Cole Tapper arrived at Long Beach Yacht Club as the fourth seed and left wearing the Crimson Blazer, sweeping defending champion Eric Monnin 3-0 in the final to claim the 2026 Congressional Cup.
The road to that final was far from comfortable for the Australian. After the double round robin, Tapper had managed only a fourth-place ranking, and his semi-final against round-robin leader Chris Poole turned precarious quickly when Poole took the first two races. What followed was one of the more impressive stretches of sailing seen in the regatta: Tapper won five of his last six races across the remainder of the semi-final and the final combined, a sequence that made his case for the title impossible to dispute.
Monnin, meanwhile, had navigated his own tense semi-final against Johnie Berntsson before reaching the decider. The Swiss skipper brought genuine momentum into the final, having fought back through a memorable contest of his own. It counted for little against Tapper, who controlled each race in succession and closed out the match 3-0 without giving Monnin any opportunity to gain a foothold and reset.
In the petit-final, Poole was the stronger of the two remaining skippers, accounting for Berntsson 2-0 to secure third place.
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The full arc of Tapper's week speaks for itself. Fourth after the round robins, two races down in the semis against the field's standout round-robin performer, then a clean sweep of the reigning champion in the final. He leaves Long Beach Yacht Club having made a firm statement about his place among match racing's elite on the world stage.
