Ravi Parent is sailing at his own pace these days, and the pace is always quick…and calculated. He is as measured as one would expect of a Boston University cum laude mechanical engineer who’s been sailing fast gear since before he had his driver’s permit. His dedication to perfection propelled him to the top of the Worlds for both the A class and Formula 18 catamaran last year. With two world championship titles in hand, he’s the first American sailor to win both in the same year, as well as the F18 Europeans. Cat sailors know that’s a big deal. The A and the 18 require serious talent, commitment and technical savvy. Parent has all three. Being shortlisted as a 2022 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year is a humbling honor, he says, when I catch him driving to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron on a late January afternoon (He would later collect his Rolex Yachtmaster.) It’s also a validation of the work he’s put in and the close-knit cat community that’s supported him along the way. On this particular windless afternoon, he’s headed to where his sailing obsession took hold, for another day of boatwork on his latest challenge—the Moth.

What’s on the work list?

Not much. I’m trying to design a travel bag for the wings so I can fly with them.

How new to the International Moth are you?

I got one at the beginning of last summer (2022). Right after the A Cat Worlds, I sold that boat and got this one because I wanted to take on a new adventure. I’m not done sailing the A Cat by any means, though.

How’s the swimming been?

It’s been a vertical learning curve for the first month, but it’s starting to get a little better and a little more fun every day. The sensations between the A Cat and the Moth are similar; the foiling concept is the same, with the pitch and ride height and all that stuff. The speed and the sail trim are similar, but it’s not trapezing, so your righting moment comes from heel, and the biggest thing I’ve been learning is the effect that heel has on the boat. Jibes have been a bit of a challenge, and the boat I have is the Bieker [model], which has the smaller wings, so…I’ve broken a few tillers while learning to tack, but now I’m a little better at it and saving money.

Where are you on the ­sailing-versus-boatwork spectrum these days?

Actually, not bad. I’ve been thinking about this recently. The trade-off I’m seeing is that the A is faster to rig—I can go from the parking lot to sailing in like 30 minutes. The daily maintenance is longer, though. With the A, there’s a lot more foil sanding and staying on top of the systems, especially after a windy day. With the Moth, there’s virtually no foil sanding because you barely touch them—they go in and out. Rigging it, however, does take a bit longer. I’m still about an hour from showing up to going sailing, but to be honest, I haven’t broken much. Yesterday, I did about 40 miles in 15 to 24 knots and have no boatwork today.

How do you afford the time and upkeep with all your high-tech, high-demand craft?

I work for Morelli & Melvin as a part-time design engineer, primarily working on power-cat foils. There is some sailboat stuff, but powerboats are easier than sailboats in some regards, so that’s where I’ve started. I’m still getting three to five days of sailing a week, mainly three-hour sessions. I have to be a lot more organized with my time to make sure I’m using every second effectively. Outside of that, I’ve been doing a lot of coaching for the development teams of the Nacra 17 and 49er sailors, and also helping with the US Sailing Team’s equipment tech and testing program.

Take us back to the early days of Ravi the Little Ripper.

I started young in the F16 and the F18s, so it wasn’t quite one-design sailing like traditional junior sailing kids would do, which I now realize is a strength because I was sailing among adults most of the time. Also, the boats were different designs, which got me interested in boat design. At the time, the F18 class had like four different builders, and they were all different. It was a fun learning experience at a young age.

I did Optis and Lasers too, and that was socially driven, as it is with most kids. I wanted to hang out with my friends, but I was also competitive and wanted some independence on the water. I was also small—probably 120 pounds—and I could sail the Radial in Sarasota in light wind, but I’d get my butt kicked in anything over 12 knots, so the doublehanded catamaran was perfect for me. I could sail with one of my bigger friends and be on a more-even playing ground. We had a couple of multihull members at the Squadron who were awesome enough to let a few of us take out their boats. We had a group of six sailors back in 2011, and we all basically set a goal that we wanted to do the multihull championship that summer.

As a lifelong Floridian, how’d you end up college sailing in the cold Northeast?

I did look at a few Florida schools, but I decided to try something different to see if I would like it. Stan Schreyer (Boston University head coach) was awesome to me. He took the time to introduce me to what it would be like going to school there. The allure of college sailing in the Northeast was strong, and it also didn’t hurt that both of my parents went there for their medical school.

What potential do you think Stan saw in you?

I think he saw what other ­college coaches didn’t realize, and that was my catamaran sailing skills. While other coaches were looking for the traditional youth sailing 420 type, Stan, being a multihull sailor himself, knew that cat sailing forces you to think faster and to have long-term strategic planning. In an FJ, you can do 20 tacks and not lose anything—you might even gain. In cats and skiffs, you’re limited in your boathandling, so you have to be thinking a half a leg ahead. You have to have your plan and fast reaction time. Having those skills coming into college sailing really helped me. I felt if I was being dumb on the racecourse, I could rely on speed, and a lot of that came from cat sailing.

After graduating, you didn’t waste any time jumping into Olympic sailing, did you?

I wanted to dive into it right away. It was near the end of the last quad, so I didn’t have enough time. It was about a year-and-a-half investment. I had done well in the Nacra 17 at the Miami World Cup in my senior year. I had some funding, and all the parts came together to just get into it. That was with Caroline Atwood, and we did a compressed campaign, and like learning the Moth, the curve was vertical. My cat-sailing background helped, but I was functional—not proficient or even good by any means. If I started then with the skills and maturity I have now, I’m sure it would have gone a different way. I’d have to do it again the same way to get to where I am today, but I’m happy with the way things are going now. Learning the boat was a huge part of it. It just requires a lot of hours in the boat because to learn anything mechanical, you just have to do it, but you have to do it efficiently.

I’ve been told that finding the perfect Nacra crew is like speed dating.

