Sailing on Lake Michigan in front of home crowds on Chicago's Navy Pier would provide the perfect backdrop for Australian skipper Jimmy Spithill and his Team USA to claim their first SailGP regatta victory.

The United States Sail Grand Prix will be SailGP's Chicago debut as well as the first freshwater competition in the three seasons of the global league.

Spithill is in his second season in SailGP and while he's reached some podium races, the Americans have never yet won a SailGP regatta.

While his compatriot Tom Slingsby and Team Australia have dominated the circuit since it started in 2019, Spithill and crew will definitely be the rooting favourites as the foiling 50-foot catamarans with wingsails zip above the waves at close to highway speeds.

"It's awesome mate, just the amount of people coming down checking out the boats as they're going in the water, out on the water. There's a massive amount of support for the US team," Spithill said.

"Chicago, it really is a big sports fan town, all those iconic teams. For sports fans, they're really going to enjoy this. It's not typical sailing. This is F1 on the water.

"It's pretty much like auto racing and it's fast, races are quick, and they're right in front of Navy Pier. It'll be a really good scene."

The 42-year-old Sydneysider Spithill, a two-time America's Cup champion, lives full-time in San Diego with his American wife and their two sons.

But Slingsby is once again the skipper to beat in the nine-boat fleet after a dominating win in the Season 3 opener in Bermuda last month.

The Aussies have won the championship and $US1 million ($A1.4 million) prize each of the first two seasons.

Three fleet races Saturday and two more on Sunday will decide the top three boats for the podium race.

While the Windy City lives up to its nickname, the skippers say the breeze can be inconsistent from day to day, with it sometimes coming off the city front and the next day coming from offshore.

"For Chicago it's really a prepare-for-anything type of venue," said Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist and an America's Cup champion.

"It's not a very consistent venue for predicting what's going to happen so we're just trying to be ready for anything.

"We're going to get a full variety of conditions here and hopefully there's plenty of breeze so the boats are up and zipping around."

Team Australia have won four straight SailGP regattas and six of the last seven.

"Ideally, we'd love to win it," said Slingsby, who recently signed on with the New York Yacht Club's American Magic for the 2024 America's Cup.

"We've been on a great winning streak lately but we know that winning streak's going to come to an end eventually.

"We've just got to put it off as long as we can. If we have a good top-three finish here in Chicago, I think the whole team will be pretty happy."