Sailor of the Year 2025, heading toward the “mark” of 10,000 votes. Who’s winning and how to vote

The Velista of the Year Special Edition 50th Anniversary GdV is gaining great support from the public again this year with a huge amount of votes recorded by our website dedicated to the award.

Sailor of the Year 2025, more than 6,000 votes in 24 hours

With 4 days to go before online voting opens – by which you decide the finalists of the most coveted award in Italian sailing: there is time until May 10 – 8,900 preferences have been registered to the 50 2025 candidates in the running for the five categories Sailor of the Year Absolute, VdA Passion, VdA Owner, VdA Young, and VdA Innovation. With an average pace that will soon put us over 10,000 votes. This is thanks to the tam tam on social media and the support of the people of the web, which is also unfailing in this 2025.

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We tell you how the voting is going. Those who have already caught the breakaway, those who are struggling, those who are still “sly.” Also because anything can happen, between now and May 10: we remind you that, according to the rules, the 5 most voted sailors in each category will pass to the final stage. Among them, the jury of the Giornale della Vela will decide the winners of the Oscars of Italian sailing.

Sailor of the Year Absolute. CONTI/PORRO try the breakaway

Taking the lead in the provisional rankings are the pair of “terrible girls” who won, as helmsmen of the AC 40 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the Women America’s Cup: Giulia Conti and Margherita Porro have surpassed 600 votes and lead the rankings. That “Giulia trust me” from Margherita in the voices from aboard in the maneuver has stuck in the mind.

The feat that earned them the nomination is no small affair: after 1,492 nautical miles and more than nine days of non-stop racing aboard a Figaro 3, Farci and Mureddu took first place in the longest regatta in the Mediterranean, the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce: and, judging by the votes, even the heart of the community following them, they are now in second place.

In third place Marta Maggetti, gave us an Olympic gold medal in Marseille on the iQFOiL flying boards (confirming herself as the true heir to Alessandra Sensini, four-time Sailor of the Year), Giulia Conti and Margherita Porro the women’s America’s Cup victory, at the helm of the AC 40 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

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Sailor of the Year Passion. Vaurien loaded, Pitter and Bernardinelli at the top

In the Sailor of the Year Passion category (award for those who have shown passion for sailing to sell and to pass on. In cruising, in racing) there is a head-to-head contest. The protagonists are Francesco Graziani and Marta Delli, propelled by the Vaurien community, the legendary dinghy that has raised generations of sailors and still gathers enthusiasts from all over (by the way, it will be featured at the VELA Cup and the big sailing party on May 24 in Cala de’ Medici, where we will unveil the Sailors of the Year).

The two, very strong and passionate sailors aged 57 and 54, dominated on Lake Liptov in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains between Slovakia and Poland at the World Class Championship.

They are up against Giorgio Pitter, the owner who refitted an icon of the “old” IOR, the Phantom (C&C 66 designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian in 1973), turning it into a school boat for a team of young up-and-coming sailors, flanked by an experienced portion of the crew who will help them grow in the world of sailing by bringing them closer to the world of racing; and Guido Bernardinelli, winner of the H-Boat World Championship and a passionate owner who jumps on his Swan 55 Alegher as soon as he can.

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Young Sailor of the Year. Here come the surprises

It’s pure tussle in the Young Sailor of the Year category (an award dedicated to the best young talent in Italian sailing).

Giulia Lusini (2008) and Camilla Parrinelli (2010), from Follonica, who in 2024 They won the Rs Feva World Championships in the Netherlands Women’s category, also taking second place at the Autumn Meeting in Riva del Garda and the title the Italian U17, took the lead in the Young category.

They are followed closely, almost side by side, by the pair Lorenzo Sirena and Alice Dessy, who won the world youth title in the Nacra 15 class, and the young Bianca Marchesini, spearhead of the Italian Optimist.

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Sailor of the Year Owner. Change at the top

In first place now is Riccardo De Michele (At the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Portocervo, in which he has participated for so many editions, in the Maxi 4 category, with the Vallicelli 80 H2O De Michele achieved his sixth victory in this prestigious event).

Ariella Cattai is second, a nuclear physicist from CERN, owner of the Bermudian sloop Crivizza, Classic Marconi Category, a regular at Classic Boat regattas, won the International Mediterranean Championship, also winning the Tirrenia Challenge, a prize intended for the hull that, in 2024, traveled the most miles to reach all the championship race courses: more than 3,000, in this case.

Third place for Sofia Giondi (the young girl from Forlì, a past in 420s and 470s, is the new face in the one-design world and has been racing at a high level in J/70s and also in RS 21s for a couple of years now. In 2024 the exploit with her victory in the J/70 European Championship in Cala Galera). But watch out for Alessandra Angelini, close to the podium.

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Sailor of the Year Innovation. Top 3: Semeraro, Bianchi, Botter

The games are also more than open in the Sailor of the Year Innovation category, where Italian sailing planners, designers, and innovators are competing. In the lead, for now, is Paolo Semeraro.

His Neo were a gamble when they were born but now they have become an international reality. Boats made in Italy, built in carbon, with hulls designed to redefine even the canons of cruising, and that entertain crews in regattas. Winning bet.

But watch out, behind him is engineer Max Bianchi: you may not know his name (or maybe you do, given the amount of votes he has received so far), but this gangly 84-year-old gentleman revolutionized, exactly 50 years ago, the world of sailing. He invented the swivel-bladed propeller-not coincidentally his propellers are called Max Prop-that made sailing easier for everyone. And, to this day, he is not tired of experimenting, innovating, looking ahead. Spoiler: a new Max Prop is coming that promises to be revolutionary…

In third place now is Luca Botter: His Maxi Dolphin boatyard is an excellence that has built some of the most beautiful boats of the moment.

Who will win? It is still too early to tell.

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Keep voting (and see you on May 24)

You have met the stories of the protagonists of the current Sailor of the Year, many we will tell you in the coming days. In the meantime, keep voting! And remember that on Saturday, May 24 at Marina Cala de’ Medici, at GdV’s big 50th anniversary sailing party, all the winners will be revealed. Starting at 8 p.m. All invited!

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