Absolutely. It’s a ­personality match and also a size thing. There might be someone like me who’s more technically savvy, and someone who’s holistic savvy or the right size. There can be a lot of different combinations, but it’s really about bringing out the strengths, and each sailor to make it work. Caroline and I were too small. That was the biggest thing. The Nacra 17, especially now that it’s gone to full foiling upwind, the size had gone up. We were always in the 300 to 310 range, and now it’s more like 315 to 320 combined.

Was it straight to the nine-to-five when that campaign ended?

After we missed selection at the Trials, I got the job with Morelli & Melvin, so it was nice to be able to pay the bills. And I wanted to do something independent of Olympic sailing as well, which is something I suggest to a lot of the Olympic Development sailors I coach. You obviously need to learn your boat, do your diligence and put in the hours, but it’s good to develop something on your own too, especially for drivers who don’t get tired nearly as much as the crews. It’s important to have some sort of singlehanded extracurricular that complements what they’re trying to do. For me, that was the A class. I bought a used one and went straight into it.

Not an easy boat to just
dive into.

It was a steep learning curve for sure. The things I was focusing on and learning in 2020 are so elementary to me now. It was an older boat, and I basically stripped it and started over to get it up to date.

Was it intimidating getting into a class notorious for being an arms-race kind of boat—at least at the top of the class?

A bit, but even now I’m very strict about how I do my budgets. I’m realistic about what I can afford, but I’m also strategic about the equipment I buy and how to do it. I knew, ­eventually, my strengths in sailing the boat would outweigh a lot of the equipment stuff. From sailing the Nacra 17, the downwind foiling was kind of easy. Fundamentally, I knew what was going to happen. I just need to adapt to having one sail and foils that are a lot more sensitive, and dealing with rudder differential.

To stay at the top of the class, people do end up cycling through boats, but that does not by any means diminish the boat you have. It’s about being realistic. It’s hard in our sport because everyone has different situations, so you can’t compare yourself to anyone else; you can take inspiration and ideas from others, but you really have to scale it to your own life. The biggest thing for me is being able to support myself, covering the basic expenses, and understanding how to have an income and go from there. Figuring out how to make every dollar do as much as it can do. It could be into equipment or coaching, time or convenience. For example, do I rent a slightly more expensive apartment that’s closer to the venue so I can save on time commuting and sail more often—things like that.

What were your expectations going into the A Cat Worlds in Houston?

Looking back, I think I might have been one of if not the most prepared person. I spent the most time at the venue—almost two months—which absolutely provided me an advantage. I didn’t have the latest and greatest equipment, but I had confidence in all the training I’d done in my boat. I knew my boat well and knew what I could do. The more confidence you have in your equipment, the more you can get away with not having the latest and greatest.

What was your approach to training in Houston?

I did a lot of training with Bruce Mahoney. It was about 75 percent with a training partner and 25 percent on my own. I have a list of what I’m working on in any condition, so I’m always prepared for whatever ­condition I have to make good use of it. With Bruce, we’d do tuning and finish up with some racecourse stuff. But if I was on my own, I’d work on my boathandling for hours, or acceleration, or sail around and study the wind on the bay. Being my first A Cat Worlds, I was being realistic and had no idea what was going to happen.

My focus of the regatta was to continue to have a level head—but my first race was terrible. I rounded the top mark in second and hooked a fish. That day was light-air marginal foiling, so it was really difficult to get the fish off. I rallied for the next race and ended up winning it.

That first race was unusually light air too, and I knew more breeze was coming later in the week. I had been developing a more refined starting technique, which ended up being a bit of a secret weapon. I’d practiced a lot on full-foiling starts, so I knew as soon as the breeze was coming, I’d be able to start 4 knots faster than anyone next to me. That sort of became my strength the rest of the regatta. That made my life easier on the windy days because a couple hundred yards immediate gain off the starting line is a big advantage.

What’s that move called? The Ravi Slingshot?

I learned in Nacra 17 and Olympic sailing that your biggest gains tend to happen when the fleet is all on an even ladder rung, which is certainly off the starting line and up the first upwind leg. That’s when you can pass everyone or be last immediately. So, I knew the starting line would be a critical time and knew the spacing between boats would be good. As the breeze increased, my biggest focus was the starting initiations that require the least investment. By that, I mean I’m trying to accelerate and get on the foil in a thin lane.

How do you practice for that?

Basically, I’d start my watch with a 15-second countdown, do an acceleration, and understand how much time and distance it took me to go from dead stop to full foiling and how much of a lane it used. I could go from zero to full foiling in about three boatlengths, and it was about a boat width of a lane. So, that’s about 12 seconds for acceleration, and 10 seconds on a good day.

It requires being a bit back and envisioning where that clean lane is going to be, where the [windward boat’s] wind shadow is going to be, and whether I can punch through it. The windier it is, the narrower the wind shadow, so you can kind of get through it easier.

Let’s switch over to the F18 Worlds, which you won with crew Severin Gramm, another technical class with some serious talent.

I have been sailing F18s on and off since I was 14. There’s a lot more power in the F18s than the A Cat, so that makes the racing more competitive. It was nice to divide the labor with Severin.

That journey to the F18 Worlds started in 2021. Pete Melvin (the Morelli & Melvin designer for Nacra), he let me take his new boat and rig it. Peter Vink (of Nacra) supplied a boat for the Europeans in Lake Garda, and that was a good result for us, and again that was another regatta that sailed to our strengths. We’re athletic and had the boathandling down, and that paid off because it was a flat-water event and breezy. We knew we could just put the hammer down and out-muscle a lot of people. Severin’s physical and strategic strengths filled in many of the gaps in my own game, and we figured out how to maximize our potential with the short amount of time we had sailing together. The Europeans was Severin’s first time sailing an F18.

You’re 27, a double world champ, and a Yachtsman of the Year nominee. That must make you a pro sailor in demand these days.

