The American Canoe Association has selected the Cape Ann Rowing Club’s Blackburn Challenge as the host venue for the 2026 USA Canoe Ocean Racing National Championships, placing one of America’s most iconic open-water races at the center of next year’s ocean racing calendar.
Long known as the “Boston Marathon” of open-water endurance racing, the Blackburn’s 20-mile circumnavigation of Cape Ann, Massachusetts delivers a rare combination of tight competition, open water exposure, coastal conditions, tidal influence, and technical navigation. For surfski paddlers, it represents the kind of full-value ocean test that defines our discipline, and with national titles on the line in 2026, the event is expected to draw its strongest and deepest field to date.
This marks the second year of the ACA Ocean Racing Committee’s USA COR National Championships initiative, following the inaugural edition at the 2025 Gorge Downwind Championships. The move to East Coast for 2026 underscores the ACA Ocean Racing Committee’s commitment to rotating Nationals across the United States and challenging paddlers with the full range of American ocean-racing conditions.
For more information please visit USASurfski.com.
