All USA Final at 2025 Santa Maria Cup

USA’s women’s match racing team Team Baam skippered by Allie Blecher from California (crew Beka Schiff, Rose Edwards, and Ali Blumenthal Stokes) won the 2025 Santa Maria Cup, held June 4-7 in Annapolis, MD. As the second event of the 2025 Women’s World Match Racing Tour, Blecher defeated Vela Racing team skippered by Nicole Breault (crew Evan Brown Cahill, McKenzie Wilson, Julie Mitchell) 3-0 in a tense light-air final on the Severn River.

Using J/22s, there was a long wait for the breeze to arrive before the petit-final and final matches were able to take place. As the sea breeze arrived early in the afternoon, the final four matches headed to the racecourse in front of the famous U.S Naval Academy.

Defending Santa Maria Cup champions, Team Wings from Sweden skippered by Anna Östling, were keen to make amends in their petit-final match against Australian Easy Tiger Racing skippered by Juliet Costanzo. Östling was narrowly beaten by Blecher in the semi-finals to miss their chance at defending their title, but the Swedish team defeated the Australians 2-0 in the first-to-two points semis to secure the last podium place.

In the Final, Blecher used their good speed in the challenging light-air conditions to defeat Breault in three straight wins and take the Santa Maria Cup title.

“It was super light and very stressful in each match,” admitted Blecher. “I am fortunate to have a team to keep me calm and collected, and we were just able to keep our bow down and stay ahead in each race.”

Breault added, “The better team won. The conditions were very tricky and although we were keeping close, Allie and her team were just able to extend where it mattered, congratulations to them!”

After the second stage of the 2025 Women’s World Match Racing Tour, Breault tops the leaderboard with a combined 22 points including their second-place finish at the opening event in San Francisco. Blecher and Sweden’s Anna Östling move to second and third overall with the 2025 format to count the top three event finishes.

“It has been a very exciting start to the 2025 women’s world tour with these two back-to-back US events,” added Women’s Tour Executive Director James Pleasance. “San Francisco and Annapolis are both ideal match racing venues and it has been great to have over fifty female athletes compete across both events. We are now looking forward to the third stage of the tour in Marstrand Sweden at the end of this month.”

Event information – Race details – Results

Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2025 Schedule
Stage 1. Casa Vela Cup – San Francisco, CA: May 28-31
Stage 2. Santa Maria Cup – Annapolis, MD: June 4-7
Stage 3. Normandy Match Cup – Le Havre, France: June 6-9
Stage 4. Nordea Women’s Trophy – Marstrand, Sweden: June 30-July 5
Stage 5. Women’s Match Racing World Championship – Chicago, IL:  September 17-20
Stage 6. Bermuda Women’s Match Race – Hamilton, Bermuda: October 21-26

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour was launched in 2022 to continue the hugely successful legacy of the WIM Series (Women’s International Match Racing Series) providing a global match racing series for female sailors. The name of the series was re-launched as the Women’s World Match Racing Tour with its continued mission to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level. The Women’s World Match Racing Tour is the world’s first and only professional sailing series for women providing a valuable pathway for aspiring female world champions in the sport of sailing.

Details: https://womenswmrt.com/