Women’s Match Racing Worlds Come to San Francisco
This week and coming weekend will see some of the world’s best sailors competing on San Francisco Bay as the 2026 Women’s Match Racing World Championship comes to St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC).
After a panel today, racing will officially start on October 1 with 12 teams from six nations competing to claim the world championship.
Three American teams will be racing, with all three hailing from the great state of California. Of those three, two are Bay Area-based teams and one a Southern California team. The two Northern California teams are both representing the St. Francis Yacht Club: Fog Racing, skippered by Lindsey Baab, and Vela Racing, skippered by Nicole Breault.
The Fog Racing team will comprise Baab, Kate Shiber, Elena VandenBerg and Helen Lord. The team finished last year’s Women’s World Match Racing Tour (WWMRT) in fifth place, and is currently the 13th-ranked team on the tour this year.
Breault, who is coming off racing in the inaugural Women’s International Championship at New York Yacht Club earlier this month, is a five-time US Women’s Match Racing national champion. She will be joined on the Vela racing team by regular crew members Molly Carapiet, Molly Vandemoer and Hailey Thompson.
“This year’s group is very much influenced by the WWMRT,” Breault said per the regatta’s official press release. “I’m always happy when these awesome teams come to play in my backyard because I’m excited to take them on where I’m comfortable and where I have that home-water advantage. At the same time, having played against them, they always bring it, and it’s always a tough competition.”
The third California team will be Allie Blecher’s Team BAAM! from California Yacht Club. Blecher and team finished seventh in last year’s WWMRT, and she will be racing with Evan Cahill, Rose Edwards and Aimee Famula.
Joining the three American teams will be three French teams, two Swedish teams and one team each from Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
The French teams are highlighted by the winner of the last five Women’s Match Racing World Championships: Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite team from France’s Club de Voile Saint-Aubin Elbeuf.
The other two French teams are Shark Caviar skippered by Julia D’Amodio and L4C Racing Team skippered by Lucie Gout. Shark Caviar was sixth in last year’s WWMRT, while Gout’s team finished fourth at the 2025 French National Women’s Match Racing Championships.
Another top contender in the regatta will be the Swedish WINGS team skippered by Anna Östling. The team currently leads the 2026 WWMRT and sails out of the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club.
Right behind WINGS in this year’s WWMRT is another Swedish team: Martina Carlsson’s Beyond Racing Team. Similar to Östling, Carlsson’s team hails from the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club.
The third-place team in this year’s WWMRT standings as of now is the lone Dutch team competing: Julia Aartsen’s Team Out of the Box. Aartsen and team represent the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club. The final European team is Those Seagulls from Denmark, skippered by Kristine Marie Mauritzen and representing the Royal Danish Yacht Club.
Rounding out the field are the lone Kiwi and Australian teams. Juliet Costanzo and Team Costanzo will be sailing under the burgee of Australia’s Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Last year’s second-place finisher in the world championship, New Zealand’s 2.0 Racing, is skippered by Megan Thompson and racing under the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s burgee.
Racing will be viewable from StFYC and the Marin waterfront, and scores can be followed here.