(Mackinac Island, MI)- It was a “slow-motion thriller” for the 116th edition of the 289.0nm Chicago Mackinac Race- presented by Wintrust. For nearly four days, multiple division leaders were within shouting distance of each other on Lake Michigan, swapping tacks, and trading leads as they clawed their way through the Manitou Passage and up into the Mackinac Straits. A big, fat high-pressure system with nary an isochron in sight was parked over northern Michigan, leading to light and fickle winds from the north, northwest, and easterly quadrants. As one wise navigator explained, it was as good as “rolling the dice” as to where the next breeze line would settle in for an hour or two, then just disappear. In the long run, the “stop & go driving” saw many J/Teams excel in the difficult conditions, leading to many of them garnering silverware on the podium. 

This year’s Chicago-Mackinac Race reminded sailors that no two “Mac Races” are ever the same, delivering the kind of dynamic challenge that has made it one of the world’s most iconic offshore races and a fixture on every sailor’s bucket list.

Known as “America’s Offshore Challenge”, the 2025 Mac Race tested sailors’ tactical instincts, patience, and mental endurance over the course up Lake Michigan and into Lake Huron for the finish at Mackinac Island, MI.

Unpredictable wind conditions made this year’s race especially demanding, with many boats taking longer than usual to reach the finish. On average, this year, the racing division took 57 hours. In contrast, last year’s race was one for the record books as the 80-foot canting keeler MAVERICK broke the 22-year-old monohull record (just over 22 hours). It’s this unpredictability that keeps Mac Racers returning year after year. Here is how it broke down by division for the large numbers of J/Teams. Read more here.

(Wemeldinge, The Netherlands)- Twenty teams from seven nations (Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, and the USA) arrived from all points of the compass to vie for the 2025 J/24 Europeans Championship. The regatta was sailed from July 7 to 12 off Wemeldinge, the Netherlands, and hosted by Van de Rest Nautic. 

The Irish team HEADCASE (Cillian Dickson) triumphed at the 2025 J/24 European Championship, securing their third consecutive European title! The Dutch team JACK AROUND (Rutger Krijger) earned the silver medal, while the German team SCHWERE JUNGS (Stefan Karsunke) took bronze. Here is how it all went down over the four-day event.  Read more here.

Nicole Breault’s VELA RACING TEAM Leads Circuit
(Annapolis, MD)- The Women’s World Match Racing Tour started its 2025 schedule of six events in four countries, featuring events in the USA, France, Sweden, and Bermuda. Now in its fourth consecutive season, the Women’s World Match Racing Tour remains the only all-women global series in sailing, designed to promote and grow the participation of women in sailing and match racing. Over 150 women match racing sailors are expected to compete on the Women’s World Match Racing Tour this year.

This year, the WMRT kicked off its season in the USA with back-to-back stages in San Francisco and Annapolis- both sailed in matched J/22 one-design class sailboats.  Read more here.

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- A hot fleet of twenty J/70s assembled at the Royal Yacht Squadron    in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, for their 2025 UK South Coast Championship. Sailing took place on the usually boisterous, tricky Solent waters where currents rip up to 5 kts at peak tides just off the RYS’s starting line!

The top of the leaderboard was a full-on battle for the top five by many regatta-winning teams. Just six points separated the top five teams, a source of anxiousness and anxiety for every tactical decision made or unrecoverable boat-handling errors.  Read more here.

(Port Credit, ONT, Canada)- The 2025 Lake Ontario 300 Race was recently hosted by the Port Credit Yacht Club on Lake Ontario. The Lake Ontario 300 originated through the interest and vision of several single-handed sailors at Oakville Harbour Yacht Club, now part of Oakville Yacht Squadron, and the Port Credit Yacht Club. Johan Pederson and his group envisioned a long-distance race to challenge the skills of those who usually raced single-handed in the Lake Ontario Short Handed Racing Series (LOSHRS) or around the cans on their club’s race nights, or went to regattas such as the Lake Yacht Racing Association and sailed the Freeman Cup. Most, if not all, of these long-distance races were for fully crewed boats. Johan realized that often the sailing done on Lake Ontario was by 2 people, and racing doublehanded was a good way to improve and challenge skills.

Since then, the Lake Ontario 300 has grown in both crew allowance and race length.  While there are still double-handed and solo entries, there are a number of boats that race fully crewed. This year, the handful of J/Teams that participated in the race walked off with a few nice pieces of silverware! Here was the outcome of racing on western Lake Ontario. Read more here.

(Ventura, CA)- The annual J/Fest Ventura Regatta took place off Ventura, CA, for a fleet of eight J/24s and ten J/70s. The host Ventura Yacht Club RC/PRO team managed to run eight fast races over the long weekend, much to the delight of all sailors!

J/70 Class
The Southern California J/70 class continues to strengthen over time as both men and women helms learn how to make their boats go faster. However, now the class is beginning to see more and more women owners in the field. After the eight races, it was Pat Toole’s 3 BIG DOGS that took the class win by a whisker of one point net!  Read more here.

(Santa Barbara, CA)- Ever since the J/70 was first introduced to Southern California over ten years ago, the class has always supported a very popular event in Santa Barbara, CA. Hosted by Santa Barbara Yacht Club, the J/70s turned out in force for the Fiesta Cup Regatta.

After the smoke cleared from the weekend regatta of six races, it was clear that Ventura YC’s Ryan Cox and his merry bandits on DJ were not going to get dissuaded or distracted by their rivals. They won the first race and simply walked away with the regatta win with an astounding record of four 1sts and one 2nd for 6 pts net. WOW, what a can of “whupass” they must’ve broken out at the start of the regatta– just like the cartoon “Popeye”!!  Read more here.

(Racine, WI)- The 42nd consecutive running of the “Death’s Door Challenge”- a.k.a. The HOOK Race- was run by Racine Yacht Club for a large fleet of 49 PHRF handicap boats, 11 of which were J/Teams!

The HOOK Race is a 189.0nm race on Lake Michigan held each year in July. This challenging event starts outside the harbor in Racine, Wisconsin, “hooking” through Death’s Door (Porte Des Morts passage), a narrow and often treacherous passageway between Washington Island and Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula. Then, the most scenic part of the race continues across Green Bay and ends in Menominee, Michigan.  Read more here.

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)-  Marking the 100th anniversary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the 2025 edition of the ROLEX Fastnet Race is certain to be a special one. From its humble beginnings, the race upon which the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) was founded has grown to become the world’s biggest offshore race, with 381 IRC-rated yachts competing. From the start off the famous Cowes/ Royal Yacht Squadron starting line in the Solent, the fleet rounds Fastnet Rock just off the southeastern tip of Ireland, then heads for home to the finish off Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France- a distance of 695.0nm.

Making History
In 1925, before offshore racing was even a sport in the United Kingdom, seven cruising yachts and their valiant crews embarked on what was then called “the Ocean Race”. Inspired by the Newport Bermuda Race, the U.K. equivalent was started off Ryde Middle in the Solent by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. The fleet headed counter-clockwise around the Isle of Wight, before heading west to Land’s End, crossing the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock lighthouse, rounding it to port and returning to the finish off Plymouth, England.

Weather Forecast
Teams that competed in the last two ROLEX Fastnet Races and are returning for this Saturday’s special centenary edition will be breathing a sigh of relief looking at the long-term forecast. In contrast to the battering they received from the 30+ knot winds at the start, and the subsequent gale force winds of the first 24 hours, they endured during the last two editions, the long-term forecast for this year’s race shows more benign conditions  Read more here.