Poll Photos of 2013, wire-to-wire victory for the legendary J Class!

Onne van der Wal is the author of the photo that captures as many as five J Classes racing and which you voted for the most in our 2013 Photo of the Year poll! It was a real back-and-forth between the Dutch photographer and Jen Edney, who surprised a sleepy Michele Sighel aboard the Vor 70 Maserati while sailing from Honolulu, Hawaii, to the Philippines . Third Alexis Courcoux aboard Eilean, the beautiful 1937 vintage boat.

WHO IS ONNE VAN DER WAL
Born in the Netherlands, he discovered photography after working as a fisherman. For more than two decades, he has been traveling the seas around the world, with a focus on the racing world. Today he lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, with his wife Tenley and their three sons, Read, Billy and Adrian.

WHAT WERE THE PHOTOS CHOSEN FOR OUR SURVEY

Every year at this time, the“Yacht Racing Image of the Year” photo contest rages on the web.” (sponsored by Mirabaud & Cie), in which a jury of experts chooses, as the name of the event implies, the best yachting sports photography of the year. In anticipation of the award ceremony, which will take place in December in Goteburg, we have selected fourteen of the participating images, which for one reason or another (quality, emotion, importance of the moment) really struck us. And now it’s your turn! Which one do you prefer? Are you more of the long ocean sailing type or do you “dope” on adrenaline like the “superheroes” of the America’s Cup? The challenge is open!

PHOTO 1. Author Chris Schmid. The Swiss photographer followed the Swiss maxi trimaran Spindrift 2, which he captured here at sunset during a training session off the coast of Brittany, France, before a successful attempt to break the course record on the Cadiz-San Salvador route.

PHOTO 2. Author Patrick Eden. Pure excitement in front of the Needles on the Isle of Wight during the JP Morgan Round The Island Race.

PHOTO 3. Author Onne van der Wal. So many J Classes, as many as five, on the starting line of a regatta had never been seen. It happened at the St. Barth’s Bucket Regatta.

PHOTO 4. Author Guillaume Grange. It is our Giancarlo Pedote that man peeking out from behind the wave, aboard his Prysmian, in training in Douarnenez before setting sail for the Mini Transat.

PHOTO 5. Autor Abner Kingman. Here it is, the key moment of the last America’s Cup. Team New Zealand is in danger of capsizing, and Oracle pulls it over windward. A moment that undermines New Zealand’s certainties. The Americans’ ride to victory begins here.

PHOTO 6. Author Ian Roman. In Palma de Mallorca it was a great challenge between the J Classes, immortalized here aboard Velsheda in the thick of the race against Rainbow, who can be seen on the left in the photo.

PHOTO 7. Author Alfred Farré. They are not yet champions, maybe they will become champions, but the grit is already there. Young participants in the 24th International Trophy Palamòs Vila in Girona, Spain, are not sparing themselves “full-bore” crossings.

PHOTO 8. Author Jen Edney. Michele Sighel sleepy while eating breakfast before starting her fourth aboard the Vor 70 Maserati while sailing from Honolulu, Hawaii, to the Philippines.

PHOTO 9. Author Pedro Martinez. Roman Konstantinov works on the bow of GAZPROM 2 during the RC44 Cascais Cup.

PHOTO 10. Author Cristophe Favreau. All the power and speed of skiffs for the three athletes aboard their 18-footers. Immortalized during the Bridge to Bridge race, just right between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay.

PHOTO 11. Author Alexis Courcoux. Aboard Eilean, the beautiful 1937 dìepoca boat, in a dreamlike atmosphere during a transfer from Sicily to Barcelona.

PHOTO 12. Author Eloi Stichelbaut. Magical morning light welcomes participants to the starting line of the Tour Di Bretagne, during the first stage Paimpol-Perros-Guirrec.

PHOTO 13. Author Loris Von Siebenthal. Team Tlt treats itself to a moment of relaxation (and spectacle) during the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup on Lake Geneva.

PHOTO 14. Author Mark Lloyd. A play on reflections, on the skyscrapers of Singapore, during the second act of the Extreme Sailing Series 2013 circuit. The reflected sails are those of Realteam and Alinghi.