2014

Cammas is currently lending a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘on a roll’. Having polished off the last Volvo Ocean Race Cammas has been doing the same in any number of other competitive arenas. He simply destroyed even his best-prepared rivals at this year’s Little America’s Cup in Falmouth and then immediately travelled to La Rochelle where he handily won the Nacra 17 Class at La Rochelle Olympic Week

Attention to detail was a major contributing factor when Bora Gulari won his second Moth world title in Hawaii last month… that and some brilliantly consistent sailing in challenging tactical conditions. Gulari was so determined to ensure every element of his Mach 2 Moth was as low drag as was humanly possible that he bought a 3D printer in order to make a multitude of slinky micro fairings

Another titan of the sport. When the Star was dropped from the line-up for Rio later he and Bruno Prada won the debut Star Sailors’2016 Scheidt quietly got back in his Laser, scoring well at regional events. Then at the age of 40 Scheidt travelled to Muscat for the world championship, which he led from early on before closing the deal in a highly pressured final race. Two weeks League in Nassau. Incredible

The Australian owner of the super-successful maxi Wild Oats clearly has no intention of slowing down as he gains in ‘maturity’. Although he no longer sails onboard for longer races, Oatley is the driving force behind one of the world’s most aggressive sailboat development programmes. Wild Oats does boast a veritable quiver of appendages but the overall effect is clearly successful. And now there is an America’s Cup campaign

Competing against one of the toughest fleets on record and with no room for mistakes following a race retirement with a rudder failure, Ashby secured his eighth A-Class world title in Takapuna in February... to bring to 15 his total of world championship victories in multihulls. No wonder Grant Dalton was rather keen to re-sign the prodigiously successful Aussie to his very Kiwi Cup team

How great was it to see the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallists and former Star world champions back in action together at this year’s Bacardi Cup in Miami? And the old magic is still there, as two of the most helpful and popular sailors on the planet slid into the runner-up slot ahead of the likes of five-time Olympic medallist Torben Grael, now sailing with Guilherme Almeida

With several America’s Cup teams now taking part, the level of competition in the Extreme Sailing Series has never been higher. And yet after the first two regattas of 2014 defending champion McMillan at the helm of The Wave Muscat had picked up where he left off... Just. With nearly 60 races sailed over 8 days, The Wave was sitting just 1pt in front of Alinghi and 3pt ahead of Emirates TNZ

Two young tigers indeed… in winning the Transat AG2R Gahinet and Meilhat defeated many of the very biggest names in French offshore sailing including the biggest name of all, Michel Desjoyeaux. There was very little subtle about this victory, the fast pair claiming simply ‘to have sailed like hell and pushed at full throttle from start to finish… That is the only way to race, n’est çe pas?’

Two good reasons for this nomination: one topical, one more long term. Long term is that while DeVos has tirelessly supported sailing through some tough times, with backing for events like Key West, he has also been one of the three people underwriting the TP52 Class that is making such a go of it in the Super Series. The more topical reason is that DeVos has just taken yet another world title in the TP52 Class... only fair, some would say

Winning the Quarter Ton Cup yet again was pretty good, then going on to win the Half Ton Classics two weeks later was even better. However, Morty was really nominated for the amazing job that he (and his wife) have done in resurrecting Ton Cup sailing with 33 immaculate and well-prepared Quarter Tonners on the line this year, on the 10th anniversary of the first of these spectacular revivalist regattas

Not quite out of left field, but this rapid Italian owner-driver had been off the major sailing scene for some 25 years as he built his business empire. Now with a little more time on his hands he is cleaning up in the Melges 32 class in Europe (with the irrepressible Vasco Vascotto at his shoulder) and is also doing a thoroughly good job in the Mini Maxi class having purchased the former Rán 72 from Niklas Zennström

Often the bridesmaid... Finally in Porto Cervo in September Andre Soriano’s Mills-designed IRC 72-footer Alegre captured its first Mini Maxi world title. Mark Mills designs have actually had a terrific time of it during 2014, winning numerous big races around the world. But a Maxi world championship does not come easily, particularly when as a designer you find yourself competing against larger and very often more heavily-resourced professional rivals