Who among them will be the 2016 Sailor of the Year? Discover their 25 badass stories

There were 100 of them, and by virtue of your votes, there are 25 left. Below you will find the “tough stories” of the “Magnificent 25” left in the race for Sailor of the Year, you chose them, and now your opinion will still matter.

The jury that will choose the five finalist candidates for the Sailor of the Year (by the way, you can meet them on Friday, May 6, at the VELAFestival in Santa Margherita, during the Evening of Champions, in which the winner will be revealed) will also take into account your preferences expressed during the third phase (March 31-April 14).

AMBROGIO BECCARIA BALDUZZI (Seaman)
Ambrose has an iron will: he went to retrieve a wrecked Mini 650 in Portugal, repaired it taking months of work in a shed in La Spezia and, aboard his creature, became the 2015 Italian Mini Series Champion.

GAIA BERGONZINI (Athlete)
Gaia is an athlete we will hear about: she won silver at the Women’s Optimist World Championship. But not only that, at the Italian Championships he lined up the boys by finishing on the highest step of the podium. Data in hand, she is the strongest optimist in Italy.

NICCOLO’ BERTOLA / JACOPO IZZO (Athletes)
Stepping down from the 470 for a moment, the two Air Force athletes indulged in a parenthesis on the Vaurien: in Sneekermeer, Holland, they gave the white taking home the rainbow title. Not bad for someone coming from another class!

ALESSANDRO CESARINI / DIANA ROGGE (Athletes)
Alessandro Cesarini and Diana Rogge also proved they have a way with catamarans: in Gargnano, on Lake Garda, the two Tarquinia-born men took silver at the European Under 21 Hobie Cat 26 Spi. There is an Italy that wins on multihulls. Chapeau.

STEFANO CHIAROTTI (Owner)
That the Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 is a competitive boat is now an established fact. Aboard Lunatika Stefano Chiarotti (pictured, left) was the undisputed star of the doubles racing season, winning the title of Italian Offshore X2 Champion after winning races such as the Giraglia x 2, the Roma x 2 and the Lunga Bolina. Not surprisingly, also third in the overall ranking!

DUCCIO COLOMBI (Athlete)
Every team needs a good team manager: those at Low Noise 2, Giuseppe Giuffré’s Italy 9.98, have found him in Duccio Colombi. Duccio led the crew to win two consecutive ORC World Championship titles. Not content, as tactician on the Cookson 50 Cippa Lippa won the 151 Miglia in ORC Overall.

GIULIA CONTI / FRANCESCA CLAPCICH (Athletes)
The two girls are coming off one of the greatest seasons in history as far as Italian Olympic classes are concerned. On the 49er FX, they made the “hat trick”: World, European and Italian titles. Who stops them anymore? By their own admission, they are going to Rio to win.

LUCA DOMENICI (Owner)
In 2015, the Italian J70 saw the exponential growth of the Notaro Team captained by Notaro’s Luca Domenici: a crowning season culminating with the European class title win in Monte Carlo, achieved ahead of another Italian crew: Franco Solerio’s L’elagain.

GIACOMO FERRARI / GIULIO CALABRO’ (Athletes)
Rome’s Giacomo Ferrari and Giulio Calabrò, both class of 1996, managed to finish third in the 470 Youth World Championship in Thessaloniki. The result, which passed slightly under the radar by virtue of the victory, among the females, of the aforementioned Di Salle-Dubbini, is actually worth a great deal, considering the technical level of the Olympic doubles. We will hear more about them.

EDOARDO FERRARO / FRANCESCO ORLANDO (Athletes)
At the 420 Under-17 World Championship in Castle Bay Karatsu, Japan, Edoardo Ferraro and Francesco Orlando took victory. A great result for the young San Remo couple (regulars in the upper reaches of the rankings), achieved with an impressive 21 points ahead of the seconds. Looking forward, they can really be a bet for a possible Olympic double. About Edward’s sister, we tell you-about her below!

