2018

What is there left to say about someone who has won every single major ocean race that he has entered to date, including the previous TJV, the Route du Rhum and the 2012 Vendée Globe. On his current solo round-the-world record attempt Gabart passed the Cape of Good Hope on his 100ft Ultim Macifmore than one hour more quickly than the 140ft Banque Pop V managed with 14 crew onboard during her successful Jules Verne run

The popular German slipped into 2nd place in the Mini Transat when it mattered, just a day out from the finish. No one was going to catch winner Ian Lipinski; ‘best of the rest’ was all that was realistically on offer, but after years of under-funded Class40 and Imoca campaigns Riekers had at last landed in a fleet where he can demonstrate his talent. With a little good fortune maybe he can even leverage this result into something bigger (again)

Seventy three per cent of pupils at London’s Greig City Academy are categorised as ‘disadvantaged’ so when sixth form head Jon Holt started a sailing programme in 2013 it was a brave move. Last year Montel’s young crew completed the Fastnet Race on the IOR racer Scaramouche. To get there Montel had delivered more than 50 fundraising talks… receiving support and mentoring along the way from his own sailing hero Lawrie Smith

Back in Antigua after taking the line honours and handicap monohull double in the Caribbean 600 must have felt a long way from floating around, probably terrified, in the Irish Sea after his previous maxi capsized in the 2011 Fastnet. Many others would have been put off by that experience – Larry Ellison gave up ocean racing after the stormy 1998 Hobart – but David was back at sea within months and soon hard at it again

Long overdue… and not just because he’s recently given young Trevor Davis (son of) a well-deserved break by signing him up to his Etchells programme… nice touch, though. While racking up a seemingly non-stop stream of major trophies, going all the way back to before his 470 Olympic silver medal at LA in 1984, Benj has been giving to the sport in every area from ocean racing administration to junior programmes to grand prix regattas

Not being in the Artemis race crew last year must have lit some kind of a fire under the 2008 Laser gold medallist, who has won his third straight Moth world title (Moth, foiling monohull, AC75, just saying – ed). Runner-up this year was Luna Rossa tactician Francesco Bruni while last year on Lake Garda Goody topped what felt like half the Cup sailors from Bermuda. In that one it went Goodison, Burling, Jensen and Slingsby. Enough for you?

For a second time the World Masters drew a fleet of 350 Finns this year. The Masters circuit has been a phenomenal success story for which many people deserve praise, few more so than Gus Miller – this year’s winner in the Super Legends division. Having fought in Korea, shortly after leaving the Marines Miller just missed selection for the US Olympic wrestling team of 1956… then only switching to sailing to try for the Finn spot on the 1960 US Olympic team

Taking it for the team. Much as we’d like to put the whole lot of them up here we had to pick one member of Dongfeng who we feel sums up everything that is special about the winners of the 2017-18 Volvo Race and Chen ‘Horace’ Jinhao feels like a good fit. Dongfeng’s performance in the previous race was remarkable, from complete newbies to almost winning at their first attempt. Now they’ve pulled it off. And what an amazing result this is for the sport

For pedants: Olympian Carolijn Brouwer sailed all but one leg, more than any other of the talented and fast women sailors on Dongfeng and so becomes the first female racer to win the Volvo Race. An incredible achievement and it should only be an embarrassment for those in a position to act if the women who raced so hard through the Southern Ocean do not soon get some emails inviting them to try out for a good grand prix programme

Victory at the offshore worlds in The Hague was one of numerous successes for one of the most enthusiastic yacht racers on the planet. Kwok has supported many sailors through their careers and he has also been quick to back a new designer he feels worthy of support. Many established names in the yacht racing industry owe this quiet Hong Kong businessman a great deal. And straight after winning the worlds he rushed to Palma to win IRC1 at Copa del Rey. Irrepressible

As well as being a prolific offshore racer himself, Lawson has done more than his share of introducing new talent to ocean racing on his boats – including his Class40s and of course his MOD70 trimaran Concise. The most recent example was the loan of his Class40 Concise 8 to a young team in the Round Britain Race, led by skipper Jack Trigger, who went on to finish 2nd in class just six hours behind the immensely experienced Phil Sharp

Oakcliff Sailing, with its 100+ boat fleet, wide ranging programmes that teach youngsters about life as well as sailing and a team of world-class sailors like Dave Perry led by Whitbread and AC veteran Dawn Riley, is now a worldwide benchmark. But while it is now largely self-funding Oakcliff Sailing Center only exists because of the foresight and financial backing of Hunt and Betsy Lawrence when the story first began back in 2010