Queens Cup SSYC, 2300 E. Nock Street, Milwaukee, WI (2026)

05/18/2026

Next on deck in our Skipper Profile series is Ron Otto, owner/skipper of Takedown-2 from Kenosha Yacht Club. An interesting thing about Ron is his involvement in GLSS. That's the Great Lakes Singlehanded Society. And yes, he's registered for the 2026 Solo Mac. We wish you safe sailing and a speedy return to start the Queen's Cup! Here is Ron, in his own words. See you in 38 days!

Hello. This is Ron Otto from the Kenosha Yacht Club.

Started Racing at age 60 - late starter after retiring from teaching and coaching. Home Port for both boats raced is Somers, WI - basically my back yard on the lake. Actually, birthed at Kenosha Southport Marina.

Starting in 2011 on Elite-30S BonTemps (It ees a French batteaux, N'est-ce Pas?) -
Five Short Handed races including 1 solo.

2016 - present on J/110 Takedown-2 (there is no Takedown-1, 2 pts for a takedown in wrestling) :
4 shorthanded + 2 PHRFs = 6 flag places.

3 DNS races due to not making it back in time from the GLSS Solo Mac race. (You’re welcome for the contribution!).

Look forward to 11 more. Always fun.

05/17/2026

The 100th boat has registered! The title goes to John McFadden, owner/skipper of Ave Maria, from Kenosha Yacht Club. John will pick up his QC gifts at check-in. Maybe he will share the Mt. Gay?! There's plenty of time to register here: https://qc.ssyc.org/ See you in 39 days!

05/15/2026

There are 99 boats registered for the Queen's Cup. Are you the lucky 100th?! https://qc.ssyc.org/ See you in 41 days!

05/08/2026

Our next skipper profile highlights Reckless Abandon, an SSYC boat, owned and skippered by Tom and Deb Pease and Kurt and Amy Mihelich. Find them on A dock when you are around and say hello! Yes, that's the Tom Pease from North Sails, but don't tell him we disclosed that. In Tom's own words:

Your name, boat’s name, home port:
Tom and Deb Pease, Kurt and Amy Mihelich
Reckless Abandon
Milwaukee, WI, SSYC

How many Queen’s Cups® have you raced? Approximately how many total QCs has your crew sailed?
Tom – let’s just say I haven’t miss too many since my first one about 6 decades ago
Deb – about 10
Kurt and Amy, only a couple so far but just getting started

Best Queen’s Cup® memory:
Ok, I know you might not believe it, but there once was a race sailed in t-shirts and shorts under spinnakers the whole way across the lake. But the ones I remember vividly are nasty ones, getting there, having that first celebratory sip with the crew and changing the “what am I doing out here” into “can you believe we did that, fantastic!”

Unknown tidbit about you, your boat, or your crew:
While Deb and I have done many QCs, we didn’t sail our own boat in one until 2023. The majority of the crew celebrated their first QC in Muskegon and during an epic return to SSYC after.

05/06/2026

Fresh off the press....mark your calendars!

04/30/2026

80 boats are registered for the 87th Queen's Cup Race! Are you?
Early bird pricing ends tomorrow, May 1st, at 11:59 p.m., but there's plenty of time to register before we set sail on June 26th, headed across the lake to Grand Haven, Michigan!

04/25/2026

Up next in our Skipper Profiles: Legacy from Racine (RYC), skippered and owned by Scott and Tiffnee Monroe. In Scott’s own words, he answers our questions below and prefaces his responses with this message: “The Queen’s Cup has been a cornerstone race for our team for decades, and we’re honored to be part of this year’s fleet.”

Boat Name
Legacy

Home Port
Racine, Wisconsin

Queen’s Cup History (Program & Crew)
While Legacy is our current platform, the crew behind Legacy has been sailing the Queen’s Cup continuously since the mid-1990s.
I personally have more than 20 Queen’s Cup starts, and much of the core crew has a similar level of experience. Over the years, we’ve competed in the race aboard a progression of boats that reflect both the evolution of our program and the race itself:

Morningstar – Frers 46
Windrush – Nelson/Marek 50
Wild Horses – One-Design 48
Denali – Nelson/Marek 68
Thunderstruck – Farr 60
Legacy – GL52 (current)

Collectively, the crew has logged well over 100 combined Queen’s Cup starts, making this race one of the defining threads that ties our program together.

