2024

A brilliant dinghy sailor with 505 titles as both helm and crew, great offshore racer, crewed, two-handed, the lot. Along with husband Stan (that one) Sally also has 40,000-odd cruising miles under the belt. But more important are her tireless efforts to promote safety at sea. The author of authorative works on the subject, Honey has sat on numerous safety committees. She is the current Chairperson of the World Sailing Special Regulations Committee

Legend. One of the greatest natural talents the sport has ever seen, in October Warren (aged 88) and grandson William Carroll won the 2023 Shoreham SC Merlin Rocket trophy. This development class will forever be his ‘home turf’ with too many titles to count. Further afield he is equally admired for the Olympic silver medal he won in 1972 with David Hunt in the Tempest... as for setting fire to the same boat after she had gone soggy beyond repair at the 1976 Games in Canada

It’s just a great story, isn’t it? ‘Successful Italian whose business revolves around communication seeks international platform offering excitement, profile, opportunity to share the fun...and not harm the wildlife along the way.’ As he co-skippers one Swan 65 around the world in the Ocean Globe Race a second 65 is ploughing the waters of San Francisco Bay sharing the love with clients, suppliers, employees, their families and friends. Cracking sport this, isn’t it?

This guy is really, really good and deserves recognition far beyond the coast of his native Uruguay. Compared to his friend and runner-up Carlos Manera, Waksman was racing a much older Raison design and constantly battling with a lack of preparation time brought about by his endless struggle for funding. That did not end with his Mini Transat victory, and Waksman was soon heading to the airport to fly home and start to earn some money again to pay his debts

And bang... we seem to have a new international superstar. Although the Global Solo Challenge is ‘just’ one of the many Corinthian round the world events popping up now on a regular basis, and even though the GSC only rose to wider public consciousness in its final few weeks, in just that brief window, in terms of social media US skipper Brauer quickly eclipsed high-profile French ‘rival’ Clarisse Crémer... Too late for this Vendée Globe, but the next one should be a shoe-in

Other teams had setbacks, none more so than Italy’s Translated 9, the team frequently leading in IRC but twice succumbing to failures that caused unsustainable ‘ingress of water’, also known as sinking. Marie Tabarly has worked so hard for this, her campaign run completely in the image of her father, never taking the easy option, racing a huge, heavy 50-year-old rolly-polly Maxi, recruiting and patiently training up a new young crew and then winning the damn thing. Marvellous!

No sooner had last month’s winner glided gently into Cowes to take line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, than all eyes went to the tracker to monitor Heather Thomas’s crew on Tracy Edwards’ original 1989 Whitbread racer Maiden – who could still snatch the overall handicap prize under IRC. Well, they could and they did after keeping their foot in the whole way round the world while bringing on yet another great new group of now highly experienced women ocean racers

Stanford University sailing team’s Lahrkamp is racking them up. The first and only freshman to win Women’s Sailor of the Year, first freshman to win the Open Fleet US Nationals, back-to-back Women’s Nationals and an eight-time All American, three times in the mixed fleet and five in the women’s category. If only US College sailing exposed these great talents to a few more modern classes… that would put USA back into those Olympic headlines

Last season the nascent Spanish SailGP team finished stone-last. This year they ended the 2024 SailGP season at the top of the rankings. Think back over not just the dominance we have seen by Tom Slingsby’s Australians and Pete Burling’s Kiwis, but also how long they have maintained that edge. It was not a bad weekend for Spanish sport’s fans, ticking off the Men’s Wimbledon title, the European Football Cup and the SailGP Trophy all in the space of three or four days

Another US young gun rising quickly through the ranks. Racing with his twin brother Mitchell Callahan recently won the 2024 Snipe Junior World Championship before returning to Harvard to resume his studies, as well as racing in Etchells and J/70s. In fact, Callahan only dips into the Snipe class a few times each year, making this result all the more impressive. Early mentors include Augie Diaz – which speaks well of the young man! A busy college sailing season now beckons

They say persistence is usually rewarded; well, British TP52 skipper Tony Langley has certainly been persistent. A supporter of the TP52 Super Series going right back to the days of the Med Cup, Langley maintains a stock of 52s on two continents to avoid wasting time with all that shipping bother. With a change of boat this year and a re-energised team Langley’s Gladiators have pretty much swept all before them on the TP circuit, also cleaning up very enjoyably at Cowes Week

The confusion sown by World Sailing with a land grab of ‘new’ offshore championships did not help the ‘Offshore Mixed Doubles Championship’ to gain traction. However, sailed in one-designs in Channel and North Atlantic waters this was nothing like their balmy Med ‘championships’ of the past. Real racing, real competition and some really real racing conditions. And these two went and bloody won the whole thing!!!