US SAILING Match Racing Championship
Sheboygan’s lakefront will be the site of the 46th year of the US SAILING Match Racing Championship. The event is being organized by Sail Sheboygan and hosted by the Sheboygan Yacht Club September 18 through 22, and is slated to bring our nation’s most talented sailors to our waters. The last large-scale match racing event held in Sheboygan was the ISAF Nations Cup in September of 2011.
Ten teams representing their home sailing clubs will face off over the 4-days of scheduled racing in a combination of round robin and elimination stages. Each team will race every other team once for seating into the next stage. The top 8 teams will advance to a quarter-final round with the winners advancing to a semi-final series. The semi-final winners will advance to the final round where the winner earns the coveted Prince of Wales Trophy and is named US SAILING Match Racing Champion.
The 2012 winning team of Taylor Canfield, Stephanie Roble, Maggie Shea and Janel Zarkowski representing Chicago Match Race Center brought the trophy back to Chicago for only the second time in its 45 year history. In fact, the event has been won by Midwest clubs only five times. The east coast club of Pequot Yacht Club in Connecticut and west coast club of Newport Harbor in California have each taken the trophy 5 times.
Invited skippers will have earned the right to compete in the championship through either winning a regional US SAILING qualifier or through their finishes in other graded match racing events. The fleet of expertly maintained Sail Sheboygan Sonars will be raced by the 3-person crews. Local Principle Race Officer, David Bronson, will manage the racing schedule. Chief Umpire for the event is Jeff Borland from Annapolis, Maryland.
An Opening Reception welcoming sailors, race officials and US SAILING representatives will take place at the Sheboygan Yacht Club Thursday, September 19 beginning at 6:30 pm and the closing ceremony and prize giving will take place one hour upon completion of racing Sunday, September 22nd. The best viewing areas of the racing will be behind Blue Harbor Resort or on the South Pier. For more information or to attend any of the functions, please email Kathy Lindgren at kathy@sailsheboygan.com.