Best Queen’s Cup Memory
One of our standout Queen’s Cup memories was winning the race overall aboard Thunderstruck. That victory was especially meaningful given the depth of the fleet and the demands of the race. It reflected years of preparation, trust within the crew, and respect for the conditions the Queen’s Cup is known for.

About the Skipper / An Unknown Tidbit
In addition to skippering Legacy, I am the President of Racine Riverside Marine, a full-service yacht dealership and marina operation on Lake Michigan. The GL52 program exists not just as a race boat, but as a reflection of the level of excellence, preparation, and professionalism we strive for across our entire organization.
Many sailors competing in the Queen’s Cup have crossed paths with Racine Riverside Marine over the years, and our goal has always been to be a trusted resource for sailors—whether that’s racing programs, cruising boats, service, storage, or general boating expertise. Legacy Racing represents that same commitment to quality and seamanship on the racecourse.

About the Boat
Legacy is a GL52, campaigned with an emphasis on discipline, reliability, crew efficiency and Friendships while we enjoy competing at a high level, the Queen’s Cup remains one of our favorite events because of its history, its difficulty, and the caliber of sailors it brings together year after year.

04/24/2026

What happens one week from today? Early bird pricing ends on May 1st. Don't miss it! Register here: https://qc.ssyc.org/

04/17/2026

DATES NOT TO MISS! A reminder that early bird pricing ends May 1st. It’s quick and easy to register here, https://qc.ssyc.org/ .

June 22 is another key deadline. All rating certificates and handicaps are due by then. Need details? Visit US Sailing Offshore at https://www.ussailing.org/competition/offshore/orc/ for ORC ratings, or head to Midwest PHRF at https://www.mwphrf.org/ , for MWPHRF handicaps.

The 87th Queen’s Cup® Race is just 69 days away. See you on the starting line!

03/28/2026

Next up on deck in our Skipper Profile Series: Jason Greenwood of SSYC. Enjoy his Queen’s Cup tidbits right here. We’ll see you on the starting line in just 89 days! Here's Jason...

Your name, boat's name, home port:
My name is Jason Greenwood, and my boat is Après—pronounced “ah-PREY,” like Après Ski. (No one ever gets it right on the first try!) Après means “After” in French. Our home port is South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee.

How many Queen's Cups have you raced? Approximately how many total QCs has your crew sailed?
I’ve raced five Queen’s Cups so far—two aboard Nautical Sun and three on Après. My crew of four to five sailors has racked up 27 Queen’s Cups between us.
Beyond that, I’ve crossed Lake Michigan in just about every way you can and just about every condition: 7 Lake Michigan Clipper Cups, 3 LMSS Doublehanders, 2 LMSS Q-Races, 1 LMSS 2x2, a Hook Race, and even a Chicago-Mac.

Best Queen's Cup memory:
I have two that really stand out:
1. My first Queen’s Cup in 2021 was unforgettable for all the wrong—and right—reasons. It rained and blew cold the entire way across. At one point, I was lying on the high side of the deck in total darkness, soaked, unable to see another boat even though I knew they were around us. I remember thinking, “I’m never doing this again.” But then the sun rose over Muskegon, the rain stopped, and that overwhelming sense of accomplishment hit. Suddenly it all felt absolutely worth it.
2. The 2025 Queen’s Cup was packed with memorable moments. The start alone had enough drama to fill a movie—most of our division on one tack and one boat on the opposite tack trying to thread the needle. The first few miles were light and slow until the faster division behind us began catching up… and bringing a whole new breeze with them. As they reached us, the wind filled in and suddenly every boat was flying spinnakers in perfect evening light. Warm, dry, flat water, a glowing sunset—it was stunning. Après didn’t get the best result that year, but we had a fantastic night, took some amazing photos, and of course kept our Queen’s Cup tradition alive with Shepherd’s Pie for dinner. (If you zoom in on the pics, you can spot us eating!)