ALESSANDRO FORNASARI (Athlete)
Yet another athlete protagonists of an excellent 2015: Alessandro Fornasari took silver at the European Under 18 Championships in the Laser 4.7 class. Even on the most famous single in the world, we have all the credentials to be well represented in the future!

GIANIN VI (Hallberg-Rassy 41 – Boat)
Can an old Hallberg-Rassy 41 from 1976 (you read that right, 40 years old!) win the Giraglia Rolex Cup for the second time? The answer is yes: Pietro “Ciccio” Supparo, owner of Gianin VI, which won in both 2011 and 2015, succeeded. This means two things: great crew and timeless boat

PAOLO GIARGIA (Athlete)
Ligurian Paolo Giargia helped replenish the already rich medal haul obtained by Italian athletes in the season just past: his was bronze at the EUROSAF U19 European Championships for the Laser Radial class.

ROBERTO LACORTE (Owner)
Roberto Lacorte had the new Vismara Mills 62 SuperNikka built with one goal in mind: to win as much as possible while being at the helm. And indeed he succeeded: in 2015 he triumphed at the Mini Maxi World Championship in Porto Cervo. First, however, he took the satisfaction of winning the regatta he designed, the 151 Mile. An enlightened owner who is giving so much to sailing in Italy.

LOW NOISE II (Italy 9.98 – Boat)
What a boat Low Noise II! The Italia 9.98 fruit of Matteo Polli’s pencil (owner Giuseppe Giuffré, tactician Duccio Colombi) won the Offshore Worlds in Barcelona in ORC C. The design has been so successful that, from a one-off boat, it has practically gone mass-produced with orders from all over the world.

SALVATORE MANTACI (Seaman)
We were literally inundated with emails supporting his candidacy. Salvatore Mantaci, a Sicilian transplanted to Milan, resigned from the company where he worked and set sail from Genoa for the solo Atlantic crossing in August 2015, after a long and demanding period of repairs and optimizations that he personally made to make his sailboat fit for what lay ahead. The name of his beloved is, or rather was, Tarabaralla (a 34-foot CBS Serenity ’78): unfortunately, Salvatore was shipwrecked in the Ocean, but this has only increased his popularity: you can follow him on the blog http://oceanotarabaralla.blogspot.it

GIANCARLO PEDOTE (Seaman)
Wherever he goes, he wins. Giancarlo Pedote is probably the strongest ocean sailor we have in Italy: in 2015, the FFV (the French sailing federation) awarded him and Erwan Le Roux, his partner on the Multi 50 trimaran FenetrèA-Prysmian, the prestigious 2015 Trophée des Champions following their important achievements during the year: winning the Transat Jacques Vabre, the very tough race from Le Havre (France) to Itajaì (Brazil) and all the other Multi 50 races on the calendar.

MARCELLO PERSICO (Designer)
Persico is synonymous with excellence. Internationally recognized, especially after the miraculous repair work on Team Vestas after the Volvo Ocean Race incident. Marcello Persico is head of the Nembro (Bergamo) shipyard, which is currently the most important “hi-tech” entity in Italian sailing. This is where the most cutting-edge boats are churned out, and this is where the new VO65s will be produced ahead of VOR 2018.

MATTEO PILATI / FRANCESCO RUBAGOTTI (Athletes)
Matteo Pilati and Francesco Rubagotti embody a new generation of sailors: the “flying” ones, thanks to foils: in fact, they triumphed at the 2015 Redbull Foiling Generation Italia in Malcesine (Verona, Italy) race on Flying Phantoms. They thus qualified for the world finals of the event to be held this year.

RICCARDO SEPE (Athlete)
Lazio-bred optimist Riccardo Sepe achieved many good results in 2015. But the most resounding is the Garda Optimist Meeting victory, already a 2012 Guinness World Record for the number of participants, which in 2015 had the participation of 29 nations and 863 young sailors (187 cadets and 676 juniors).

