Breault successfully defends Women’s Match Racing Title

by Jake Fish on 12 Sep 2016 On Sunday in Annapolis, Nicole Breault (San Francisco, Calif.) became only the second skipper to win back-to-back U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championships in event history.

Breault, the reigning defending champion from last year’s event in Balboa, California, defeated home town sailor Janel Zarkowsky (Annapolis, Md.), three – zero, in this afternoon’s final series on Chesapeake Bay. The 2016 U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship was hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club, Friday through Sunday, in the J/22 class sailboat.

Breault was joined by a talented crew comprised of Molly Carapiet (San Francisco, Calif.), Karen Loutzenheiser (Santa Cruz, Calif.), and Hannah Burroughs (San Francisco, Calif.). Carapiet and Loutzenheiser won with Breault in last year’s championship. Also, for the second straight year, Zarkowsky’s team ran into Breault in the Finals and finished runner-up.

“We won because of teamwork,” stated Breault. “You can’t under estimate that part of the game, especially with all the maneuvering you want to do, you need it delivered, and I couldn’t do it without them.”

Breault will be racing at the 2016 World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championships in Sheboygan on September 19-25.

“I’ve been looking for a chance to race against Stephanie (Roble) and her whole team, and I’ll see her in Sheboygan.” Roble is the top ranked U.S. women’s match racer.

The team from the Bay area was dominant throughout the three day event. In the three Round Robin stages, they were five - zero, four - one and five - zero, respectively. They won their semifinal series, three - zero, over Robyn Lesh (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) to advance to the finals. Lesh upended Morgan Wilson, two - zero, in the petite finals to take third place.

The first Round Robin was conducted on Friday and the second and third Round Robins took place Saturday. The knock-out rounds were raced on Sunday.

The win earned Breault an invitation to the 2017 Buddy Melges Challenge at Sail Sheboygan in Wisconsin. Breault, who was introduced to match racing in 2008, is ranked number two in the country for women’s match racing. She also won the Nation’s Cup in 2015.

Previous winners of the U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship include an impressive list of the top women sailors in recent U.S. history. Cory Sertl, Betsy Alison, Sally Barkow, Anna Tunnicliffe, Stephanie Roble, Genny Tulloch, Liz Baylis, and Debbie Cappozi have all won this US Sailing National Championship.

Quotes of the Week

• Robin Lesh (Friday quote) – “Communication is key. When there is a tactical call, I need to know what is going on and we are all synced when we make a move.”
• Rebecca McAlvain (Friday quote) – “For most of us on this team, it was our first time match racing, so it was a pretty steep learning curve, but we improved throughout the day and match racing is super fun.”
• Danielle Gallo (Friday quote) – “We had moments of brilliance, but if you make one mistake against good competition, you are behind.”
• Nicole Breault (on how women can participate in match racing) – “Women who want to match race now have two options. The first is to take full advantage of open division events around the country. The open division of match racing is not reserved for men, it is open! The only advantage male sailors might have over female sailors is their higher (on average) strength-to-weight ratio. On smaller boats this advantage doesn’t mean much, and on larger boats athletic women on a smart team can still win. Besides, mixed-gender crews can be more fun!