José Maria Torcida Seghers (ESP) The current J-80 world champion is talent. He arrived in Alicante for the first round of the Audi MedCup with last year's (admittedly very good) TP52 design plus two new sails and a mostly amateur crew. Day one and Seghers' team onboard Tau Ceramica won both the opening races ahead of a glittering array of America's Cup talent and gadzillion dollar private entries. We love it!

André Budzien (GER) Sailing as defending Finn Masters World Champion, Budzien started this year's medal race discarding a 3rd place, counting four wins and a 2nd... in a fleet of 229 boats. That we feel makes this German Finniste thoroughly worthy of nomination. Given the huge fleets at all the best Masters events, is there a message in there somewhere about where dinghy sailing is going? Postcards please...