Tom Picot needed a fifth and deciding match to do it, but the Australian skipper has won the 2026 Detroit Cup.
Sailing with crew Damien Fleury and Frank Lavenan, Picot beat American Christian Prendergast in a final that stretched well beyond its scheduled finish. Bright sunshine and fresh conditions on the Detroit River produced some of the most exciting match racing of the whole regatta, across 100 races over four days.
Bayview Yacht Club's 13th running of the International Match Race for the Detroit Cup was the second stage of the USA Grand Slam Series, and spectators packed the club's lawns and decks to watch it unfold.
Winds ran from 12 to 22 knots, brisk stuff that kept Bayview's fleet of evenly matched Ultimate 20s locked together through the pre-starts and upwind legs, then planing hard downwind on courses set right in front of the clubhouse.
The first-to-three final between Picot and Prendergast went the distance, coming down to a fifth match to decide it.
The road there began with semifinals on Saturday afternoon. Picot got past Harrison Strom (USA) 3-2, while Prendergast eliminated Josh Hyde of New Zealand 3-1. Contentious racing on Sunday morning then determined the championship pairing.
Strom swept Hyde 2-0 in the petit final to take third. Marcello Torre, another Australian, won all four of his matches in the consolation round to finish fifth overall.
For a New Zealand audience, Hyde's run to the semifinals is the standout local result. He was beaten 3-1 by Prendergast, then lost the battle for third to Strom.
Event chair Gary Shoemaker praised both the sailing and the sportsmanship that let the final go the extra distance.
"Besides the outstanding job our race committee, umpires, volunteers, sponsors, housing hosts and staff at Bayview did this year, I want to applaud all the competitors for their cooperation, great sailing skills and high level of integrity throughout this event... especially Tom Picot who agreed to allow us to extend the racing past the afternoon deadline to race a fifth match when he could have disagreed and forced us to revert to the Round Robin results, which he won."
Final standings:
1. Tom Picot (AUS) 2. Christian Prendergast (USA) 3. Harrison Strom (USA) 4. Josh Hyde (NZL) 5. Marcello Torre (AUS)
The Detroit Cup is the second stop on the USA Grand Slam Series, part of the World Match Racing Tour, sailing's longest-running professional series and the pathway event recognised by World Sailing for crowning the sport's Match Racing World Champion each year.
