Peter Bowe’s team on GOOD TRADE won the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Championship in an extremely tight 20-boat fleet in what host Annapolis Yacht Club called “epic conditions.” PRO Steve Kling posted an AP on Saturday while waiting for the breeze to settle in across the course. The first race got underway around noon against a strong ebb tide, which caused two general recalls. Throughout the day, a shifty southerly built from 6 to 10 knots, making for great sailing for the 20 competitors. After three races, Kyle Bollhorst’s JUGGERNAUT won the day— living up to its name by closing with two bullets. MAYHEM was only a point behind, followed by WARBRIDE, the winner of the AYC Fall Regatta against another 20-boat fleet. Sunday’s three races were set against a strong southerly breeze predicted to be in the upper teens, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. The Bay racers pulled out their rarely used heavy-air jibs. The wind direction varied slightly, but settled around 175° for all three races. Another ebb tide at the beginning of the day made for a very uncomfortable signal boat, tending perpendicular to the swells for the first race. After the first race, with only two to go, JUGGERNAUT had increased her lead over MAYHEM and WARBRIDE. GOOD TRADE and PATRIOT were tied for fourth but ten points behind. By the third race, the nearby SailFlow buoy was showing mid-20s with puffs in the 30s. What made these conditions especially challenging were the 4-foot rollers after an 80-mile fetch up the Bay, with waves coming at half-boat-length intervals. As the breeze built into the steady 20s, both GOOD TRADE and PATRIOT found another gear. GOOD TRADE won Race 5, but still sat fourth overall with just one to go. During the final race, they surfed downwind at 13 knots while almost half the fleet retired due to gear or other issues. GOOD TRADE won the final race, too, with PATRIOT second— creating a tie with JUGGERNAUT for first place, thanks to a jumble of finishes among the previous leaders. PATRIOT moved up to third overall. GOOD TRADE ultimately prevailed after a double tie-breaker. Bowe said the team was “thrilled with the outcome,” having overcome an OCS in Race 1 and a couple of penalty turns. He noted how close the racing was, with the top five boats all within six points. He added, “Those waves were something else. Our crew did an amazing job staying focused and aggressive upwind and especially down. Afterwards, we pumped out over 40 gals of water from the bilge!” In addition to the overall win, GOOD TRADE celebrated their bowman, Michael Gershenson, who received the Steve Gale Memorial Trophy— a perpetual award presented to the bowman of the winning J/105 in the major fall regatta at AYC. Gale served as bowman on the Annapolis J/105 BAT IV before his passing in 2010.