INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 163 - As the main thrust of the sail racing season winds down, we spend a few moments covering the 2026 Bayview Yacht Club's Port Huron to Mac Race and check in at Harbor Springs for the 65th annual U-Gotta-Regatta. We chat with the winners, those who put up a good fight and spent a few moments with America's Cup veteran and Santa Cruz native Morgan Larson and why surfing is almost as important as sailing to him. Check out the mistaken identity in one of brief interviews and look at the pre-event publicity we are generating for the Ambassdor Cup, coming in late August. Ohana's Tor Hough talks us through the race on the Detroit River for the GL-70s Santz Cruz fleet. I hope this makes up for the poor sound last episide Kent. Stay tuned because we think you'll like the show.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 161 - We went on the road the last couple of weeks with sailing in the 2026 Queen's Cup and then headed to northern Wisconsin for the Bayfield Sail Week on Lake Superior. We ended up with two days in Duluth, Minnesota and crossed Lake Michigan three times in less than a week. First, Inside Great Lakes Sailing wants to thank John and Sam Nedeau for an invitation to cruise a Beneteau 53 First with the kindest crew one could imagine. And don't think all the talent in the Great Lakes sailing basin is left on the GL-52s. The crew of the Cynthia Lynn were outstanding. After the Queen's Cup, we ventured to Bayfield, Wisconsin for Bayfield Week and we touched base with our favorite PHRF expert Keith Stauber. We didn't actually get out to race, but our time in Bayfield and Duluth were well worth the drive. Lake Huron has its North Channel, but Lake Superior's Apostle Islands are a cruising domain made in heaven. Check out show our today and stay tuned next week for the upcoming Mac Races and some other really good IGLS features.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 160 - A bit of history comes to the video pages of Inside Great Lakes Sailing, as the 1995 America's Cup was a unique international sailing competition because for the first time in race history a team made of entirely women boarded Bill Koch's social experiment on water to see if a battle of the sexes was actually possible in a non-contact sport. The result of posting want ads in the New York Times created a sailing program that shocked the world, but not the real sailors of any international caliber of talent. The talened sail racers aboard 'Mighty Mary' proved to be talented, smart, tenacious and competitive as they dismantled the world's best skipper in San Diego legend Dennis Connor. The story has been put to film, which will debut locally in early September, and we chatted with a few who were a part of the project including award winning documentarian Mary Mazzio, the first America's Cup female skipper Leslie Engot and two Great Lakes superstar sailors in Katie and Debbie Pettibone Cooper. Katie was a silver medialist and the sisters have widely been considered some of America'a best for more than four decades. This show is a bit long, but the context and insight provides a peek inside the lockeroom of one of the great international sporting competitions. And if that wasn't enough, we have former University of Michigan professor NL Duran, who just dropped a fictional sailing novel about life, its short comings and sailing around the world with the entry point Lake St. Clair. This is the 2026 literary edition of Inside Great Lakes Sailling and we hope you like it.....as we are off to the Queen's Cup in the morning.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 159 - One of the best sail racing fleets hit Lake Michigan this past week and competed in the GL-52's Big Red Regatta. We visited Macatawa Bay Yacht Club Saturday and chatted with a ton of folks who were involved in the race including those who know somwthing about the Jolly Madison Sailing Club, a great new Russian photographer who is brilliant, an outstandng host who made our visit successful, a North Sail loft manager who wants to know why age seems discriminatory and a public official who is trying to preserve the Big Red Lighthouse for another century. This should make for a great show and don't forget to check out a few comments about last week's 2026 Mills Trophty Race or this weekend's Crescent Sail Yacht Club's One Design extravaganza and here's hoping good winds and sunny skies.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 158 - The breeze cooperated some of the past weekend for local sailors who enjoyed the third annual Helly Hansen Sailing World One Design Regatta here in Lake St. Clair. We chatted with a number of contestants, participants, winners and race organizers and we have a ton of really great footage, thanks in part to Sailing World's Dave Reed. And with summer here, we checked in with some of upcoming events like the annual Lake Erie classic, the Mills Race, and the second annual Crescent Sail Yacht Club's One Design event coming next weekend. We think this is a fun and exciting show, and we continue to advertise Captain Greg's Magic Boat Soap that benefits the Detroit Community Sailing Center and Spectrum Sailing, so please order some today. We will be on Lake Michigan this coming weekend for the Big Red Regatta as part of the GL-52 series covering some of the best sailors in the world, so until next week, fair breezes and sunny skies.