I’m technically a Cat 3 because I coach and do receive endorsements, but I’m not paid to go sailing. I’ve never been paid to go sailing. I’d love to be paid, but my philosophy is that I want to do the sailing that I really enjoy. I love the small boats, and I’m open to doing larger boats, but for me that’s not the J/70, which is perfect for what it is and a great class, but I’m a high-­performance junkie. I have to sail a boat that goes over 20. That’s my thing. I would love to ­someday get to SailGP.

Morelli & Melvin is ­incredibly supportive of the sailing I do, and I could not do it without the flexibility [the owners] give me. Pete has a long history with the A class as a two-time world champion, and I’m trying to beat his record. I still do have the passion for the Nacra 17. I still have the equipment, and feel like I have unfinished business in that class and would like to come back and do my best there. The journey of Olympic-class sailing is incredibly rewarding and just makes you a better sailor. The skills I’m using now, the organization, the planning and the focused training, all came from Olympic sailing.

I don’t come from a sailing family—my dad played soccer and did some local racing and cruising, and my mom was a violinist. But for the most part, I’m really the only sailor in my family, so I take a lot of pride in carving my path in the sport because it’s truly been my own path. I’ve had to figure out all this stuff and learn from people around me. That said, I’m really enjoying everything I’m doing, and I understand sailing is a lifelong career and sport. So, I know eventually my time will come, and I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.

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US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards are the most important respective recognitions for American sailing’s many notable champions. So diverse is the sport these days, however, that it is becoming ever more difficult to highlight one champion over another. Many are worthy, but only two earn the honor.

Two-time yachtswoman of the year and kiteboarder extraordinaire Daniella Moroz is the first female to authoritatively usher in the outliers of traditional sailing into the discussion of what qualifies as a “yacht” or a “yachtswoman.” Johnny Heineken led the way in 2012 with his Rolex win, but Moroz’s dominance of the women’s kite racing scene has only grown since she first won her Rolex in 2016—at the age of 15. Her success at the international level was as impressive back then as it is today; she’s now sitting on a third Yachtswoman of the Year title and her sixth kiteboard world title. She’s fast tracking to the 2024 Olympic Regatta and could very well be the top shortlist nominee for the Rolex again when open (public) nominations end on December 15.  

On the men’s side, the potential field of nominees will no doubt be broad and long, a mixture of owner/driver types alongside the professional crews that bring them to the winner’s circle. Young Harry Melges IV, who stood at the Rolex awards podium alongside Moroz in 2022, was celebrated for his dominance of the scow-sailing world and ultimately earned his Rolex over the likes of Olympian and champion crew Dave Hughes, one-design whisperer Willem Van Waay, and ace crew Erik Shampain, as well as Sunfish world champ Conner Blouin.

The public process to nominate starts with a visit to nomination portal which explicitly explains that the award: “recognizes the individual male/female U.S. sailor who has demonstrated on-the-water excellence in the calendar year…Athletes must be eligible to represent the USA under World Sailing regulations, and actually representing the USA at the event(s) for which the nominee is being considered for the award. Most finalists have won a major international or national event and/or performed at a high level consistently in multiple events against elite competition. There is no minimum age required to win the award. The award is not based on career racing results (lifetime achievements) or philanthropic contributions to the sport.”

Following the close of the nomination period, US Sailing’s nominating committee, approved by the Board of Directors, will select three finalists for both the Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Award based on the merits of the nominees. The finalists will be posted to a ballot and presented to voting groups of past award winners and sailing media journalists who will vote for the winners. Winners will be announced live on Thursday, February 2, 2023 at an evening reception as part of US Sailing’s Sailing Leadership Forum in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

Easy enough.

I’ve submitted my nominees for Willem Van Waay, a committed and hard-charging champion of the J/70, J/24 and J/80 classes (including the recent world championships) who is long overdue for his recognition, and for Jim Murray, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, who led his amateur team to an impressive Bermuda Race division win in June with his Pac52, and then had one heck of a summer J/109 racing in the Great Lakes before returning to the 52 with a string of late-year victories in Florida. On the women’s side, Moroz is my top nominee again: a world title in this discipline does not come easy and her successful forays into SailGP and other foiling classes demonstrates her expanding skillset and commitment to on-the-water excellence.

Now, go nominate. December 15 is fast approaching.

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Harry Melges IV, of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and Daniela Moroz, of Lafayette, California, were selected as the 2021 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year for their outstanding sailing performance in 2021.

At only 21 years old, this year marks the third time that kiter Daniela Moroz has been named US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. “It’s such an honor to win this award for the third time,” said Moroz. “All year I was just focused on being the best sailor I could be, so this is a pleasant surprise.”

In 2021, Moroz dominated the female Formula Kite class, winning Women’s Formula Kite Worlds and the Formula Kite European Championships. She was the top female at both the San Francisco and Clearwater US Open Sailing Series events.

Raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Moroz competed in her first international event at age 14, winning her first World Championship only a year later, at 15. Since then, she has won five world championships and four European championships. Moroz is currently a student at the University of Hawaii while she campaigns for the 2024 Olympic games, where the Formula Kite will make its Olympic debut.

Winning his first-ever Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award, Harry Melges IV brings a vast amount of experience to the table for his young age. In 2021, Melges was a two-time E Scow National Champion (the rescheduled 2020 nationals were sailed in 2021), Melges 24 Gold Cup winner, and a member of the winning IC37 East Coast Championship crew, among others.

“Winning this award is such an honor to me, since my grandfather won it 60 years ago,” said Melges. “I’ve worked hard this season and I am so glad to be able to take home this trophy.”

Growing up around such accomplished sailors (his grandfather, Harry “Buddy” Melges, won Olympic gold and bronze in the Soling and Flying Dutchman), it was only natural that Melges got an early start. He began racing at age six, hitching rides on the assortment of Scows sailed on his home waters of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Besides his experience in Scows and sport keelboats, Melges was also a member of the US Sailing Team. He campaigned for the 2020 Olympic Games in the 49er with fellow Wisconsinite Finn Rowe.

