Yacht Racing Union of the Great Lakes (YRUGL) Est. 1896 Lives On

June 12, 2025

By Roger Renaud

Status update:

“We are in the process of re-thinking and rejuvenating the organization
2025 Richardson Cup will not be held
The Notice of Series for the 2025 YRUGL Tri-Lakes Challenge for the Barthel Trophy has now just been officially released and available for distribution throughout the Great Lakes basin.

An article in the May 2024 issue of Sailing in Canada about the apparent demise of the Yacht Racing Union of the Great Lakes, spurred an investigation of the status of YRUGL, initiated by the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation. Long-time LMSRF Delegate to YRUGL, Gary Hendrickson, led the effort.

The mission of the YRUGL, was to provide the ultimate challenges for sailing in the Great Lakes Region – match racing, and distance racing. This mission was to also focus on growing sailboat racing in Great Lakes region as a whole. Specifically, as it relates to match racing, there was be an emphasis on encouraging youth, and the uninitiated.

The YRYGL was an active international sailing organization, hailing from the geographic regions of the Great Lakes basin. It has a long and storied past. Founded in 1896, the original organization consisted of three Lake Associations, Lake Ontario (LYRA), Lake Erie (I-LYA), and Lake Michigan (LMYA). It was formed to promote sailing competition amongst its members on the Great Lakes. Over time additional lake associations were added: – 1967 Detroit (DRYA); 1970, Lake Superior (LSYA); and in 1976, Lake Huron (LHYA).

YRUGL had not organized a Richardson Cup championship regatta since 2019, initially because of the adverse circumstances of COVID-19. The Richardson Cup series serves as the annual Great Lakes Match Racing Championship, and it has not sponsored an event since. However, YRUGL’s biennial Tri-Lakes Challenge series continued to be held over this time, and is being run again this year. For whatever the reason, Lake Ontario does not participate in any inter-lake long distance challenges with other of the Great Lakes.

Gary Hendrickson, after reading the Sailing in Canada article, with the support of Luc D’Aoust of Lake Ontario’s LYRA, took the bull by the horns. They decided the YRUGL was useful, had always made a positive impact toward yacht racing in the Great Lakes, and going forward, this organization can and will continue to make a significant contribution to all of the sailing communities. It was time to re-kindle and rejuvenate this association.

It is so important to our sport, that organized match racing events continue to be promoted, and appear on everyone’s sailing calendars, starting at the junior and collegiate levels. Every one of the Great Lakes will start host qualifying match race competitions, to see which team will ultimately compete for the Richardson Cup.

Early this past new year, a new YRUGL executive/governing committee were sought-out, volunteers stepped forward, and were formally appointed by their respective YRUGL- member Lake Associations. Now Gary had a keen team to work with moving forward. Luc has been quite instrumental in his support for this. This is really good news!

The delegates who currently comprise the new Board of Directors are:

Lake Yacht Racing Association (LYRA – Lake Ontario):

Luc D’Aoust of Ashbridge’s Bay YC star6631@gmail.com

Inter-Lake Yachting Association (I-LYA – Lake Erie):

Dr. Matt DuBois of Grosse Ile YC msdubois@sbcglobal.net

Detroit Region Yacht-Racing Association (DRYA – Detroit Area):

Ryan Seago of Bayview YC rseago@umich.edu

Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation (LMSRF – Lake Michigan):

Gary Hendrickson of Racine YC nkpgary@gmail.com

Lake Superior Yachting Association (LSYA – Lake Superior):

Scott Spaeth of Wayzata YC Coralsunset@aol.com

The Lake Huron Yachting Association (LHYA) is not currently active.

The newly appointed YRUGL Executive Committee immediately began the work of identifying the status, state of affairs, any issues, and anything that may need immediate attention. They are also considering changing the name to something more modern-day.

Sailing In Canada is proud to be the instigator of this development, and we support the efforts of this newly appointed Board. We wish you the best going forward, and we can only wait and see what the future plans hold.

This is the initial status update: (as reported by Gary Hendrickson)

A Special Meeting was called on March 24 via ZOOM, the first YRUGL EC meeting in many years. The lakes’ delegates were recognized and installed, and fact-finding on the current status of the Union was officially initiated. Election of officers was held. Gary Hendrickson of LMSRF was elected President of YRUGL, and took over the reins.

A second meeting was held on May 5th to continue the status fact-finding.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 2nd to focus on fixing the YRUGL website.

The following is a synopsis of YRUGL status and findings at the time of printing.

YRUGL Registration Status

YRUGL is not currently registered anywhere. Goal is to explore registering YRUGL as a 501(c)3 to facilitate donations toward current cost of operations and expansion of mission.

YRUGL Championship Regatta Schedule (near term)
2025 Richardson Cup will not be held due to lack of time/advanced planning
2025 Ongoing YRUGL Bi-annual Tri-Lakes Challenge continues. In this series the boat that races the Bayview Mac race, the Chicago Mac race, and Duluth YC’s Trans-Superior race, with the lowest overall accumulated elapsed time, wins YRUGL’s Barthel Trophy at the awards ceremony in Duluth in August.
2026 Richardson will be hosted by the Chicago YC. Date TBD
2027 Richardson will be hosted tentatively by Royal Canadian YC in Toronto. Date TBD
2028 Richardson is planned to be hosted by Sheboygan YC. Date TBD

YRUGL Trophies

Richardson trophy is at Bayview YC, in good shape. Requires updating.
Barthel Trophy is at Kitchi Gammi Club in Duluth, on permanent display. Good shape, used for YRUGL Tri-Lakes Challenge.
Milton O. Cross Trophy is at Detroit YC, looks to be in pretty good shape. This trophy is currently not being awarded.

YRUGL Treasury

Account balance has now been received by Treasurer Dr. Matt Dubois. Plans are to resume invoicing the Lake Associations for dues in the coming months.

YRUGL archives

Investigation reveals that archives were reportedly moved some years ago from a Vermillion OH maritime museum to a maritime museum in the Toledo area. A group will arrange a visit to the Toledo Museum to find, verify & “claim” records.

YRUGL Constitution

Document needs updating. Proposal is to accomplish this in two stages.
Reformat the document without any changes, for ease of understanding.
Update to reflect changes in activities and policies since 1976.

YRUGL.org Website

Website urgently needs updating to reflect that YRUGL is alive and active. Investigation is needed for details and costs for hosting, webmaster, software, etc.

Scott Spaeth Resignation

Scott has decided to resign from YRUGL after 24 years as YRUGL president.

A successor delegate will be needed and welcomed from LSYA.

After these initial investigations to determine a status, and now with an operating Executive Committee, the following initial goals were adopted for going forward:

– Rebuild YRUGL to function in accordance with its constitution.

– Update the Constitution where appropriate to accommodate any structural and/or responsibility changes

– Schedule YRUGL Richardson Cup regattas for 2026, 2027, and 2028