TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year 2021 boom, here’s who’s winning

It was a resounding success for this Epic 30th Edition of the TAG Heuer 2021 Sailor of the Year, and we had no doubt given the shortlist of candidates selected by the Journal of Sailing, which includes all the greatest sailors of the last 30 years! The newsroom servers are red-hot given the huge number of votes (more than 8,000, so far) that have come in! A 360-degree involvement that starts from grades and goes all the way to comments. Never before has the most prestigious award in Italian sailing (awarded by the Giornale della Vela since 1991) been followed and commented on as this year!

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But let’s see in real time how the voting is going (12:30 p.m. photograph of Feb. 16).

A BEAUTIFUL STORY OF SAILING AND REDEMPTION

The leader in the ranking is Simone Camba with 1,156 votes. Amazing the affection people have shown for this policeman who has made sailing a mission! With his association New Sardiniasail, Simone uses sailing as a means of social recovery and redemption. Children with judicial or family problems, migrants, outcasts. He does everything to turn them into sailors and give them a future.

THE DUEL BETWEEN THE “FIRST LADIES” OF SOCIAL SAILING

Let’s be honest, we expected it the head-to-head between the first ladies of Italian “social” sailing, Elisabetta Maffei “l’Adriatica” (left) vs Marta Magnano “la Tirrenica” (right)! The merit of the sailor from Pesaro is that she has brought so many people closer to sailing with her highly followed “basic” online video lessons.

Instead, Marta decided to take the plunge and move to live aboard Churingas, a 10-meter sailboat, turning it into her “sweet boat” with which to travel the world. Along with his adorable little ducks. What a testimonial for sailing!

For now Elizabeth is in second place, with 785 votes. Marta follows in fourth position with 546 preferences.

REDISCOVERED CHAMPION

Between the two girls, in provisional third place was Pietro Sibello, with 629 votes. Italy has finally taken notice of this super champion (2010 Sailor of the Year) who has faced a thousand difficulties in his career: in 2008 he had his Olympic bronze medal “snatched” from his neck for a real misconduct perpetrated by an opposing crew and not sanctioned by the race judges; in 2012, the year in which he was supposed to take his revenge in London, an angioma prevented him from participating in the Olympics. Now he is making us daydream, he is in fact Luna Rossa’s mainsman and everyone is noticing his pure talent.

FAMILY CHALLENGE

Venghino signori venghino! A challenge within a challenge is the all-family and truly exciting one between siblings Nicolò and Maddalena Spanu, respectively with 516 and 492 votes in fifth and sixth place: the siblings are known for their exploits in the Youth World Cup in the Slalom specialty!

DODO’S SENSE OF SAILING

With 417 votes, in seventh place is Domenico Lamante. “Dodo” is getting so many votes and receiving so many positive comments. He is a young thoroughbred sailor: at the 2020 Laser 4.7 European Championship in Portugal, Italy took the title of the Under 16 category with “Dodo.” Lamante also took third place and the bronze medal in the overall European Championship standings.

THE HERO OF THE VENDEE

Giancarlo Pedote was also expected in the upper reaches of the rankings. In eighth place with 400 votes at the time of writing, Giancarlo represents years of sacrifice and hard work. First the excellent results at the Mini Transat (fourth and second place), then the great magnificent eighth place at the recently concluded Vendée Globe (non-stop solo round-the-world race) (no Italian has done better than him). The Florentine sailor, 2016 Sailor of the Year, is an example: if you want to, you can.

CHECCO “THE ENGLISH”

In ninth place with 374 votes, beloved, was Francesco Bruni, the likeable helmsman of Luna Rossa whose somewhat hackneyed English made us all fall in love. A real “dragon” of starts, we saw him at the Prada Cup. Accents aside, we would like to remind you that it is difficult to find a multiple award winner like him on the shortlist…in no particular order he has 7 World, 5 European and 15 National titles to his credit in various classes, from Laser to offshore, from Star to 49er and was first in the ISAF World Match Race Ranking in 2011.He has participated in three Olympics and is vice world champion in the Moth class. This is his fifth America’s Cup…

THE SAMPLE.

In virtual tenth place, with 370 votes, is Adriano Quan Cardi: heir (perhaps) to Marco Gradoni (who was also among the nominees and awarded the Young prize last year for winning three Optimist World Championships), the very young Adriano triumphed at the 2020 Optimist European Championships in Slovenia, confirming himself as one of the promises to watch in this 2021…

Closing out the top 30 vote-getters, and thus virtually qualified for phase 2 voting, is Mauro Pelaschier, the legend, the one who contends with Soldini for the title of Italy’s most famous sailor. Helmsman of Azzurra in ’83, strong racer (Finn school), has taken and takes part in all the most important offshore races in the world. Having him on board is a guarantee!

Vote people, vote!

We are only at the beginning. Vote, vote, vote. As a reminder, you can cast as many as 3 votes per voting stage for your favorites. You can give all 3 to the same person, to three different sailors, as you prefer. You will be asked to enter your email for voting authentication purposes. You can find the rules and all the dates for the TAG Heuer 2021 Sailor of the Year – Epic 30th Edition here.

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