Schedule for Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2023

Following the 2022 season in which women’s international match racing was reimagined, and the Women’s World Match Racing Tour was initiated, the second season will have a line-up of four events for its 2023 schedule. The Tour is the world’s only professional sailing series for women designed to promote and grow female participation in professional sailing. 

“We are very excited to announce the 2023 Women’s World Match Racing Tour season today so teams can start planning their campaigns,” commented WWMRT Executive Director James Pleasance. “After the success of last year’s Tour, we are speaking to a number of host venues, and we also hope to add a fifth tour stage this year for 2023 which would be a great addition.”

The 2023 season will kick off in April at the inaugural Casa Vela Cup at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco on April 24-28. Teams will compete in matched J/22 boats over 4 days racing directly in front of the Club with its impressive backdrop of San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

“In line with our commitment to developing women skippers and crew, the St. Francis Yacht Club is delighted to have been selected to host the opening stage of the 2023 Women’s World Match Racing Tour, and it is our intention for this to be an annual event,” commented Regatta Chair Bruce Stone.

Straight after San Francisco, teams will head to the US East Coast for Stage 2 of the Tour and the return of the popular Santa Maria Cup at Eastport Yacht Club on April 30-May 4 in Annapolis, MD. The Santa Maria Cup had been a premier match racing event for women for over 20 years, and after a ten-year hiatus, it now makes its long-awaited comeback as part of the WWMRT. The event will be sailed in J/22s on the Severn River in Annapolis.

The Tour will then head to Europe for the Normandy Match Cup on May 26-29 in Le Havre, France. Sailed in First 7.5 keelboats, last year’s event was won by defending champion Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink Normandy Elite Team who went on to win the overall 2022 Women’s World Match Racing Tour title at the Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.

Stage 4 of the 2023 Tour will see the teams return to Skovshoved Harbour for the second edition of the KDY Women’s Match Race Denmark on September 21-24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hosted by the Royal Danish Yacht Club, former World Champion Anna Östling and her Wings Match Racing Team from Sweden won the event which tests the physical limits of teams in the bigger and heavier DS37 yachts with up to six crew.

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