Abie McLaughlin, age 38, had a breakout year in 2024, achieving a hat trick of North American championship wins in the J/88, Tartan 10 and S2 7.9 classes. Having quickly earned a reputation as a skilled and dedicated amateur sailor, she is now in demand as one of the best foredeck crews you’ve never heard of—until now.
McLaughlin’s low-key personality has kept her under the radar. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, she’s been sailing with Trey Sheehan’s and John Evans’ Hooligan and Airplane programs for several years, racing shoulder to shoulder with professional sailors on the TP52s, Tartan 10s, J/70s and more. She’s often one of only a few amateurs on the boat she races and, more often than not, she’s the only woman. You’ll find her on the pointy end, moving sail stacks and tackling the unsung grunt work.
Her résumé also includes a win at Charleston Race Week in the Melges 32 class and a slew of offshore races. With so many days on the water, it’s surprising to peers that McLaughlin doesn’t work in the sailing industry. Few 9-to-5 careers offer enough time off to keep up with the pro-sailing lifestyle, but her availability is key for the competitive programs that count on her contributions.
“I max out my vacation time,” says McLaughlin, a product designer with an Ohio-based lighting company. She’s an active year-round crew with the availability to travel around the globe for events thanks to a strong relationship with her long-term employer. Average weekend warrior McLaughlin is not.
“It’s a family-owned company,” she says of her employer. “They’re boaters in Cleveland, and we’ve come to an agreement that they understand I have a passion for sailing. I want to sail as much as possible, but I also obviously need to do my job. As long as I’m doing it well, they let me be flexible. I’m extremely lucky.”
The arrangement is a successful formula for McLaughlin. She often works in the morning and takes time off in the afternoon for practice sessions or race days. It’s a flexibility that not all amateur sailors can secure, but while her time on the water has kept her in demand, pro sailing is not something she’s ever strongly considered. Maintaining her amateur status allows her to race in classes that have limits on professionals.
Besides, having aspirations of a professional sailing career is not what got her into sailing. “I was dating a guy who brought me onto a beer can race Sunday afternoon at the local yacht club,” she says. “I didn’t even know there were sailboats on Lake Erie, I was that naive. It was a big-breeze day, on an Express 37, and I fell in love with it immediately.”
After three years of beer can racing and “not really having a role,” McLaughlin wanted more. She joined the women’s learn-to-race program at Cleveland’s Edgewater YC and found herself on a J/22, learning the ropes with more responsibilities.
“When you are 33 percent of the team, you learn really quick,” she says.
After a summer in the women’s program, the “opportunities just started rolling in,” with invitations to race in other fleets. Tall and thin, McLaughlin understands that her stature made her more desirable for teams looking to fill a certain role, helping her hitch a ride in the fast lane to high-performance racing.
“I think I was the right size,” she says, “so I probably got opportunities quicker than I should have, to be honest.”
But McLaughlin also started gaining a reputation for her work ethic and fierce sense of competition, a holdover from her days growing up as a competitive skier. “My mom’s been a ski instructor for 30 years, and my dad was a ski race coach, so I was technically a very good skier,” she says. “That’s my first passion in life, ski racing.”
Skiing shaped a discipline that has crossed over to her passion for sailing. Both sports also offer the same truth: “The time you put into it is what you get out of it,” she says.
The days when McLaughlin’s size and availability were a ticket to opportunity are behind her. Now, it’s her foredeck prowess and the impressive string of triumphs taking the spotlight. Her win at the J/88 North American Championship was with skipper Lindsay Duda on Sin Duda!. The regatta, hosted by Macatawa Bay YC, was a master class in how to win a championship: Start fast and stay ahead. With McLaughlin on the bow, Sin Duda! won the first two races and had points to spare by the last day, taking pressure off the team to close out the regatta.
“Wrapping up with one race to spare was a great feeling,” McLaughlin says. “That event was really challenging. It was shifty, with varying wind conditions, and the fleet was very strong. We had a great first day, which put us in a position to have some confidence in our boatspeed, our boathandling and our crew work. We all felt that as long as we could sail clean and maintain composure, we had a shot at winning.”
One week before, also at Macatawa, was the S2 7.9 championship with skippers Dan Cheresh and Brad Boston on Extreme2. And a month before that, in Chicago, it was the Tartan 10 championship with Sheehan’s Hooligan. The three-win championship run revealed the depth of McLaughlin’s versatility. She says that the success she’s enjoyed thus far comes down to being a fluid, resourceful and mindful athlete.
“Core foredeck responsibilities are really similar boat to boat,” she says. “The bigger adjustments are adapting to each team and their unique nuances. You have to be easygoing. You have to have a positive attitude, and I ask a lot of questions. If you’re hopping from boat to boat and you’re on a boat for the first time, you’ll most likely be surrounded by people who know that boat a lot better than you, so learn from them. I try to be a chameleon adapting to each team’s dynamic.”
Being a strong team player is her value-add, she says, which is more important than having a specialized technical skill. Mastering soft skills, such as communication and adaptability, are her proven traits. “I sail with a lot of boat owners who prioritize personality as much as talent when they form their teams,” she says. “Gelling as a team elevates your performance.”
She’s taken the same attitude offshore on the TP52 Hooligan, adapting her mentality “from a sprint to a marathon” and determining where to add value alongside her more-experienced professional teammates. Overcoming imposter syndrome was the first hurdle.
“I often think about the first day I stepped onto the TP52,” she recalls. “It was the biggest boat I had been on. The sails were heavy and the loads were big. I questioned my abilities and if I had a place on the boat. After a few practice days, I learned techniques to make my job more manageable. I noticed small jobs that I could take on, in addition to my responsibilities, which made other people’s jobs easier.”
Namely, she took on “crappy jobs like packing kites and moving the stack down below” and even making coffees. Four years later, her persistence has paid off. The Hooligan 52-footer recently won the SORC Islands in the Stream Series overall after a strong finish at the Nassau Cup Ocean Race in February.
“I sail with a lot of boat owners who prioritize personality as much as talent when they form their teams. Gelling as a team elevates your performance.”
With another victory under her belt, McLaughlin looks ahead to a host of new challenges in 2025, including the J/70 Mixed-Plus World Championship in Lake Garda, Italy, later this year with Evans’ Airplane. She’s also on the hook for a few more offshore races. “I’m actually still not sure if I like offshore,” she admits. “I do it, and, at the moment, it’s terrible. You’re like, ‘Why do I do this?’ And then you finish. You get there, and you’re like, ‘Man, that was great.’”
Whether inshore or offshore, McLaughlin’s experience is passion-driven. It’s clear that she’ll stay at the top across classes, showcasing just how important it is to be versatile to win, as long as it’s fun. “I haven’t found [a boat] I haven’t liked,” she says. “I love hiking on that uncomfortable rail on the T-10, and I love blasting downwind on the TP52. It can be uncomfortable and still fun, slow and fun, fast and fun. I love them all.”
