Stuart Jardine (GBR) 75 years young, in August this former Olympic sailor and tireless supporter of sailing at all levels won the fiercely -contested Cowes Week XOD title for a record 7th time. Jardine sealed his 2008 series with a blazing 3rd in a windy and carnage-strewn final race from a fleet of 81 entries, including champions past and present (among them recent XOD recruit and Laser Radial World Champion Ben Paton)

Terry Hutchinson (USA) OK, so we know we’re maybe a little biased with this one but... It wasn’t the way that Terry took his new TP52 team steadily up through the rankings to win in Cagliari. Nor was it the follow-up win in Palma. But when he stepped onto the Desafio Espanol TP52 for Copa del Rey and cleaned up there as well, with a different team (and a different sailmaker!), well then we thought that such work needs to be recognised...