Pauline Courtois won 19 of her 20 matches on San Francisco Bay to claim a sixth consecutive Women’s Match Racing World Championship, yet the champion says the 3-0 final against Nicole Breault was far closer than the score suggests.
The numbers from San Francisco look one-sided. Pauline Courtois (FRA) and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team won 19 of the 20 matches they sailed at the 2026 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship, then closed out the best-of-five Grand Final against Nicole Breault’s Vela Racing without dropping a race. Courtois herself sees it differently.
“It was a really tight final; the score doesn’t reflect how tight it was,” she said. “We are really happy to win against Nicole and Team Vela. It’s always a tight battle, and it was really fun.”
The win, sealed on Sunday, 4 October, gives Courtois and crew Maëlenn Lemaitre, Louise Acker and Laurane Mettraux a sixth consecutive world title. Representing France’s Club de Voile Saint-Aubin Elbeuf, they beat 11 other teams at the invitation-only event, hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club from 30 September to 4 October and sailed in J/22s. The 12 teams entered were among the strongest all-women match-racing crews in the world.
“St. Francis Yacht Club would like to congratulate Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team on their world-championship title,” said Susan Ruhne, StFYC’s 2026 Commodore. “The Bay delivered varied conditions over four days of racing, and StFYC’s Cityfront racecourse gave spectators the best stadium-style viewing experience possible.”
San Francisco Bay is known for big breeze, strong tides and churning currents, but this week the AP flag hung limply on three of the four mornings. Sailors filled the waits with card games and Jenga at the StFYC clubhouse, and a few took the chance to nap. Such calm mornings are not unusual for San Francisco in October, and race officials worked to make the most of every breeze once it filled in.
“We had 20 knots on the first day, so the sailors got the big breeze that they signed up for, and they’ve also had these tactical lighter conditions,” said Becky Ashburn, the regatta’s Course Race Officer. “I think anyone who could sail tactically and well, and who could overcome the current and figure that out to keep winning, day after day, is certainly a winner.”
The regatta opened with a Round Robin on Thursday and Friday. Saturday brought the eight-team Quarterfinals and a separate stage that settled fifth through eighth places overall, while the top four advanced to match-point Semifinals. Race officials brought both Semifinal pairings to match point by Saturday evening, leaving Sunday for the remaining Semifinal matches, the best-of-three Petit Final for bronze and the best-of-five Grand Final for gold and silver.
“The Round Robin phase was lengthy with a 12-team fleet, but the progression after that was clear, competitive and ultimately produced a deserving champion,” said Felix Weidling, StFYC’s Race Director. “The depth of talent at this event was remarkable. There were no easy races and no clear gaps in performance. Every team arrived extremely well prepared, highly professional and ready to compete at the highest level.”
In Sunday’s Semifinals, Breault’s Vela Racing (USA), with Molly Carapiet, Hailey Thompson and Molly Vandemoer and representing StFYC, beat Julia Aartsen (NED) and Out of the Box, sailing with Nerine Usman, Eva Asbeek Brusse and Ismene Usman for the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club. In the other Semifinal, Courtois beat fellow French skipper Lucie Gout and her L4C Racing Team, with Flavie Foucher, Clarisse Baissac and Lomane Valade, representing APCC Voile Sportive.
Aartsen and Out of the Box needed two matches to take the Petit Final from Gout and claim bronze, which Aartsen called the best result of her career.
“We sailed our best event so far, so it’s really great,” she said, crediting her crew for the finish. “They helped me stay focused. They did everything that they could do right, and that resulted in third place. Without them, I was nothing.”
The Grand Final put Breault’s Vela Racing on home water against the five-time defending champions. The breeze stayed lighter than usual, but the tides and currents of the Bay remained central to every match.
“All those variables were very difficult, even for the local teams that are the most used to it,” said Breault. “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.”
“We Go to War” is one of Vela Racing’s mottos. By the final, the French crew had shown they could read the Bay just as well, and Courtois won 3-0.
“They fight as hard as ever in every single race they sail,” Breault said of the champions. “They don’t ever let down. I applaud them: They are world champions and they’re showing it every year.”
Courtois put her team’s edge down to boatspeed. “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,” she said. “I think that’s a really big part of match racing, and it’s a big team job.”
Courtois and Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team received World Sailing’s gold medal and the ISAF/World Sailing perpetual Françoise Pascal Memorial Trophy. Breault and Vela Racing took silver, and Aartsen and Out of the Box took bronze. Lindsey Baab (USA) and her Fog Racing team, with Kate Shiber, Elena VandenBerg and Helen Lord and representing StFYC, won the ISAF/World Sailing Nucci Novi Ceppellini Memorial Trophy for finishing first in the opening Round Robin.
The 2027 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship will be hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on the waters off Auckland, New Zealand, from 22 to 26 November 2027.
