SailGP Flies into Chicago
Published: Friday, June 10, 2022 10:00 am
By: Ken Quant
A version of this article appeared in the Launch (May/June) 2022 of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine.
A Great Lake’s first, the high flying SailGP race series is scheduled to bring its spectacular show to the Chicago lakefront, June 18 and 19, 2022. An international series, SailGP features ten national teams, each sailing identical F-50 foiling catamarans in a fleet racing format. Unlike the often-boring two boat match racing format of the America’s Cup, this series offers plenty of action as each team competes in every race. Add in the extreme speed and widely unpredictable nature of foil sailing, and you get a race more akin to Formula 1 car racing than traditional sailboat racing.
The Chicago event is only one stop on the 2022/23 SailGP calendar that also includes Bermuda, Britain, Denmark, France, Spain, Dubai, New Zealand, and San Francisco. Now in its third season, the international series seems to have somewhat cracked the difficult sailing viewership audience code with a reported 110,000 onshore spectators and almost 2 billion TV viewers in its first season alone. Based on that early success, the SailGP fleet has now expanded from its original six teams to a total of ten for this third season of racing.
Chicago offers an almost perfect venue for this Grand Prix event. Based out of Navy Pier, the racecourse will be sailed in breakwater protected seas with the famous skyline as a spectacular backdrop. Navy Pier itself extends outward into the harbor, offering tons of great viewing along its length, as well as plenty of other things to do in-between races. With hopefully cooperative weather, races should also start and finish directly in front of the Navy Pier audience, giving everyone an up-close view of these other-worldly boats at full speed.
As for the racing itself, this will be the second series of races in SailGP’s third season. The ten nations competing include Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, United States, and defending champions, Australia. Similar to other professional sports, each team recruits from around the world, but has all team members sail under one flag. This creates a bit of national pride while still attracting many of the world’s best.
No matter if you are a hardcore sailboat racer or a casual cruiser, you can’t help but be mesmerized by the speed of these flying cats. Truly a vision of the future, they reach speeds once only reserved for freeways and motor driven vessels. If you have any interest in attending this event, book your travels now. With the warm winds of summer blowing across the lakes, it promises to be primetime in Chicago and the city will be both literally and figuratively in full trim.
For more information about SailGP, visit www.sailgp.com
About the Author
Ken sails his T10, Eclipse, out of McKinley Marina in Milwaukee. He races regularly with the South Shore Yacht Club and MAST sailing club.
