Ambrogio Beccaria is the 2020 TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year!

Sailing Oscar winners unveiled: Ambrogio Beccaria is TAG Heuer 2020 Sailor of the Year. Awards given to Patrizio Bertelli, the “boss” of Luna Rossa, and Marco Gradoni, Italy’s strongest young sailor ever

The Milanese sailor who dared to beat the greatest French sailors wins the most prestigious award in Italian sailing. Italian sailing finally paying proper tribute to Patrizio Bertelli, owner of Luna Rossa, the most famous Italian boat in history trying to win the mythical America’s Cup race. Other awardees included Elio Somaschini, who travels the world by routing with his hands, and Marco Gradoni, the 16-year-old Italian who could win an Olympics. An award also goes to the 80 polytechnic students who built a 75 percent recyclable boat themselves.

He is Ambrose Beccaria, 29, from Milan, the 2020 TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year. For the second consecutive time, he wins the most prestigious award in Italian sailing (organized since 1991 by the historic magazine Il Giornale della Vela): he is the strongest sailor of the moment, the heir to Giovanni Soldini. He won the Mini Transat, the challenging solo transatlantic from France to the Caribbean on 6.50-meter microboats, the first Italian to do so, in defiance of the French. “Winning the second time? It was like experiencing déjà-vu” he said during the Evening of Champions, broadcast on Saturday, June 6 on all web and social channels of the Sailing Newspaper. “The Mini Transat already belongs to the past, now my new adventures begin.”

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Patrizio Bertelli, patron of Luna Rossa and CEO of Prada, received the lifetime achievement award Tribute: “This award I think should be given to Luna Rossa’s extended team, made up of all the people who have been working on it, for the last 20 years. They are my friends, they are the sailors who sail with me. We are a team within a team. We recognize each other from afar. And I dedicate the award to my wife Miuccia, who has always supported and spurred me on in our America’s Cup adventure.”

THE OTHER AWARDEES

Marco Gradoni, 17, a three-time World Champion in the Optimist youth class, the first in the history of world sailing to do so, won the TAG Heuer Young award, reserved for young sailing talent.

Fabrizio Olmi and Davide Di Maria, disabled sailors who won the RS Venture World Championship, won the TAG Heuer #don’tcrackunderpressure, awarded to those who can overcome any difficulty, even if it seems insurmountable. The TAG Heuer Performance award went to Elio Somaschini who traveled the world for 20 years on a boat, using only his hands and a watch to navigate the immensity of the ocean.

To the team of 82 boys from the PoliTo Sailing Team from the Polytechnic University of Turin, who won the 1001VELA Cup with a boat they built 75 percent from recyclable materials, went the prize TAG Heuer Innovation, reserved for those who have made a special contribution in the world of design and innovation.

The public’s top vote-getter in the two-stage online voting, with 11,054 votes, was Andrea Barbera, who circumnavigated Sicily on a small 5-meter uninhabitable catamaran: to him the TAG Heuer Most Voted award.

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The special award TAG Heuer Passion, dedicated to those who have made sailing their successful profession without ever losing their passion, went to Francesca Clapcich, a former Olympic sailor with ocean experience who is now working hard to put together an all-female team for the next round-the-world race.

AND TOMORROW THE WINNERS WILL BE AT YOUR DISPOSAL!
Tomorrow, at 9 p.m., you will be able to meet and ask questions live to all the winners of the TAG Heuer 2020 Sailor of the Year: live on the Sailing Newspaper facebook page and on our Youtube channel, the “after-festival” of the Sailor of the Year will be staged! The party is not over yet!

At this link you can review the EVENING OF CHAMPIONS:

ITALY’S MOST WATCHED SAILING EVENT
TAG Heuer’s Sailor of the Year, in its unprecedented online guise, was the most-watched sailing event in Italy boomed. The interviews with the ten finalists and the Evening of Champions were watched by a total audience of 1.2 million. There were 78,000 public votes on the website velistadell’anno.giornaledellavela.com, by which the ten finalists were decided among the initial hundred candidates.

DID YOU MISS THE PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS OF SAILOR OF THE YEAR? YOU CAN FIND THEM ALL HERE:

WATCH THE TENTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH POLITO SAILING TEAM

WATCH THE NINTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH AMBROSE BECCARIA

WATCH THE EIGHTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA BARBERA

WATCH THE SEVENTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH CRICKETS / BELLOT

WATCH THE SIXTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH SERGIO CARAMEL

WATCH THE FIFTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH OLMI / DI MARIA

WATCH THE FOURTH EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH ELIO SOMASCHINI

WATCH THE THIRD EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH PATRIZIO BERTELLI

WATCH THE SECOND EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH DEGLI UBERTI / ANCILLOTTI

WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE HERE – INTERVIEW WITH MARCO GRADONI

WATCH THE INTRODUCTORY EPISODE OF THE TAG HEUER SAILOR OF THE YEAR HERE

DISCOVER THE FULL SCHEDULE

How to Follow the 2020 TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year

The Sailor of the Year is organized by Giornale della Vela (a leading Italian sailing magazine since 1975) with naming partner TAG Heuer, a well-known Swiss precision watch brand, and in collaboration with B&G.

You will be able to follow it from Tuesday, May 26, to Sunday, June 7 (except for the Evening of Champions on June 6, at 9 p.m. and the live broadcast with the winners on June 7, at 9 p.m.). All bets will of course remain available to you, on all our platforms!

• On the
  Sailing Newspaper
  
• On the
  Sailor of the Year 2020
  
• On
  Sailing Newspaper’s Instagram TV
  
• On
  Sailing Newspaper Facebook page
  

YOU CAN HAVE THE SAILOR OF THE YEAR WATCH, TOO! CLICK ON THE BANNER BELOW

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