Established in 1961 by US Sailing and sponsored by Rolex Watch, U.S.A. since 1980, the annual presentation of US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards are considered the sport’s ultimate recognition of an individual’s outstanding on-the-water achievements for the calendar year. Winners are chosen from a pool of nominees by panels of past winners and imminent sailing journalists and dignitaries.

The partnership between Rolex and US Sailing is natural considering the Swiss watchmaker’s long-term commitment to fostering yachting excellence worldwide. Rolex is a committed partner of the most prestigious yacht clubs around the country, including the St. Francis Yacht Club. Rolex shares the highest standards of excellence and superior performance with US Sailing, acting together as joint custodians of yachting’s finest spirit.

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The five Yachtsman finalists earned their way on to this exclusive list by dominating their respective classes and showing true variety in their sailing accomplishments. The four Yachtswoman finalists represent a wide array experience and sailing disciplines, and each had a 2021 to remember. All nine of these sailors represent their own unique pathway to the shortlist after a triumphant season on the water in their respective boats.

Some of these sailors were selected based on their consistent exceptional perfor-mances throughout the 2021 season and some were chosen for their signature win(s) at major international or national events. These sailors have each mastered their craft and have focused on the importance of precision and performance in their competitive sailing efforts.

Finalists for US Sailing’s 2021 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award (in alphabetical order by first name):

Conner Blouin – The 2021 Sunfish North American Champion dominated the 83-boat fleet and also finished 3rd at the 100 boat Sunfish World Champion-ships. Additionally, Blouin won the prestigious US Sailing Championship of Champions, sailed in Lightnings, as well as winning the WASZP North American Championship. 

Dave Hughes – In 2021, the versatile “super crew” was part of National Champi-onship teams in 3 different classes, Etchells, J/24s, and the Atlantic Class. Additionally, Hughes and his long-time teammate, Stu McNay, won the 470 North American Champs and the US Open Sailing Series Miami, and finished 5th in the World Championships and 9th in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (sailed in 2021).

Erik Shampain – 2021 was a year to remember for Shampain as his teams dominated major events across multiple classes and disciplines. Winning the J/70 Pre-Worlds event and then finishing 2nd at the Worlds Championship, Sham-pain’s teams also won the Etchells Midwinters West, finished second in the Midwinters East, and finished 3rd at the North American Championship. Additionally, Shampain was part of the Melges 24 National Championship team, the winning Congressional Cup team, a 3rd place Ficker Cup team, and placed 3rd in the Transpac.

Harry Melges IV – Scow country belonged to Melges in 2021. Harry won two E Scow National Championships (the 2021 Champs as well as the rescheduled 2020 Champs), the E Scow Inland Champs, and the E Scow Spring Champs. Additionally, Melges placed 2nd in the A Scow Inland Champs and 3rd at the A Scow National Championship. Furthermore, he won the Melges 24 Gold Cup, and was part of the winning team in the IC37 East Coast Champs and the 2nd place team at the North Americans.

Taylor Canfield – The man whose name is synonymous with the Congressional Cup won this year’s event with a dominating 22-3 record making him a 5-time Con Cup Champion. Canfield’s team also dominated the M32 class in 2021 winning both the Miami Winter Series and Newport Midtown Summer Series and winning the World Championship by 40 points. Additionally, Taylor was the tactician for the Dark Energy J/70 Team that placed 6th at the North Ameri-can Championships and 3rd at the Worlds as well as the Melges 24 team that placed 2nd at Charleston Race Week and Gold Cup and won the 17 boat PHRF 2 Class at Block Island Race Week. Taylor was also on the IC37 team that won the NYYC Leukemia Cup, placed 3rd SDYC in the Lipton Cup with team SDYC, and also was the Flight controller on the U.S. SailGP Team that placed 2nd at the Saint-Tropez event.

Finalists for US Sailing’s 2021 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award (in alphabetical order by first name):

Anna Weis – Learning to sail in Fort Lauderdale where she was raised, Anna Weis attended Boston University and was a member of their rowing team be-fore deferring school to commit to a Nacra 17 Olympic Campaign. Coming off her Gold Medal in the 2019 Pan American Games, Weis made it to the Nacra 17 Medal Race at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, finishing 9th overall. Anna then tried her hand on a much larger foiling catamaran as she finished 2nd as part of the U.S. SailGP Team at the Australian Grand Prix.

Daniela Moroz – Back on the shortlist again and looking for her 3rd Rolex, Dan-iela Moroz won the Women’s Formula Kit European Championship and her 5th Kite Foil World Championship. Moroz also placed 6th and 9th respectively at the US Open Sailing Series events in Clearwater and San Francisco, finishing as the top female athlete at both events, and is currently ranked 6th in the Formula Kite World Sailing Rankings.

Laura Grondin – After a 20-year break from One-Design Racing, Laura Grondin has come back swinging in 2021, turing heads and opening eyes in the J/70, Melges 24, and IC37 classes. Grondin’s Dark Energy J/70 team placed 6th at North Americans and 3rd at Worlds, while her Melges 24 team that dons the same name won the Block Island PHRF 2 class, placed end at Charleston Race Week and Gold Cup, and was higely successful in the Bacardi Cup win-ter events. Additionally, Grondin helmed the IC37 that won the NYYC Leuke-mia Cup and placed 4th at the NYYC Annual Regatta.

Nicole Breault – The uber experienced and successful match racer is the 2021 U.S. Sailing Women’s Match Racing Champion and placed 4th in the Califor-nia Dreamin’ Series and is ranked as the top female match racer in the US and ranked 3rd in the world. Additionally, Breault had success as tactician and main trimmer for her J/105 where she and her team placed 2nd at Block Island Race Week and 4th at the J/105 North American Championship.

