2025

Two months in a row and so we feel obliged to nominate another double-bubble. Following on from the nomination of Jeremy Wilmot last month (who is indeed of the same Aussie dynasty… apols, Jez) for taking the Melges 24 and J/70 Worlds within a single fortnight, so young Travis… having finally achieved a life goal of winning a J/24 World Championship after 15 years of trying, a little more than three weeks later and he had also locked down the J/22 world title

Every now and then it’s time for a special shout-out to the crews. Pedro it was sitting in the front of the Star boat in which he and Paul Cayard won the latest South American Star title in Buenos Aires. Having not sailed together for more than five years, the renewed pairing clicked almost immediately and so were able to focus on developing speed in their borrowed boat while also taking maximum advantage of Trouche’s local knowledge of the tricky waters off Olivos

Wowza... sometimes a sailor puts in a performance way beyond what even their biggest fans dared to hope for. We knew Justine as an outstanding racer but her VG performance was fantastic. Throughout the race mixing it with more experienced Imoca sailors in the peleton trailing the 3 distant frontrunners, before finishing 8th to split Thomas Ruyant (7th) and Sam Goodchild (9th). Yes, they both had major sail damage, but so did the brilliant Swiss skipper; early in the race too

Five places ahead of Jingkun Xu, six days shy of her 24th birthday, Dorange becomes the youngest VG finisher, beating previous record holder Alan Roura who took the record off Ellen MacArthur. Two years ahead of the race Jean Le Cam took Dorange under his wing, which says plenty about her ambition and work rate; King Jean does not devote his time lightly. And we also have a new Olympian of social media, over one million fans hanging on Violette’s every update

We could not nominate his Star boat skipper as well, because the great Pole Mateusz Kusznierewicz has won before. However, what these two have achieved, winning the ultra competitive Bacardi Cup six times in a row, is a feat that is unlikely ever to be repeated however long this great class may endure. Of course six Bacardi wins barely rates a mention in the roll of honour of this great Brazilian sailor – add in his five world titles and you still have a couple of pages to go