Breault Repeats at U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship

Published on September 11th, 2016

Annapolis, MD (September 11, 2016) – Nicole Breault (San Francisco, Calif.) became only the second skipper to win back-to-back U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship in event history.

Breault defeated home town sailor Janel Zarkowsky (Annapolis, Md.) 3-0 in the Final match today on Chesapeake Bay. The 2016 U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship was hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club on September 9-11 in the J/22 class sailboat.

Breault’s team was 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 5-0, 4-1 and 5-0, respectively. They won their semifinal series, 3-0, over Robyn Lesh (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) to advance to the finals. Lesh upended Morgan Wilson, 2-0, in the petite finals to take third place.

The first Round Robin was conducted on Friday (Sept 9) and the second and third Round Robins took place Saturday (Sept 10). The knock-out rounds were raced today.

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 #2 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. Genny Tulloch won back-to-back titles in 2009-10 with other winners including Cory Sertl, Betsy Alison, Sally Barkow, Anna Tunnicliffe, Stephanie Roble, Liz Baylis, and Debbie Cappozi

Event details – Scoreboard – Competitor list