The nominees and their 2021 sailing resumes will be reviewed by a panel of noted sailing journalists and past winners of these awards who discuss the merits of each sailor’s racing results before voting to determine US Sailing’s 2021 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year. The winners will be announced and presented with specially engraved Rolex timepieces in conjunction with the US Sailing Association Awards this Spring on a date and at a location to be announced soon.

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Entering the penultimate day of the 2019 International 505 World Championship in Fremantle, Australia, Mike Martin and Adam Lowry were leading the regatta comfortably, but while warming up for the first race, the hole that holds the centerboard pivot pin ripped open, leaving the ­centerboard free-floating inside its trunk. With some quick thinking, Lowry says, they wedged a paddle—required equipment on a 505—into the trunk to minimize the board’s movement. Not ideal, but good enough to continue racing. “It moved all the way back in the trunk, and then it tilted backward, so the center of lateral resistance was all over the place,” Lowry recalls. “That was challenging, and we were trying to do a lot with our trim to compensate.”

With Lowry steering from the trapeze, Martin was able to ­occasionally reset it during the race, and they managed to finish fourth. But with the wind increasing, they’d surely have a difficult time ­managing the boat in the following race.

What now?

Their training partners from back home in California—Parker Shin, Eric Anderson, Mike Holt and Carl Smit—all of whom were battling for the world title, came to their rescue. “They had an extra centerboard onshore and a coach with a boat, and they said, ‘Go get our centerboard, and use our coach,’” Lowry says. “We went through all the procedures you have to with the jury afterward, but we used their centerboard for the last race that we sailed (another fourth). And that was enough to seal the regatta win.”

Lowry adds that he also had an issue with his trapeze harness the day before—a three-race day—and when it seemed his harness wasn’t going to last through the day, he borrowed Smit’s backup. Incredible sportsmanship, you might say, but Lowry and Martin would say it’s just the 505 way. Holt and Smit, by the way, finished second overall, and Shin and Anderson were third.

Nearly a year later, in early 2020, Martin and Lowry are standing astride in blue blazers on the deck of ­the ­aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego. They’re not there to tour the winged relics of military aviation history, but they are there for a different sort of historical moment. Finally, after being shortlisted for sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award an incredible five times, Martin is getting his due. And just as he was on the wire when they won the world championship title, Lowry is right by his side, towering over his skipper as they both open their boxes to flash their shiny new golden timepieces.

Rarely does the crew get a Rolex too, but this time, the selection panel felt that it was impossible to recognize the accomplishments of one without the other. It’s another victory of sorts, for ­non-Olympic dinghy sailors and forgotten crews alike.

“After we won, I took a look at the list of everyone who had won the award—men and women—over the decades, and that was a really humbling experience,” Lowry tells me over the phone a few weeks afterward. “It’s a lot of people who I know and respect, and it’s a pretty elite group of people to be a part of. Winning a world championship is something that kind of follows you forever, and this is very similar in that regard.”

He and his skipper are not professional sailors, he reminds us. They go to work every day. In many ways, they’re weekend warrior like everyone else. “We sail one day a week and a weekend a month maybe,” Lowry says. “But what a great sport we participate in, where you can develop over a long period of time the skills and techniques you need to compete at a really high level. And to win an award like this when you’re 54 and 45, respectively, and doing it the way we are doing it…”

Never in a million years, he adds, did he think he was going to win a Rolex, especially at his age. But the truth is, he was more excited for Martin. “It’s no secret that the guy is a stud in all forms of sailing that he’s done,” Lowry says. “I’m just helping a little bit.”

Martin, for the record, didn’t follow the traditional path of an American junior sailor. By his telling, he taught himself how to sail at a horse-riding camp where he and his sister were sent one summer long ago. “I didn’t really like the horses, and they didn’t really like me,” Martin tells me.

But at that camp, there was a little pond with a small sailing dinghy stored on the beach. “I would just go Snark sailing all day instead of riding horses.”

The following summer, instead of sending him to back to horse camp, his parents bought him learn-to-sail lessons on the Potomac River, where he gleaned fundamentals in a Flying Scot. When his lessons were done, he’d hustle over to Washington Sail Marina, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “I’d just bum rides on any boat I could. It was the late 1970s, so racing was pretty active.”

As a teenager, he soon got a Laser and started mixing it up with the local adult Laser fleet. He was eventually recruited by Thistle Class standout Brent Barbehenn, who tutored him in the art of racing to win. Together they won Thistle National titles in 1982 and 1984.

When he was 17, local D.C. sailor James Jacob got his hands on an International 505 and needed a crew, so he tapped Martin—­obviously having no idea that someday he would become one of the greatest Five-Oh sailors of a generation.

After his freshman year of college, in 1985, he won the Laser North Americans—a 185-plus boat fleet. “That was probably the first time I thought that maybe I can be good at this sport at a top level,” Martin says. And man, was he right.

His competitive-sailing trajectory would lead him to a Finn ­campaign, and to California for the 1992 Finn Olympic Trials. Soon after, weight jackets were banned, and it was obvious he wasn’t built for a boat that’s built for beasts. So he hunted for a hookup in the West Coast International 505 sailing scene, and his friend from back home, Macy Nelson, directed him to the great Howie Hamlin.

“I called him up to see if he wanted to sail together, and he said: ‘No thanks. I’m all set up sailing with Steve Rosenberg, but thanks for the call anyway,’” Martin says. “I figured, oh, OK. So much for that.”

But a few months later, there was a regatta in Richmond, California, and Rosenberg couldn’t make it. Hamlin called, they won the regatta, and so began Martin’s long and illustrious 505 career.

Not quite concurrently, Lowry’s rise to the top of the sport began on the waters of Lake St. Clair, Michigan, coincidentally, sailing a Thistle with his father. “I don’t remember how young,” Lowry says, “but really young. There was a good little club scene in Detroit in the summertime. There were some really good Thistle sailors, and Dad would bring me along every once in a while. People in the sailing community kind of get that Detroit punches above its weight in terms of sailors.”

