Will Holz wins Grand Slam Chicago

The first stop of the three-event, US Grand Slam Series was held August 18-20 in Chicago, IL. The field of competitors included twelve teams from five countries, seven of which are currently ranked in the top 100 in the World Sailing match racing rankings. Racing was held in Sonars just outside Belmont Harbor, alongside the Chicago Air & Water Show.

Sailors were seeded into two groups of six teams for the round robin qualifying stage, from which the top three automatically advance to the Quarter-Finals. The three lowest finishing teams then competed in the Repechage Round Robin for the remaining two spots in the Quarter-Final’s.

Harry Price (AUS) and Will Boulden (AUS) both topped their groups to advance to the Quarter-Finals, but that would be the end of the road for Boulden as he would get eliminated 2-0 by Will Curtiss (USA) who had won the Repechage Round.

Price sailed through the Quarters by beating Chris Poole (USA) 2-1 and in the Semis by beating Steve Lowery (USA) 2-0.

After finishing second to Boulden in the qualifying round, Will Holz (USA) began his ascent to the Finals, topping brother Peter 2-0 in the Quarters and eliminating Curtiss 2-0 in the Semis.

The Finals saw Holtz win the first match but Price evened the score in the second match. However, it was all Holtz after that as his team won the next two matches to win 3-1.

Complete results… click here.

Half of the teams competing in Chicago will sail in the other two US Grade 2 Grand Slam events. After this weekend, they will head to Bayview, Michigan for the Detroit Cup and then continue to Oyster Bay, New York for the Oakcliff International. The winner of the US Grand Slam will earn an invitation to the 2018 Long Beach Yacht Club’s Congressional Cup.

2017 US Grade 2 Grand Slam events
August 18-20 – Chicago, IL
August 24-27 – Detroit, MI
August 30-September 3 – Oyster Bay, NY

Previous Grand Slam Winners
2011 – Laurie Jury, NZL
2012 – Taylor Canfield, ISV
2013 – Nicolai Sehested, DEN
2014 – Pierre Antoine Morvan, FRA
2015 – Sam Gilmour, AUS
2016 – Harry Price, AUS