Unknown tidbit about you, your boat, or your crew:
Followers of my YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/) may already know this, but I’m originally from England. After dinghy sailing in my teens and a couple of charters in the Solent and the Firth of Clyde, I stepped away from sailing for many years. In 2019 I jumped back in, earning ASA 101 and 103, then used the Milwaukee Crew Search to get aboard a Friday night MAST racer. That experience eventually led me to buy Après later that same year.
I’m also a big believer in Open Source sailing electronics—most of the systems on Après are DIY and custom-built. It keeps things fun, technical, and uniquely ours.

03/03/2026

We're pleased to launch our Skipper Profile Series with the winner of the 2025 Queen's Cup Race, John Nedeau Jr., skipper of "Cynthia Lyn." We asked John a few questions, and in his own words, here is his story. Congratulations to John and his crew!

What does winning the 2025 Queen’s Cup® mean to you, your family and crew?

A driving factor was racing the Queen’s Cup® as a 3rd generation of Nedeau owned boats. The Nedeau family started racing them on Grandfather Harvey’s Romahajo in 1946 (3 Dutch built sloops spanning 25 years). Father John had a succession of Windancers starting in 1972, ranging to a Santa Cruz 70. Both my father and grandfather won the overall – Romahajo in the 50s and father in 1977.

So, I wanted to honor the legacy in some form with family and friends. Crew included brother Sam, son-in-law Brian Flanagan, and a collection of very experienced crew, who raced on many of the Windancers.

The good fortune for us in the race was having a perfect condition for this boat; a spinnaker reach from an optimal apparent wind angle – a reach. This boat is a Beneteau First 53, a “performance cruiser” that I bought a few years ago in Florida to cruise with family and friends but also race selectively; Queen’s Cup® and Chicago-Mace (Cruising Division).

How many Queen’s Cups® have you raced:
30+

Approximately how many Queen’s Cups® has your crew sailed?
Over 150

What is your favorite Queen’s Cup® memory?

Besides this last one, in 1977 we won on a custom C&C 52 (racer cruiser). The race turned into a heavy beat (uncharacteristic condition for this race typically). Our primary competition was maybe Brassy (C&C 61) and other high performance racer cruisers. At that time the race always finished in Muskegon.

What is an unknown tidbit about you, your boat, or your crew.

The depth of our crew is extraordinary. Brother Sam has become a very good amateur racer- races his Melges 24 when not racing with other friends on progressive boats and races in the Great Lakes and beyond. We’re also graced with Margaret Shea (my niece). Maggie is the best racer in the family. Maggie was a 2x Olympian competing in the last two Olympics in Japan and France. She’s joined racing on the family boats and was on Windancer when it won the Chicago Mackinac overall in 2011. That was my father’s 63rd Mackinac. He raced in 66 Chicago Macs and more than 55 Port Huron Macs. He passed away in 2016, but we believe he’s raced more Mackinacs than anyone in history.

What inspires you to continue to race in the Queen’s Cup®, generation after generation?

My grandfather, Harvey Nedeau, was the son of a commercial fishing family. He spent the early 1900s on Beaver Island while his older brothers fished in what was referenced at the time as the best commercial fishing in the nations. After the “rush” period, they moved their commercial fishing operation to Muskegon, which sustained until the 1970s. My grandfather decided to get an education in the 1920s and moved into real estate. He was inspired though, while fishing, in seeing the Mackinac racers sail by and decided that he was going to get a boat, somehow, and race in that race. That started in 1946. He sourced his boats from the Netherlands which were classic beautiful yawls.
We’re just blessed with a legacy racing family and extraordinary friends that come with the journey. It would not be possible without all of the incredible crew who have supported us.

Queens Cup SSYC

05/18/2026

05/17/2026

05/15/2026

05/08/2026

05/06/2026

04/30/2026

04/25/2026

04/24/2026

04/17/2026

03/28/2026

03/03/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category