From CAN F18
On 11–13 September 2026, the Burlington Beach Catamaran Club hosted the Canadian Formula 18 Championship as part of the 2026 Open Multihull Regatta on Lake Ontario.
A fleet of 21 Formula 18 teams lined up for the weekend, with the best crews from Quebec, Ontario and the United States adding a North American flavour to the final F18 event of the Canadian season. Defending champions Olivier Pilon and Bastien Mony were back on the water to protect their title.
The racing
Three days of racing on Lake Ontario produced a full championship program: 10 races sailed, two discards, eight races to count. Wind was the story of the weekend — and it was not a big-breeze championship. Days one and two stayed on the light side. Sunday started the same way before the afternoon finally built. In those conditions, outright speed still mattered, but strategy, patience and the ability to stay in the pressure made the real difference.
Friday and Saturday – light air, small margins
The opening two days were a tad light. The race committee still got a full slate of races away in front of the club, but it was never a weekend for hanging off the wire and simply rolling the fleet.
In that kind of breeze, the first shift and the first band of pressure decided the race. Crews who stayed patient, kept the boat moving and avoided the hole along the Burlington shoreline were the ones posting the numbers. One missed tack, or one extra gybe in dead air, was enough to turn a good start into a double-digit finish.
Sunday – light to start, building through the afternoon
Sunday opened in the same light vein, then the breeze filled as the afternoon went on. That change of gear reshaped the racecourse. What had been a day for soft hands and sitting still became a day where boatspeed and clean air finally paid again.
The teams that had survived the light stuff without a big number were in position when the pressure arrived. The ones who had already burned their discards had less room to recover.
It was one of those championships where Formula 18 racing is won not only through speed, but through making the right decisions when there is almost no wind — and then still being ready when it finally fills in.
A statement defence
Pilon/Mony racing a stock EVO never really let the championship become a contest. Across ten races they posted an almost unbroken run of bullets, discarding only a second and a fifth, and closed the series on 8.0 points net. That kind of scoreline is rare at a national championship with 21 boats on the line, and rarer still when the first two days are so light.
Behind them the fight was much tighter.
Veteran sailor Daniel Borg and Chris Molder (Tiger/1D) built a solid, consistent series to take silver on 24.0 points. Maxime Loiselle and Caroline Boyaud (EVO) completed the podium on 33.0, saving their best for a second place finish in Race 9.
Just off the podium, Alex Hart and Kyle Nussdorfer (USA 213) with a first and deep scores to finish fourth. Eric McNeil / Jean-François Doiron and Patrick Roy / Amélie Larouche tied on 44.0 after discards, with McNeil/Doiron taking fifth on the tie-break.
Canadian F18 Championship 2026 – F18 results
After three days and ten races:
- 🥇 Olivier Pilon / Bastien Mony — 8.0
- 🥈 Daniel Borg / Chris Molder — 24.0
- 🥉 Maxime Loiselle / Caroline Boyaud — 33.0
A fitting close to the Canadian F18 season
Pilon/Mony finished the event with a double statement — they won the championship regatta and successfully defended their Canadian F18 title, and they did it in dominant fashion, including through two light days.
The weekend in Burlington provided a fitting conclusion to the Canadian F18 season. A 21-boat fleet, visiting American crews and a full ten-race series on Lake Ontario produced three days of racing that asked as much of the brain as of the boat.
Thank you to the Burlington Beach Catamaran Club for hosting. Burlington once again showed that Formula 18 is not only about outright speed. When the lake goes light, experience, strategy and the ability to keep the boat moving come to the forefront — and when the afternoon finally builds, those same crews are still the ones at the front.
Please find full results here.
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