SUPERNIKKA (Vismara Mills 62 – Boat)
A super owner like Roberto Lacorte could only “ride” a super boat: the Vismara Mills 62 SuperNikka won the 2015 World Mini Maxi and the 151 Miglia.

ROBERTO TOMASINI GRINOVER (Owner)
Our 2015 Sailor of the Year ended the season on a high note by winning the Barcolana. And now Robertissima is retiring to make way for a new hyper-tech Maxi!

GIANLUIGI UGOLINI / MARIA GIUBILEI (Athletes)
Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei won bronze at the EUROSAF European SL16 catamarans in the season that just ended.

VASCO VASCOTTO (Athlete)
In 2015 World Champion, ORCi (Enfant Terrible), TP52 and 52 Super Series as tactician of Azzurra, with 25 Worlds in his career he is the world’s most titled sailor. By a whisker he is “only” Maxi 72 World Vice-Champion on Robertissima. The strongest one is him!

FILIPPO VINCIS (Athlete)
The Italian O’pen BIC has found in Filippo Vincis a masterful performer: in 2015 he won silver at the European Under 16.

HOW THE 2016 SAILOR OF THE YEAR VOTING WORKS
On Friday, May 6, at 7 p.m., the Sailor of the Year award ceremony will take place at the VELAFestival in Santa Margherita Ligure (Genoa) during the Evening of Champions. But how does one come to award the most prestigious prize in Italian sailing? With a long and “hard” online selection process where your input is crucial. We explain it in detail, step by step.

– FIRST STAGE (WINNING VOTE – CONCLUDED) – FROM 100 to 52 CANDIDATES.
– 100 CANDIDATES to vote online on our website from Jan. 29 (from 1 p.m.) to Feb. 16 (closing at 12 p.m.)
– 20 CANDIDATES INDICATED BY YOU (you can send us names and motivation from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4 to email speciali@panamaeditore.it) voted online on our website from Feb. 5 (from 1 p.m.) to Feb. 16 (close at 12 p.m.)
– The 50 most voted and the 2 most voted among those indicated by you pass the round
– SECOND STAGE (WINNING VOTE – CONCLUDED) – 52 to 25 CANDIDATES.
– 52 CANDIDATES to vote online from March 4 (from 1 p.m.) to March 15 (closing at 12 noon)
– The 25 highest vote-getters pass the round
– THIRD STAGE (CONSULTATIVE VOTE) – 25 to 5 CANDIDATES.
– 25 CANDIDATES to be voted for online from March 31 (from 1 p.m.) to April 15 (closing time 12 noon). The online public vote has advisory value: taking into account your preferences, a jury selects the 5 who pass the round
– FOURTH PHASE – CHOOSING THE SAILOR OF THE YEAR (AND OTHER AWARDS)
-THE 5 CANDIDATES make up the shortlist of “papabili” for Sailor of the Year. These will compete, based on the jury’s decisions, for the Sailor of the Year award and the others: TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year “Passion,” TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year “Innovation,” TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year “Performance,” and TAG Heuer Sailor of the Year “Young.” Each of the winners will be awarded a TAG Heuer Aquaracer Calibre 5 high-precision waterproof chronograph (pictured opposite), capable of withstanding depths of up to 300 meters. Who the winners are you will only know on the evening of May 6 in Santa Margherita. You are all invited!

For any information regarding the Sailor of the Year, please write to us at speciali@panamaeditore.it

FIND OUT WHAT IS SAILOR OF THE YEAR

AT THIS LINK FIND OUT IN DETAIL THE SECOND ROUND OF VOTING OF THE MAGNIFICENT “52”

AT THIS LINK FIND OUT IN DETAIL THE FIRST ROUND OF VOTING FOR THE MAGNIFICENT “100”

DISCOVER ALL 100 INITIAL CANDIDATES FOR SAILOR OF THE YEAR, FROM A TO Z

FIND OUT THE STORIES OF THE “CHOSEN BY YOU” NOMINEES AND THE REASONS FOR THE NOMINATIONS