Women’s match racing took a hit before it even made its Olympics premiere this summer in London.

The International Sailing Federation did not include the division in the 10 events it selected in 2011 for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games in 2016. Men’s match racing has not been in the Olympics since 2000.

Top female sailors at the 5th Annual Carlos Aguilar Match race, which started Thursday in St. Thomas Harbor, will be instrumental in getting match racing in the 2020 games.

For now, the Women’s International Match Racing Association is focusing much of its energy on starting an international women’s series in 2013. The world’s best men compete in the Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

"We’re hoping to get it started in May," said Liz Baylis, WIMRA executive director. "We still haven’t set the venues yet, so the first year we’re hoping to run sort of an abbreviated series from May to August. It’s one of those things to get the proof of concept going."

Baylis, an American on Danish skipper Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen’s crew this week, believes open regattas like the CAMR are great for building the women’s brand.

"It actually helps the competitive level," Baylis said, "but it also asks the question, which is interesting, would it be better to just combine and sail open events? But I think there are sailors and sponsors who are very interested in making a women’s series and that’s where we’re focusing."

Women have had international Grade 1, or top level, events in the past, but never a series.

Juliana Senfft is one of four Brazilian women competing together at the CAMR and another is competing with a crew of three Brazilian men. Senfft and her teammates would be vying for a match racing spot as the host team in 2016 had the event not been cut.

"It was hard because it’s not just about the financial investment, it’s about the time investment and all the effort that the sailors put in," Senfft said. "A lot of time, a lot of hours in the water working very hard."

The Rio Games will not include any men’s or women’s keelboat events. Detractors have argued that the boats are too expensive. Baylis disagrees and points to the fact that most match racing regattas provide the boats.

"With the politics in ISAF, different council gets voted in at different times and different voting blocs and each class is fighting," Baylis said. "There’s only 10 classes in the Games, so everybody wants to be one of those. There’s probably more than 20 classes trying to get in."

Senfft serves as the Central and South Americas representative to WIMRA and agrees with Baylis that open events like CAMR are a boon for women’s match racing. Meldgaard Pedersen is the Scandinavian representative to WIMRA.

"It’s always fun to sail with the guys and there are a lot of guys here who are great supporters of women’s match racing," Senfft said. "So I think they would definitely support the cause to have the circuit, so yeah, it’s a pretty good thing."

WIMRA is working on finding a title sponsor for a 2013 world tour, but could use an abbreviated slate to garner more corporate interest.

Renata Decnop is Senfft’s captain and another proponent of both open racing and a women’s tour.

"It’s cool to be here and the level is very high here and the sailors also," said Decnop, not long after beating a team of her countrymen. "The Brazilian guys are very high level sailors, Peter Holmberg is always very good to sail against. It’s wonderful for us, actually."

After the final flight Thursday, 2009 winner Holmberg and Barkow sat atop the leaderboard with just one loss each. Holmberg, the 2007 America’s Cup winner and V.I. native, has seven wins. Barkow, the sixth-ranked woman in the world, has six wins. Teams will finish the remaining six flights of 19 in the first round robin today. Americans David Dellenbaugh, Chris Poole and Dave Perry finished with 6, 3.5 and 3 wins, respectively. USVI’s Tyler Rice and Brazil’s Renata Decnop have three wins apiece. American Stephanie Roble, Brazilian Henrique Haddad and German Sven-Erik Horsch each have two wins. Denmark’s Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen has one win.

Racing resumes along the waterfront at 9 a.m. today.

-Written by Tim Chapman - Virgin Islands Daily News - virginislandsdailynews.com