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 154 - The landscape has softened a bit after the last IGLS show featuring America's Cup veteran John Sweeney, who is suing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron over the Deed Of Gift, so we thought about pushing on with some information about cruising and a great announcement for our old friend from Spectrum Sailing Scott Herman. who just worked a deal with Sail GP to provide assistance for his program that works with autistic youngsters. The Great Lakes Cruising Club Commodore Joe McKeown stops by to chat about his organization's dedication to leisure cruising , while Dave Monk, of ILYA fame, chats about combining racers and sailors on the same Put-In-Bay dock during Bay Week at the end of July, which will be quite a feat, but let's listen and see if it can work so please stay tuned and let's see what happens.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 153 - For the third show of the season, we get off 2026 with a big bang as sailing icon Peter Harken joins us with his wife, Dr. Edit Olasz, the inventor of a great sunscreen, HarkenDerm, to converse about his career, the value of the Midwest work force and how he met his wife. So interviewing a sailing icon should be enough for our little show, but we push ahead. Our expert sailor Wally Cross joins to outline the best way to find cremates at all levels and we embark on what could be the biggest sailing story since Dennis Conner lost the America's Cup. John Sweeney, an AC veteran, world champion and one of the best sailors this country has produced, joins us to talk about his complaint filed with the New York Attorney's General office about the AC Deed of Gift, which is the organizing document that has guided the America's Cup organizers since 1857. Sweeney does not believe the Cup competition has been operated the way the Deed of Gift is written in more than two decades and he's asking the New York AG to weigh in on his complaint. The New York courts oversee the infamous sailing trust managed by the New York Yacht Club. We chat with Sweeney after conversations with a few folks in the AG's office in Albany, New York, a couple of knowledgable folks who reside in Auckland and Sailing Illustrated's Tom Ehman, a gentleman who over saw a number of Cups during his AC reign of more than 25 years. Right or wrong, left or right, Sweeney makes a powerful point during this interview and IGLS knows that's accurate because a few media types around the country have already began to challenge Sweeney's findings or complain that the America's Cup has no relevance. The critics might be right, or they might be wrong, but if John Sweeney's legal actions have the desired result he is hoping for in the near future, we're talking a real game changer with a storyline that will easily make the ESPN SportsCenter highlights, so stay tuned and see what's what.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 152 - The sailing controversies swirl as we move towards spring and subjects like the America's Cup and the upcoming Olympics keep our interest until the snow melts. For our February 2026 show, Inside Great Lakes Sailing visited with Olympic Gold Medalist, two-time Star World Champion and five-time America's Cup veteran Steve Erickson, who spends his summer on the Great Lakes as part of the GL-52 fleet and the Katana crew. The likeable Erickson chats about his influence on bringing professional sailing respect as a life's calling and he opines about the current state of the America's Cup off-season.........Lake Michigan Off-Shore Racing chairman Terry Kuehn stops by to discuss international sailing boundaries and how the Yacht Racing Union of the Great Lakes is trying to peek its head about the water to regain some notoriety after a long public absence. Stay tuned for a great interview with Steve and Terry.

INSIDE GREAT LAKES SAILING SEASON SEVEN SHOW NO. 151 - We begin our seventh season early, much like 2026, because we have an interview of note that we thought should see the light of day and since Mother Nature has even us ardent skiers crouched near the resort fire place, here's our first installment for the new year. Inside Great Lakes Sailing was proud to interview Marcus Lynch, the appointed head of US Sailing's Olympic arm two years ago and we struck gold, so to speak, twice, because we are the first to bring you a video interview of the latest to lead US Sailing Olympians, Molly Vandemoer, a former World Champion and US Olympic team member. Molly was appointed US Sailings Olympic director by CEO Charlie Enright three weeks ago. The appointment of Ms. Vandemoer was a spectacular move by those who run US Sailing and you'll learn that for yourself by listening to her speak. We also wanted to leave you with some bar room chatter about PHRF and how US Sailing and the various regional handicapping bodies might work in a more harmonious way. Our resident sail boat handicapper, and former Barthel Trophy winner, Keith Stauber, stops in to raise the question, can we improve the PHRF process by crawling back into bed with US Sailing.....the conversation might scare you, so sit down in front of the television or the computer and take a break from the cold of winter and think about those warm summer breezes with Inside Great Lakes Sailing.

A show about all things Great Lakes sailing and racing.