Allie Blecher wasted little time announcing her intentions at the Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis this week, steering Team Baam to eight wins from nine races on the opening day of the Women’s World Match Racing Tour’s second stage event. The American defender, who claimed the Santa Maria Cup title last year, has set a formidable pace that will worry her rivals through to Saturday’s final.
Close behind sit Sweden’s Anna Östling and the Netherlands’ Julia Aartsen, both carrying 7-1 records after day one. With ten of the world’s top women’s match racing teams gathered on Annapolis’ waters, the competition promises to separate the tacticians from the rest.
Blecher spoke candidly about her opening performance, neither overstating nor underselling her crew’s efforts. “We had a pretty good day. I made a few mistakes but we fought back and the racing was fair, which was good. The conditions are tricky but that’s my favourite type of racing because you are never out of it and you are never safely ahead.” Her philosophy cuts to the heart of match racing’s appeal: one-on-one duels where boat speed alone means nothing without shrewd decision-making and flawless crew work.
The event, hosted by Eastport Yacht Club, has drawn sailors from six nations across Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania. Among them is Lily Xu Lijia, China’s Olympic gold medallist from the 2012 London Games, making her debut on the women’s tour this week. Xu competed in the Laser Radial class before turning her attention to match racing, and the transition has proven both humbling and rewarding.
“This is my first Women’s World Tour event and I feel very fortunate to be here,” Xu said. “Even after losing a few races today, I feel very happy because we are learning more after every race. After 20 years of dinghy and fleet sailing, there are still many skills that carry across to match racing as you still need to know how to make a boat go fast and call the wind shifts.”
Canada’s Tara Golonka from British Columbia also made her tour debut this week and experienced the emotional whiplash that match racing delivers. Golonka’s crew started strongly with two wins, then struggled through the afternoon before rebuilding their understanding of the discipline with each subsequent race.
“It’s super cool to be on the Women’s World Tour for the first time,” Golonka reflected. “We are quite new to match racing so it has been awesome to compete at this high level. Today we started strongly with two wins and then struggled later in the day, but we have been learning all the time.”
The 2026 Santa Maria Cup champion will be crowned when racing concludes on Saturday. With Blecher leading but challengers snapping at her heels, the final two days promise the kind of tactical intensity that makes match racing the purest form of competitive sailing.