As a talented junior sailor himself, Lowry won the Sears Cup (US Sailing’s junior keelboat championship) in J/24s in 1992, and that, he says, parlayed into getting into Stanford and racing there for four years.

The sailing-team roster would have listed him as a 6-foot-6-inch 210-pounder with the physique of a basketball player. He says he’s the runt of his family. His brother played European pro basketball, and his father was drafted by the 76ers in 1964 but never played for them. For sailing, he says, he whittled himself down to 176 pounds.

“My sophomore year, I sailed with these twins—Sareeta and Sujatha—who were like 85 pounds apiece,” he recalls. “When it was windy, they weren’t strong enough to last a whole practice, so I’d sail with one of them for like an hour, put her out, and then put her sister in the boat, and do the rest of the practice with her sister. They were like interchangeable parts.”

After graduating as an All-American in 1996 and taking a job as a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Lowry eventually jumped into the new high-speed realm of 49er sailing. Those years of Olympic 49er-class training clarified his understanding of high-level sailing.

In 2002, balancing work and sailing, he started skippering an older 505 with a friend. Over the next five years, he says, he fell in love with the boat and the sailors who worked together for the greater good of the fleet. After his friend sold the boat, he says, he spent a few years racing Moths before returning to the 505 as a crew—an ideal place given his physique. You could say he was right where he belonged.

Fast-forward to 2019, and together Martin and Lowry were running the 505 table: winning the class’s National, Canadian and World championships all in one year. Suffice it to say, the Rolex selection committee had an easy time.

But their success that year wasn’t a singular effort. They had the help of their tightknit West Coast crew and their regular Tuesday training sessions. To note, five of the top boats at the Fremantle Worlds in 2019 were members of their training squad.

“That’s something that Howie [Hamlin] and I developed in Long Beach,” Martin says. “When we started sailing together, he would talk about goals and set new ones every year. And one of his goals was to win the 505 Worlds. And I said, ‘That’s fine to set that goal, but what steps are you taking to achieve that?’ And he just sort of looked at me like, ‘What do I need to do besides just go to a regattas?’ I said, ‘Well, you need training partners, you have to test equipment, etc.’ And that was how the Team Tuesday training sessions started.

“Howie—being the most motivated person in the world—started organizing it, getting training partners, and we started racing on Tuesdays. The philosophy behind our approach is what’s key: sharing all information and having the mindset that your goal is to speed up your training partner. And that means everything, not just boatspeed. It has to be a mindset of working together and everyone working for the goal.”

Initially, Martin tells me, they would just go out and speed-test. They got really fast in a straight line, but sheeting in and blazing into a corner doesn’t always work. “It became clear that we weren’t practicing the tactical side of the game, so we changed up the program, set out a couple of marks, and practiced racing. That was a key improvement to the program because it forced us to practice everything: starting, tactics, jibing, tacking, mark roundings. We saw our regatta results really jump up after that.”

Lowry wasn’t part of the founding Tuesday crew, but his ­Olympic-class training experience certainly cemented similar ­foundations. His 49er sailing, he says, drove home the importance of preparation. “I think preparation is one of the big things it taught me,” he says. “Junior sailing and college sailing are obviously really great and intense sailing, but the level of preparation both on the boat as well as from a mental standpoint is really different. Understanding that there is a broader set of things that you really have to master was a big learning moment. It also goes beyond the boat preparation. It’s all about mental preparation for the various cycles within big events that you need to really perform well at. There’s also a ‘one-notch-up’ kind of physical element.”

Self-motivation and collaboration, he adds, were also important takeaways: “In many cases, the ability to work with other teams that you’re competing against and make each other better is a big part of what we’ve been doing, and it really makes a difference. If you’re working with another team, you can compare and contrast things—where you are weak and vice versa—and you can trade notes, and everybody gets better. It’s a very simple thing, but it’s really underestimated in the sport of sailing. With the right kind of approach and the right kind of sharing, you can get better really fast.

“It’s been going on for a long time in the 505 class, long before even I got into it. It was happening 20 years ago, and it’s sort of been instilled in the class—the American class, I would say—that this is what you do. You would have briefings and debriefings; when you are done sailing, you go to the debriefings. That’s just what you do. The class is particularly keen on getting new people to participate in the class, but like a lot of Olympic boats, the setup is really important. And the leaders want you to come up that curve really fast so that you’re another good competitor to race against.”

Nowadays, in San Francisco, the group calls itself Team Tuesday Norte. San Francisco’s strong winds force boathandling prowess and sharp awareness when it comes to shifting gears on the fly. From his vantage point way out on the trap wire is where Lowry has developed his keen eye and big-fleet tactical smarts. In the 505 world especially, it’s well-known that you’re only good as your crew, and Lowry is clearly one of the best.

“Calling good tactics from the trapeze on a 505 is really hard,” Martin says, “but it’s better that the crew does the upwind tactics because the driver is getting blasted in the face with water the whole time. We talk together about the general plan—what we think is working and what’s not—and there’s a lot of conversation going on, but Adam is definitely in charge of executing the upwind tactics.”

That on-the-fly conversation, he adds, is continuous for them, and that was a big part of their success in Australia. “Fremantle was interesting because it was expected to be really left-hand-favored,” Lowry recalls. “Everyone was expecting that it was going to be a race to the left-hand corner, and it turned out to be anything but that. What was working on the course was highly variable. In this event, what was really important was recognizing when things were changing and not being stuck with your plan.”

He highlights one race in particular: “We started in the first third of the line. As you do, you talk about the things you think are going to work before the start of the race, and you look around the course, and all of a sudden you see the far-right side…something special is starting to happen over there. I think what we were able to do was change our strategy when that was warranted. Part observation and part willingness to just abandon what you thought was going to work, and go with what you saw on the racecourse.

