Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team won a sixth consecutive World Sailing Women's Match Racing World Championship, defeating American skipper Nicole Breault 3-0 in the Grand Final on San Francisco Bay.
Winning the Bay's hidden war
The final paired Courtois against Breault's Vela Racing team on its home waters at St. Francis Yacht Club. Big breeze arrived only on the opening day before lighter, tactical conditions settled over the Bay for the rest of the week.
Those calmer winds left currents and tidal shifts as the decisive forces.
"It was a really tight final; the score doesn't reflect how tight it was," Courtois said. "We are really happy to win against Nicole and Team Vela. It's always a tight battle, and it was really fun."
Six titles, no precedent
The championship began with a 12-team Round Robin before narrowing through quarterfinals and match-point semifinals. Courtois dispatched fellow French skipper Lucie Gout to reach the final, while Breault beat the Netherlands' Julia Aartsen. Courtois finished the regatta having won 19 of 20 matches, echoing a perfect 2024 Jeddah campaign where her crew went 21–0.
The streak stretches from Cherbourg in 2021 through Auckland, Middelfart, Jeddah, Chicago and now San Francisco — an unbroken run unprecedented since the women's world championship was founded in 1998. It extends a French tradition that Claire Leroy began with back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008, and follows Courtois's own near-misses: runner-up to Britain's Lucy Macgregor in 2018, then bronze in 2019.
Breault captured the weight of the moment from the dock. "They fight as hard as ever in every single race they sail," she said. "They don't ever let down. I applaud them: They are world champions and they're showing it every year."
