Semi-Finalists confirmed for Santa Maria Cup

A thrilling second day of racing at the 2025 Santa Maria Cup saw the final four skippers emerge from a competitive qualifying double-round robin stage. USA’s Nicole Breault and Vela Racing Team led the qualifying stage with a combined 12-2 win-loss record to secure the teams semi-final berth. Defending champion Anna Östling/ Team Wings from Sweden were second to qualify with a 11-3 score, joined by USA’s Allie Blecher/ Team Baam at 9-5, and Australia’s Juliet Costanzo/ Easy Tiger Racing at 7-7.

As the sea-breeze set in from the southeast in front of the Eastport Yacht Club, host of the Santa Maria Cup for over 20 years, the final races of the second round-robin stage were quick to complete with an earlier finish to the day.  

Securing the first two semi-final berths, the top seed came down to a crucial and close final match of the last flight of the day between USA’s Nicole Breault/ Vela Racing and Sweden’s Anna Östling/ Team Wings.

With boats overlapped on the last downwind leg, Breault was able to sail Östling outside of the zone to the finish line where Östling received a penalty. The Swedish team dropped their spinnaker and tacked around as Breault ended up below the lay line to the finish with issues dropping their spinnaker. Östling tacked to starboard and again to port to complete her penalty and crossed the line ahead of Breault. However, the on-water umpires saw it differently and declared that the penalty had not been completed correctly with Breault declared the winner of the match instead.

After a disappointing first round robin stage, USA skipper Allie Blecher and Team Baam found their stride today, dropping just one race and winning six of seven races and advancing the team to the semi-finals.

“We had a great day today after figuring out some of our issues from yesterday” added Blecher.  “We were calmer and more collected today and were feeling much stronger in the starts - a good result and pleased to be in the semis.”

The fourth and final spot for the semi-finals came down to a deciding match between Australian Juliet Costanzo/ Easy Tiger Racing and Chicago’s Bridget Groble/ Bow Down Racing.

After choosing opposite sides of the race course on the first leg, Costanzo and team were able to take advantage of the favoured right-hand side of the course to gain a marginal lead against Groble. Despite an impressive effort by Groble and team to close the gap, the Australians were able to just stay ahead, crossing the line just a boat length ahead of Groble to advance the Australians to the semi-final in their first ever visit to Annapolis and the Santa Maria Cup.

“The last race was a close one” commented Costanzo. “After a long day of racing and a few errors on our side, we were able to pull it together to keep our lead in the last race and we are delighted to get through to the semis. We left a lot out on the race course so we are looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow!”