“The hard part is that I’m trying to just observe a lot. I’m trying to see what’s working across the course. You’re looking at the boats, and when you sail a boat enough, you can look from a distance and see if someone is lifted or headed or going really fast. The 505 in particular, when someone is going fast, the attitude of the boat is a little different, a little bit more bow up. So you are looking for those types of cues. I think the other thing—and this is going to sound super-ambiguous—is I’m not thinking about what is the right tack to be on now. I’m trying to think about the beat as a whole—where we position ourselves relative to the fleet and the competition we’re close to in order to beat them to the mark over the whole course of the beat.”

Another key element, he adds, is having the skipper and crew ­clicking as a tactical unit. “Mike’s very complimentary, and I appreciate that,” he says of his skipper who lauds him at every opportunity. “But it is more complex than that. First of all, I call tactics upwind, he calls tactics downwind, so he equally deserves credit for tactical decisions.

“I think one thing we do really well is understand each other’s roles in any given time. When we are going upwind, he’ll be feeding me info about what he’s seeing and what he’s feeling—really important data in the overall planning of the beat. And I do the same thing downwind: I’m trimming, so I can feel the waves and stuff like that, and that tactical input is really important.”

With both Martin and Lowry balancing full-time careers—Martin as a mechanical engineer for a firm called Synapse Product Development, and Lowry as co-founder of Ripple, a plant-based milk producer based in Berkeley, California—they’ve continued their Tuesday training sessions, pausing only during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Without question, the best physical training for sailing is sailing,” Martin says. “On days we don’t sail, I do a lot of foil kiteboarding, which is actually a good workout as well. It’s similar to driving a 505 in that you are pushing with your quads and pulling with your arms. In the off-season during the winter, I bike-commute into work, and that builds my aerobic ability beyond what I get from sailing.”

Naturally, he keeps his kite gear in the car, and if conditions look good, he says, he can be on his foil board within 15 minutes.

And even though he’s sailed the 505 for nearly three decades, Martin has never once lost interest in the development class. “The 505 is a pretty great boat in a wide variety of conditions, and to me, it’s more fun to sail that than anything else. It is also super-tight ­racing. In 2019, we had a great season. Adam and I won every regatta we sailed in together, which was nice, but it’s not like we ever just walked away with any event. Every single race was hard-fought, and we had to sail really well to win. Anytime we make a mistake, we would lose two or three boats, because at every regatta, there will be five or six prior world champions on the water. In this class, you gotta be on it. It’s a fun boat, and it’s still super-challenging to sail.”

The 2020 Worlds in Sweden were canceled due to COVID-19, but this year’s championship is scheduled for Bermuda in October, where they intend to be locked in stride once again. Lowry, no doubt, will have a few spare trapeze hooks and a spare centerboard at the ready.

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Over the past six decades, the sailing community has had the unique opportunity to discuss and analyze the fascinating contrasts between the winners of US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year. The 2018 award winners will once again offer us, as fans and stewards of the sport, the chance to reflect and appreciate their respective 2018 achievements, but perhaps more importantly, how they got to this special place in their careers and what the future holds.

J/70 World Champion, Jud Smith (Gloucester, Mass.), and Girl’s International 420 Youth Sailing World Champions, Carmen and Emma Cowles (Larchmont, N.Y.), today were selected as Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswomen of the Year for their remarkable sailing performances in 2018.

The selection follows the announcement in January of the three men and three women who were shortlisted for these prestigious awards and recognized as sailing’s top performers of the year by US Sailing.

The slate of finalists, nominated by members of US Sailing and determined by US Sailing, was presented to a panel of 28 accomplished sailing media professionals and past winners of the awards, who analyzed the merits of each finalist and individually voted to determine the ultimate winners using a weighted point system (1st place vote – 5 points; 2nd place vote – 3 points; 3rd place vote – 1 point).

Jud Smith tallied 116 points, including 20 first place votes. Placing second was 2018 J/22 World Champion, Zeke Horowitz (Annapolis, Md.), with 86 points and seven first place votes. Will Welles (Portsmouth, R.I.), 2018 J/24 World Champion, finished third with 50 points and one first place vote.

Carmen and Emma Cowles collected 88 points and nine first place votes. The sister tandem narrowly edged a pair of past winners of the award, Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), 2018 Laser European Championship Silver Medalist, and Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, Calif.), 2018 Women’s Formula Kiteboard Sailing World Champion. Railey and Moroz each had 82 points. Railey led all Yachtswomen finalists with 11 first place votes and Moroz had eight first place votes.

Smith and the Cowles sisters will be honored on Thursday, February 28, 2019, at the Awards Ceremony hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, where they will be celebrated by family and friends, teammates and crew, past winners, 2018 finalists, sailing dignitaries, and representatives from US Sailing and Rolex. They will also be presented with specially-engraved Rolex timepieces and designed picture frames of the winners commemorating their outstanding 2018 accomplishments.

The partnership between Rolex and US Sailing is natural considering the Swiss watchmaker’s more than 60-year commitment to fostering yachting excellence worldwide. Rolex is a committed partner of the most prestigious yacht clubs around the country, including the St. Francis Yacht Club. Rolex shares the highest standards of excellence and superior performance with US Sailing, acting together as joint custodians of yachting’s finest spirit.

At the age of 62, Jud Smith (Gloucester, Mass.), becomes the oldest winner of this esteemed award. He was 61 at the time of his team’s win at the 2018 J/70 World Championships. In 2015, Steve Benjamin became the oldest recipient at the age of 60. Smith is now a two-time winner of the award, earning his first Yachtsman of the Year award in 2006.

“I do consider my age as my biggest challenge,” said Smith. “However, I just have to work on my fitness and health much more than in years’ past. Instead of worrying if I’m good enough to be competitive, I worry if I am fit enough to be competitive. I now spend much more time in the gym since that’s my limiting factor. Mentally, the game is less daunting than when I was younger.”

