Lake Ontario Offshore LOOR: Surging Winds and Virtual Marks – 2026 Susan Hood
as morning broke, the 30 -knot winds relaxed and the crew regain composure aboard Arriba Photos by Ken Martin
June 11, 2026
On Friday, May 29, 56 racers came out in winds gusting up to 36 knots to compete in the 71st annual Susan Hood Trophy Race
This year’s course followed Course Delta with the first leg heading west to Van Wagner Beach, then heading to a virtual mark (on your GPS but not actually on the water) off Niagara, then heading to round the Gibraltar mark for a final downwind run to the finishing mark just outside of Port Credit Yacht Club for a total course of 76 nm.
As the race started racers were seeing gusts of up to 30 kts true wind speed and the intensity of the wind continued to strengthen for the first leg of the race, hitting a peak of 36 kts on our logbook. This meant a quick rounding at the first mark, although several boats were visibly overpowered on this leg and one had to retire due to a torn genoa.
Strong winds continued through the night, keeping racers powered up and the pace fast. Finishing with an elapsed time of 9:44:16 Afterburn took the monohull line honours, while Tamu had that honour in the multihull class with an elapsed time of 9:47:29.
In the PHRF Flying Sails (FS) category Clear Air scored first overall with a corrected time of 11:47:52 out of 44 racers. In PHRF Not Flying Sails My own Stormlight came in first overall out of eight racers with a corrected time of 13:35:25. There was also an ORC category with two racers, in which Hooligan took first with a corrected time of 12:49:02.
It was a very cold night for racers, with water temperatures reading just over 4 degrees Celsius!
Many racers reconvened the next day for the first of six Lake Ontario Short-Handed Races (LOSHR), with 38 boats competing. Moxie took the day with Line Honours and an elapsed time of 2:45:46. Lancer dominated the FS category, taking first overall with an elapsed time of 3:09:50 while Still Crazy took first overall in the NSF category with an elapsed time of 2:49:43.
The next LOSHR race is a destination race weekend on June 27-28 from PCYC to the Highland Yacht Club (HYC) in the Basin, with a festive bash on the Saturday night followed by another race back to PCYC on the Sunday. Registrations are still open and this year first-time racers qualify for a deeply discounted rate of just $25 for the full LOSHRS series.
Then the next signature race is the LO300 on July 10-14th, which has two courses, a shorter Scotch Bonnett course open to those in NFS as well as FS for some PHRF ratings, and the full course to Main Duck Island that is open to FS boats with a qualifying PHRF rating.
The early bird rate to register for the LO300 has been extended to Saturday, June 14th so racers are encouraged to enter early to take advantage of the discount.
An exciting LOOR racing season is off to a great start and we look forward to seeing new and old racers alike out on the water!
