inside on local knowledge Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series stop in Chicago.

Typical Summer Sailing

Gradient winds, when not under the influence of a frontal passage, are commonly from the south to southeast. On sunny days and early in the season, it is normal for a thermal lake breeze to develop as Chicagoland heats up, usually after noon or occasionally a little earlier on warmer days. Small cumulus clouds forming over the city are the telltale signal of rising air onshore, so expect the thermal to come in perpendicular to the city from the east.

If the gradient is from the south or southeast, the city thermal will shift the mean breeze left and toward the east. You will experience puffs and left shifts from the east/left on the racecourse. This combination of gradient and thermal breeze is common on most summer days, but the gradient can be so weak the racecourse will be light and variable and dominated by the thermal. In both cases, however, the breeze will fill from offshore/east/left. In these conditions, wind direction will vary between about 85 degrees and 130 degrees depending on how the gradient and thermal get along.

Once the wind has settled, you will usually see 8- to 10-degree oscillations every 5 to 8 minutes on either side of the mean direction. The rule of thumb in these conditions is to favor the left side of the beat and the right side of the downwind legs while watching for the oscillations.

On days with a solid, strong south/southwest gradient, the thermal has less impact, but it will be there and it will have an influence. Be aware.

Less Typical Summer Sailing

If a north or northeast gradient breeze arrives, it’s usually associated with the beginning of a front. Expect lumpy conditions from the long fetch, and when it cooler, the wind will be steady but can still oscillate.

If it is warm enough for a thermal, the breeze will again shift to the east—a right shift in this case—so the rule of thumb is to favor the right side of the beats and the left side of the run. Generally, these are the safest moves in these conditions.

West or northwest breezes are seen after a frontal passage and blow offshore. By nature, they are puffy and shifty, which is made worse by the many tall buildings lining the shoreline. These conditions are least predictable, so getting in phase with shifts and puffs takes a lot of work and focus.

This is the least predictable condition we experience in regards to when and how strong the shifts and puffs are. Since this breeze comes from the shore, it is strongest but also shiftier close to shore. The rule of thumb is to go toward the shore for the best pressure; the majority of these shifts tend to be lefties.

 While you’re in town, our local Quantum team is here to help with any need — from sail repairs to tactical discussions. Good luck, and welcome to Chicago!

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The sailing scene in Chicago is a lot like the springtime change of the seasons in the Windy City. Blink and the ice sheet that once stretched across Lake Michigan is gone, the lakefront is lush and alive and harbors are packed, up and down the coastline. And then—boom—just like that the racing season kicks into high gear with Chicago Yacht Club’s warm-up races ahead of the big season opener—the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series, which this year will be followed by SailGP’s Season 3 visit the following weekend at Navy Pier.

Yes, indeed, all of a sudden, the action is hot, hot, hot, and true to form, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Series promises to be a big gathering in Chicago, both on the water and onshore at Chicago YC’s Monroe and Belmont Stations. With an expectation of nearly 200 entries, the Chicago edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series draws the area’s biggest and smallest classes—from the professionally sailed Great Lakes 52s to the battery-powered Dragon Force 65 remote-control racers going thumb-to-thumb along the seawall during the regatta’s Saturday night gala.

The Tartan 10 class, a fixture of this regatta for nearly 30 years, is shaping up to once again be one of the largest divisions. Brian Kaczor’s team on Erica will return to defend its win from 2021, but Timothy Rathbun’s team on the mighty Winnebego is also on the entry list and keen to avenge their 1-point loss.

Dave Tufts and his crew on the J/88 Gaucho, from Rochester, New York, almost went undefeated at the regatta in 2021, but a winter calendar packed with J/88 class regattas has elevated the likelihood of this 15-team division being a far bigger challenge for Gaucho this time around. On the hunt will be John and Jordon Leahey’s team on Dutch, winners of the last significant J/88 gathering, in Charleston in April, where they won on a tie-breaker with Andy Graff’s Chicago-based team on Exile. No doubt, the J/88s will enjoy more close racing.

We can expect the same of the J/111 and J/105, J/109 and J/70 divisions, packed with great teams that have been sailing all winter long. The J/70s will face Bruce Golison’s Team on Midlife Crisis, second at the 2021 J/70 World Championships in California and featuring the same top-level squad, including Rolex Yachtsman of the Year finalist and Etchells World champion crew, Erik Shampain.

New to the Chicago regatta will be the L30 division, sleek 30-footers designed by Ukranian Olympic silver medalist Rodian Luka (Men’s 49er). With some of the L30s privately owned and others made available for charter, the fleet is providing competitors easy access to turnkey grand-prix racing. Luka and his support team set up and prepare the boats for teams interested in trying the multi-purpose design. L30s were featured at the St. Petersburg stop of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series and received high praise from chartering teams for their speed and ease of handling in a variety of wind conditions.

As they are intended for coastal racing as well, the L30s will shift from buoy racing on Saturday to join the North Sails Rally Race fleet, which will sail a daylong distance race that will start and finish in the vicinity of Navy Pier. The current North Sails Rally Race fleet features more than a dozen boats ranging from 52 to 35 feet, and many of the teams will be using the regatta as an early warm-up and winter dust-off for Chicago YC’s Race to Mackinac in July.

The powerhouse classes of the Beneteau 36.7s and 40.7s, packed with the area’s most dedicated and seasoned amateur sailors who are known to race as hard as they party, are expected to deliver the same competitive results as they have many years, especially with the return of their respective division winners: Antoni Czupryna’s Erizo de Mar in the Beneteau 36.7s and Gary Powell, Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s Mojo in Beneteau 40.7. Mojo emerged as the regatta’s overall winner in 2021, which earned them a berth in the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship. This season-ending regatta will be held in the British Virgin Islands in October with overall winning teams from all five regattas from both 2021 and 2022.   

Racing for the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Chicago gets underway June 10 with all buoy-racing classes and continues with North Sail Saturday on June 11 and concludes on June 12 with the selection of the regatta’s overall winner and awards party at the Chicago Yacht Club where evening socials will be hosted for sailors, friends, families and members.

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