Hook Race 2026

This post chronicles our adventure sailing the 2026 Hook Race aboard Volant. The "Hook" is a long-distance offshore race of 189nm on Lake Michigan, first sailed in 1984. The event starts off Racine, Wisconsin, “hooks” through infamous Death’s Door Passage (Porte des Morts) into Green Bay, a narrow passageway between Washington Island and Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula, and finishes off Menominee, Michigan, in southwestern Green Bay.

 

A warm welcome for Hook racers, including a free Rum party!

The Hook Race includes multiple PHRF handicap divisions, a cruising division, a double-handed division, and an impressive single-handed division! Forty boats registered for the race this year, ranging from 30 feet in length – Mast, an S2 9.1, to 68 feet – Pied Piper, a Riechel/Pugh 68, and all variety of boats between. Two boats from St. Joseph River Yacht Club participated in this year's running of the Hook Race: Volant - our Beneteau First 10R, and Thin Ice – Patrick and Patrice Nelson's Aerodyne 38. We had a very talented crew of 6 on board Volant, and Thin Ice sailed with a skilled crew of 7.

 

Volant crew

Both Volant and Thin Ice sailed to Racine to stage for the race on Thursday, July 16 in fair conditions and moderate breeze. It was a fast passage of 77 miles, and we arrived in time for dinner at the Racine Yacht Club. Mercifully, there was no sign of the tornado warning that accompanied our delivery to Racine in advance of last year's race!

Section splits for the race registrants placed Volant in the PHRF 3 section of 9 boats, and Thin Ice was placed in the faster PHRF 2 section of 6 boats. Confirmed by a useful North Sails weather briefing on Friday afternoon before the race, the weather forecast was fairly extreme. A very strong north to northeast wind was forecast for late Saturday, with waves building throughout Lake Michigan. A lull was forecast after a frontal passage early Sunday morning, followed by strong wind from the southwest. The forecast proved to be accurate.

Only 33 boats sailed to the start of the race on Saturday morning, July 18, 2026. The adverse weather forecast was mostly to blame. At the start, in a brisk northeast breeze of from 12-15 kts, we set a mid-size J2.5 headsail. The fleet advanced north up the lake with good speed. Some boats tacked to stay fairly close to the Wisconsin shore, and some boats held a course further out into the lake. Volant stayed to the west and fairly close to the rhumbline – the most direct course to the first turning mark at the entrance to Porte des Morts.

 

Shortly after the start, leading Moovin'

At 5:30pm CDT, the northeast wind increased to 23-25 knots, and steep seas built. Volant reduced sail to a heavy-weather J3 jib and shortened the mainsail with a reef. Fairly extreme conditions prevailed all night, and seas increased to over 7 feet trough-to-crest with breaking whitecaps. We had to abandon our planned watch schedule onboard Volant because crew weight on the high-side rail was necessary to keep the boat safe. There was no sleep for the crew during this period and very little rest. Cooking a meal or even making coffee was too difficult to do, and the crew subsisted on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! There was no complaining on board and no murmurings of mutiny, just the skipper needing consolation, quoting "Lord, thy sea is so large and my boat is so small"!

During the course of Saturday evening and night, 17 of the 33 sailboats that started the race elected to withdraw. They sought shelter at ports along the Wisconsin shore or returned to Racine. We heard that some equipment failures were experienced, but no crew injuries were reported.

 

Racine Yacht Club photographed the start 

At about 3:30am CDT Sunday, the wind began to abate and the sea-state to moderate. After daybreak on Sunday, approximately off Kewaunee, we were virtually becalmed, with winds circling and pressure at only 1-3 knots. This frustration continued for several hours until a southwest breeze established. Finally, we were able to raise a spinnaker and sail on a run heading northward. Winds increased to 21 knots, making it a fast and exhilarating approach to the entrance to Green Bay.

We entered the Porte des Morts passage at about 8:00pm CDT Sunday, dousing the spinnaker and heading upwind in the always-unpredictable Green Bay weather ecosystem with the J2.5 headsail and full mainsail. Although we poured some rum overboard in an offering to Poseidon, the southwest wind increased to 22-24 knots, with building seas. We crossed the finish line early Monday morning at 1:54am CDT. Total elapsed time for our race was 1 day, 16 hours, 24 minutes.

 

Volant's track for the race

When the results were tabulated, Volant placed 3rd out of 4 finishers in PHRF 3, and 8th overall of the 14 finishers in the racing (non-cruising) division. Thin Ice placed 2nd out of 3 finishers in PHRF 2, and an impressive 5th overall. We were proud of the accomplishment of sailing well and safely, and making it to the finish line of this race! 

Volant's flag

Thin Ice's flag

One of the satisfying aspects of distance port-to-port races is the passage home. Karen and I enjoyed sailing Volant home from Green Bay in generally fair weather conditions, though mostly into a cool headwind from the south! Our ports of call for night stops were Sister Bay in Green Bay, Kewaunee, Pentwater (a rendezvous with our friends on Thin Ice), and Holland. Wisconsin cheese shops, wineries, whitefish dinners, beautiful Pentwater Yacht Club, and lunch at South Haven Yacht Club were highlights!

It was chilly heading home

I am just hoping that the memory of how brutal the sailing conditions were on Saturday night fades before registration time for the 2027 Hook Race comes along!