Skyline Series

CYC hosts a few midweek casual racing series under the banner of the Skyline Series. These events provide an opportunity for owners and crew to get introduced to sailboat racing in an informal atmosphere. They are great opportunities to introduce crew members to your boat and allow them to try new roles and or for potential crew members to meet skippers.

Contact the race series coordinators to learn how to get involved.

After racing, return to Monroe or Belmont Station for food, drink, friendship, tall tales and weekly awards. Check out the registration site for each series. Registration and additional information for each series is below.

Racing Yacht Fleet Series 

Chicago Yacht Club’s Racing Yacht Fleets leave from Belmont Harbor most Saturdays. The Racing Yacht Fleet is composed of One-Design classes and offers some of the best and most fun racing in the Midwest. In One-Design racing all boats are equal. It emphasizes the skills of the sailors, and the first boat to cross the finish line wins.

Click here to register

Classes & Associations

DragonForce 65 Series

You may have heard the buzz or even seen the remote controlled yachts at Chicago Yacht Club. Meet the Joysway - DragonForce 65, a recognized competition remote controlled yacht that can be sailed in the restricted DF 65 Class, which is recognized by the American Model Yachting Association worldwide. We have one of the fastest one-design fleets in Chicago, around 40 boats and growing.

Interested in joining in on the fun but don't have a DragonForce 65 of your own? Check out their website here!

Offshore Championship Series

The Chicago Yacht Club Offshore Championship, the culmination of our Offshore racing season, is awarded each fall in the form of the coveted blue blazer with the Offshore Champion badge. Each season all CYC Offshore boats compete in a series of qualifying events in order to accumulate points toward the Championship; the more races you participate in and the more your team improves throughout the season, the better your chances of winning. There are two Divisions, Buoy and Distance racing, boats can compete in both or concentrate their efforts in a single division; updated standings for the top 5 qualifiers in each division will be made available throughout the season.

Navigational Rallies

The Power Fleet runs eight Navigational Rallies events each season. Navigational Rallies are not a race, but a friendly competition for navigational accuracy. The goal is to predict to the closest second the amount of time your boat will take to get from point A to point B. the rallies can be run using power or sail boats under power and each team can have multiple members. The rallies are a great reason to spend the day out on the water enjoying the incredible Chicago skyline.

"The race works much like a rally for cars. Instead of basing the course on speed, a log race has each boat predict its own time through a course of buoys based on their cruising speed. The closest boat to its own “logged” or predicted time wins. Because a log race is as much about knowing what kind of a boater you are as it is about skill, beginners win as often as experienced skippers. This can make it fun for everyone involved, as there is rarely a “ringer” who wins every time. On the day of the race, boaters are only allowed to use their tachometer, compass, depth sounder, radar, and autopilot compass; the GPS, speedometer, loran and radio timekeeping device must be disabled. Running the course ahead of time is against the rules, but if you want to practice, you’ll need to be confident and comfortable navigating without your usual electronics." - Andrew Shoemaker, Ballast Point Yachts