| January |
| Winner: | TOM KNEEN (GBR) |
 | Well, that wasn’t very
funny… Tom Kneen and his
Plymouth team on their JPK
1180 Sunrise did a terrific job
winning the Fastnet this year,
with the bonus of breaking away from the
fleet in light air on the way to Cherbourg
and finishing 10 hours ahead of their
nearest class rival, joy of joys. They did a
nice job winning the Middle Sea Race too,
or they thought they had. After that, well, a
bunch of novice boys scouts would have
made a better fist of sorting out the results
|
| February |
| Winner: | STUART BITHELL (GBR) |
 | The GBR 49er sailed by Bithell
and helm Dylan Fletcher
snatched 2020 gold out from
under the noses of huge
pre-event favourites Burling
and Tuke by successfully pulling off a most
unlikely gybe in the final inches of the last
race, filling a spinnaker that should never
have filled in time let alone started to pull.
A passionate supporter of national as well
as Olympic-level dinghy sailing, 470 silver
at London 2012 and gold in Japan. A nice
way to bookend an outstanding career
|
| March |
| Winner: | DOMINIQUE KNUPPEL (URU) |
 | Like father like daughter.
Dominique Knuppel is
another Tokyo 2020 athlete
with family history, father
Bernd racing at the Olympic regatta in
both Seoul 1988 and LA in 1984. Knuppel
is not nominated for her relatively modest
finish in Enoshima, 18th in the Nacra 17s,
but for the enormous amount of work she
puts in at home in Uruguay encouraging
and supporting young sailors new to the
sport. Montevideo’s recruitment dynamo…
|
| April |
| Winner: | HUGO DAVIES (NZL) |
 | What hope is there for the
rest of us? Is it something
in the Kiwi drinking water?
Team Davies, the old boy on
the wire and 10-year-old
Hugo on the stick, waltzed their way to this
year’s Cherub title in New Zealand, ending
the 10-race series with a perfect score (yes,
they did discard a race win). To runners-up
Brad and Merrick, commiserations, that’s
some hot fleet you got going down there.
Hell of a job, Hugo, hell of a job! (And to the
Opti parents, maybe join the 21st century?)
|
| May |
| Winner: | RODION LUKA (UKR) |
 | Where to begin. We are
still receiving nominations
ranging from the entire
Ukrainian sailing community
to their 2020 Olympic Team.
Others have been more personal which
makes the task of choosing harder still.
But Rodion Luka has accomplished great
things in both the sport and the industry,
creating some brilliant boats, winning an
Olympic medal… and often being found
at the centre of the best parties at popular
regattas. So spirit and great achievement
|
| June |
| Winner: | RYAN FINN (USA) |
 | Great to be nominating a
US sailor again for a major
oceanic achievement… it’s
been too long. Finn recently
completed what designer
and racer Mervyn Owen described well as
‘one of the greatest feats of seamanship
ever completed by an American sailor’. That
achievement… battling his way the wrong
way round Cape Horn to sail solo from New
York City to San Francisco onboard a far
from confidence-inspiring 36ft proa. The
non-stop voyage took him 93 (long) days
|
|
