Richmond YC Races Women’s Sailing Champions League Final in Germany
From August 7 through 9, a team of four sailors from Richmond Yacht Club (RYC) represented their club, the West Coast and the United States at the Women’s Sailing Champions League Final in Kiel, northern Germany.
Kiel is one of the sailing capitals of Europe and the world; its official slogan is “Kiel: Sailing City.” The regatta was hosted by Kieler Yacht Club (KYC), and sailed on the Kieler Fjord in J/70s. Richmond YC, the sole American team competing, was represented by Julia Paxton (skipper), Renee Corpuz-Lahne, Katie Cornetta and Kathryn Dipple.
The Sailing League format is wildly popular and successful in Europe, having taken off in the past decade-plus. The teams sail short-course races (generally 10 to 20 minutes) in flights, meaning that not all of the boats in the regatta are racing at once. While it is a fleet-racing format, it naturally brings in elements of team and match racing.
The original concept was to give sailing a format similar to that of European soccer, with national leagues for sailing, promotion and relegation between divisions, and an international competition for the top qualified teams from each country.
The format was first popularized in Germany, and the soccer-inspired branding can be seen in how the names of the leagues mirror those of the European soccer leagues. For example, the first division of German soccer is the Bundesliga, and the second division is the 2. Bundesliga. The top continental club soccer competition in Europe is the “Champions League.” The sailing equivalent in Germany is the Segelbundesliga (sailing Bundesliga) and 2. Segelbundesliga (second Sailing Bundesliga), and the international competitions are the “Sailing Champions League” and “Women’s Sailing Champions League.”
The format has started to catch on with clubs on the West Coast of the United States, in no small part thanks to St. Francis Yacht Club racing director Felix Weidling, who is originally from Kiel. For the past several years, StFYC has hosted a Sailing League qualifier. The 2026 edition, covered in the July issue of Latitude, saw RYC win a berth at the Women’s Sailing Champions League Final, and San Francisco Yacht Club winning a berth at the Sailing Champions League final in October (also in Kiel).
In the Women’s Final, the RYC gave a strong account of themselves against the European clubs. The team from Richmond sailed in 12 races, each featuring six boats, and won two of them while finishing second in three others. Their final tally was 40 points, good for seventh out of 18 teams competing.
The regatta was won by Germany’s Hamburger Segel-Club (Hamburg Sailing Club), narrowly edging Oslo’s Konelig Norsk Seilforening (Royal Norwegian Yacht Club) by one point. German clubs were dominant in the regatta, with six of the top 10 finishers being German.
The format is continually growing in popularity in the US, with SFYC also hosting regattas in the format. SFYC’s team in the Youth Sailing Champions League Final in fall 2025 came one race away from winning that event, narrowly finishing behind Hamburg’s Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (Northern German Regatta Club). Now that the RYC team has continued the positive trend of West Coast teams competing in the format in Europe, we look forward to seeing how the format continues to grow in the US.
You can find the full results from the Women’s Sailing Champions League Final here.