Nicole Breault

Breault grew up in Old Lyme, Connecticut and graduated in 1990 as class valedictorian from Old Lyme High School.[1]

She was two years old when she started sailing, and she grew up sailing there with her parents, brother, and others.[1][2] By age seven she had joined Niantic Bay Yacht Club[3] and raced in the International 420 class in Long Island Sound and in world championships held in multiple countries.[2] Breault was the first woman to win the national championship for the International 420, and went on to win it a second time.[4][1] In her senior year of high school she was an all-state selection in girls' soccer and captained the sailing team to a state championship.[1] In college, she sailed for Yale University and graduated in 1994.[1] After college she returned to Old Lyme High School and taught history and coached soccer.[2]

Breault has won the Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy for the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship in 2015, 2016, 2018,[5] and 2021.[6] In 2018, she was undefeated during the championship event held at St. Francis Yacht Club.[7] She was again undefeated when she won in 2021, and has sailed with Molly Carapiet and Karen Loutzenheiser during all four of her wins.[6] Other notable wins include the 2015 Mayor’s Cup ISAF Grade 3 Women’s Match Race in Long Beach, California;[2] and winning the gold medal at the 2015 ISAF Nation’s Cup Grand Final Women’s Division in Vladivostok, Russia.[2][4] Breault has raced in multiple classes including Lightnings, J/105. She prefers inshore one-design sailing, and sails in both match racing events and fleet racing events.[8] As of April 2021, Breault was the top ranked women's matching race sailor in the United States and #3 in the world; in the open rankings she is ranked #7 in the United States and #39 in the world.[9]

Sailing is in the family around Breault. Breault's husband, Bruce Stone, is a sailor and she has sailed with him at times serving either as skipper or main trimmer/tactician,[1][10] or doing doublehanded races in San Francisco Bay when the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed her 2020 racing plans.[3] Her father has stories of sailing his Dolphin 24 Marionette with Breault[11][12] and her brother Mike, who is also a sailor.[13] Breault enjoys coaching sailing, and has started a Learn-to-Sail program for women at St. Francis Yacht Club.[1]

In college, Breault was named a Women's All-American sailor her sophomore year[1][2] and was Honorable Mention for Coed All-American in 1993 and 1994.[14] Breault was named the 2017 St. Francis Yacht Club's Jerome B. White Yachtsman of the Year, the first women to receive the honor.[1] In 2019 Breault made the shortlist for the United States' Rolex Yachtswoman of the year.[15] In 2022, Breault was announced as one of the shortlist for the 2021 US Sailor of the Year Awards.[16]

• Breault's biography at World Sailing