While summer’s finale is never a great feeling, the season’s swan song featured a special time in North America for women’s sailing.
This began on September 12 with the release of the film Mighty Mary, and then rolled directly into the New York Yacht Club’s inaugural Women’s International Championship (WIC; September 12-19), which was contested using the NYYC’s fleet of IC37s on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. This impressive month culminated in last week’s 2026 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship (September 30-October 4), which was hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club and contested using StFYC’s fleet of J/22s on San Francisco Bay.
This latter event featured 12 of the world’s top-ranked all-women’s match-racing teams who represented 10 yacht clubs and seven countries.
2026 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship © Simone Staff
The multi-stage regatta began with a round robin that winnowed the fleet down to eight teams. According to several skippers with whom I spoke over the weekend, consensus held that the competition level was so high that any of these eight teams could have reached the podium.
Ultimately, however, it was skipper Pauline Courtois (FRA) and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team (Maëlenn Lemaitre, Louise Acker and Laurane Mettraux), representing France’s Club de Voile Saint-Aubin Elbeuf, that claimed World Sailing gold medal.
Impressively, this was Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team sixth consecutive world-championship title.
Of the 20 flights that the team contested during the regatta, they only posted a single loss (to skipper Lindsey Baab [USA] and her Team Fog), and this was during the round robin.
“My team did an amazing job keeping the boat going fast all the time, which I think was a big key for us to win the match, because when you are faster, it’s easier,” said Courtois in an official regatta report. “I think that’s a really big part of match racing, and it’s a big team job.”
Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team might have been quick, but they still had to get past skipper Nicole Breault (USA) and her Vela Racing team (Molly Carapiet, Hailey Thompson and Molly Vandemoer), who were representing StFYC and racing on hometown waters, in the event’s Grand Final.
Breault, it should be noted, is a multi-time U.S. match-racing national champion and has been a driving force in national and international women’s match racing for well over a decade.
While the best-of-five Grand Final represented some of the most competitive all-women’s match racing to have ever unfurled on U.S. waters, the wind gods that typically deliver abundant pressure to San Francisco Bay decided to make this year’s world-championship title a light-air affair that was, of course, complimented by the Bay’s “active” currents and tides.
“All those variables were very difficult, even for the local teams that are the most used to it,” said Breault in an official regatta report. “There are different kinds of gyres and eddies and the way the water upwells here and there, and with lighter breeze, it was really important to keep your head out of the boat, watch the variables change, and—at the same time—engage in war.”
This is on-brand for the American-flagged squad: One of Team Vela’s mottos is “We go to war”.
Ultimately, however, Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team used boatspeed to their advantage and swept the Grand Final 3-0, thus cementing their historic sixth consecutive world-championship title.
“It was a really tight final; the score doesn’t reflect how tight it was,” said Courtois in an official regatta report. “We are really happy to win against Nicole and Team Vela. It’s always a tight battle, and it was really fun.”
Julia Aartsen (NED) and her team Out of the Box (Nerine Usman, Eva Asbeek Brusse and Ismene Usman), representing the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club, joined Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team and Team Vela on the podium, claiming the event’s bronze medal.
While the regatta delivered world-class competition for the sailors and great viewing opportunities for spectators, odds are excellent that the Butterfly Effect will emerge as an important lasting result of this high-level regatta.
“Having the world’s best women’s match-racing teams competing in San Francisco provides an even more visible example of what is possible,” said Felix Weidling, StFYC’s race director. “These athletes are incredibly skilled, professional, and dedicated. For young sailors, especially young women, being able to see these teams up close makes the dream feel real and attainable. At the same time, it sends an important message to boys as well: sailing is a sport where talent, teamwork, preparation, and determination matter far more than gender.”
Sail-World tips our hats to Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team for delivering a match-racing masterclass, and we also celebrate all the teams that participated in the NYYC’s WIC and the 2026 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship.
(As for Mighty Mary, readers are gently reminded that it’s not too late to catch the film on the big screen at select theaters.)
Meanwhile, the M32 Worlds recently took place on the waters off of Newport, Rhode Island, and featured 12 teams competing aboard one-design catamarans.
After 19 races spread across four days, Miles Julien and his YoungBlood team (Carlos Robles, Bernardo Freitas, Moritz Spitzauer and Leonard Takahashi) completed a four-year teambuilding journey to take top honors.
They were joined on the podium by Charlie Julien’s Rated X (David Gilmour, Jeff McCooey, Julius Hallström, and Rhys Mara), who finished in second place, and Larry Phillips’ Midtown Racing (Sam Hallowell, Mark Spearman, Mark Bulkeley, and Malcolm Lamphere).
“This regatta itself sort of summed up our entire time together as a team,” said Miles Julien in a regatta communication. “We really started from the back and had to work our way back up. It’s been tough, but I think you just can’t give up. In this fleet, anything can happen.”
Newport was also the site of the NYYC’s biennial invitation-only 2026 Resolute Cup, where 23 yacht clubs competed in 20 races aboard a fleet of Sonars.
Once the finishing guns fell silent, Wade Waddell, Doug Sabin, Miranda Bakos and Duncan Swain, representing the Corinthian Yacht Club, took the win. They were joined on the podium by Adam Roberts and his team from the San Diego Yacht Club, and by Alex Curtiss and his team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club.
“We made it stressful at the end with three medal races, and the second one we rounded the top mark in last,” said Waddell. “We had to battle back.”
While this battle involved all other racecourse players, plus the usual shifts and fleet-racing tactics, the team successfully landed their third consecutive Resolute Cup win.
“That was a testament to the team,” said Waddell in an official regatta communication. “We dug deep there. Feels amazing to come away with the win here. Three Resolute Cups in a row. We’re fired up.”
Finally, all sailors are reminded that, while we have entered October, there’s still plenty of great sailing to be done before heavy-duty foulies and dry suits become necessary kit in many places.
Trust us, you’ll be glad to have frontload as much sailing as possible before talk of skiing turns serious.
May the four winds blow you safely home.
by David Schmidt