Smith continued his assessment of where he is in his competitive sailing career and how it remains, more than ever, a team sport to him. “To be competitive at the top level requires sailing with the best young sailors in the world. There a lot of 25 to 50-year-old talented sailors that make it possible for my generation to continue to compete. It’s a pleasure to be able to race with such a talented and committed group of young sailors. If it wasn’t for them, we’d be playing shuffleboard.”

The win at J/70 Worlds in 2018 was his second consecutive win at this highly competitive regatta. In 2017, Smith won the J/70 Worlds as crew for Peter Duncan, who went on to win Yachtsman of the Year honors in 2017.

“I had the opportunity to campaign in 2017 with Peter Duncan, along with Willem van Waay and Victor Diaz for the J/70 Worlds in Porto Cervo (Italy). It was not only a privilege, but a daily clinic with such a talented team, and it served as an ideal vantage point to know how to prepare my own team and boat for the 2018 Worlds at my home club.”

The 2018 J/70 Worlds, once again, featured a deep fleet, including 91 teams from 18 countries. On the final day of the event, the wind failed to deliver sufficient breeze and the standings were deemed official. The top three teams in the final standings were separated by only three points through 11 races. Consistency truly paid off for Smith and his crew aboard, Africa. They didn’t win any races, but they placed in the top 10 in five races and top five in two. Smith edged Bruno Pasquinelli by one point and Jack Franco by three. Duncan, last year’s winning skipper, placed fourth overall.

“We have the utmost respect for all of the other teams,” said Smith. “Anybody could have won this regatta, and we respected that. I would like to thank my team. We have worked really hard, training for this event all year long, and we have been together through thick and thin. It was a real privilege to race with such a talented group of sailors in a World Championship at my home club for an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Smith posted podium results at other top J/70 events in 2018, including first place out of 57 boats at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Marblehead; second place out of 47 boats at the Bacardi Cup Invitational Regatta; and third place out of 27 boats at the Newport Regatta.

Sailing has always played an important role Smith’s life. He grew up in Marblehead, Mass. and started sailing with his father, David Smith, at a young age. David was also an accomplished racing sailor. He won an Olympic Gold Medal at the Rome 1960 Games in the 5.5 Meter event as crew.

“Sailing was such a big part of my life growing up at Pleon Junior Yacht Club during the summers and frostbiting Interclub dinghies in the winters,” added Smith. “I met my wife, Cindy, frostbiting in Marblehead. She’s a very good sailor herself and serves as our J/70 fleet secretary. We continue to race the J/70 together in Marblehead every chance we get. Massachusetts Bay and Salem Sound is still my favorite place to sail, where no two days are the same. There’s always a new wrinkle to work out, which makes it challenging.”

Carmen and Emma Cowles’ (Larchmont, N.Y.) selection as the year’s best in women’s sailing is symbolic to the progress and growth of the youth sailing movement sweeping across the United States over the past several years. The 18-year-old identical twins became the second youngest winners in the award’s long history. In 2016, Daniela Moroz was tapped for the award at the age of 16 for her accomplishments as a 15-year-old, becoming the youngest award winner.

For the second straight year, the Cowles captured a gold medal at the Youth Sailing World Championships, hosted by the Corpus Christi Yacht Club (Texas), in the Girl’s International 420 Doublehanded Dinghy event. They were dominant over the 21-boat fleet by placing first in seven of the nine races and winning by a 13-point margin over Great Britain’s Vita Heathcote and Emilia Boyle. They were instrumental in leading the 2018 U.S. Youth Worlds Team to the Nations Trophy, awarded to the best overall performing country at Youth Worlds. The U.S. Youth Worlds Sailing Team hauled in four gold medals and a silver.

“There were several key aspects that enabled our success including sticking to our routine, having a solid support system, and training partners,” said Carmen. “We built a plan for our training designed to peak at the time of the event, so we incorporated weekend training, training camps, and practice regattas.”

“A strong support system helped keep our nerves at bay and our training partners were crucial as they provided a constant source of good competition,” said Emma. “In an event where stress is inevitable, sticking to our routine is essential. We wake up early, check the forecasts, allowed ourselves enough time to thoroughly check over our boat, listen to music in the boat park before launching, and even stick to our on-the-water fuel of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Glacier Freeze Gatorade. With this, we can concentrate solely on the sailing and competition without being distracted by the differences in the venue. Our approach is that it just becomes another day on the water, or just another regatta.”

The Cowles are a proud product of Project Pipeline, the strategy behind a new-look Olympic Development Program, organized by US Sailing, that aims to better serve young sailors, lead them into high-performance boats earlier in their development, and build well-rounded sailors with complete skill sets. Providing training and racing opportunities with world-class coaching and the highest level of technical standards are the core principles of the initiative.

They also placed third overall out of 39 boats at the International 420 North American Championships in Miami and were the top all-girls team in the fleet. They also finished fourth overall out of 96 boats in the International 420 fleet at Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) in Germany and were the top all-girls team.

The Cowles have their sights set on another podium finish on the grandest stage as they are committed to campaigning for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the Women’s 470. They are also looking forward to racing on the college sailing circuit starting in the fall of 2020 for Yale University.

The Cowles sisters began sailing at the age of nine at the family’s home club, the Larchmont Yacht Club (New York), with the intention of simply learning how to sail and being comfortable on the water.

“We hated our first regatta. We were too hot, it was too long of a day, and we were getting nauseous,” said Carmen. “However, we loved learning to sail as it was fun to drive our own machine and we were in charge. For the next two summers, we agreed to continue the junior sailing program under the condition that we had to compete in only one regatta each summer.”

“In our third summer, I just missed out on a trophy at the first regatta of the summer program,” said Emma. “This gave us the incentive to race in the second event of the summer. We both came back with a trophy and we were hooked.”

The joy of being on the water and being in their element, along with the consistent knowledge sharing they experience in their training has spirited their love of sailing.

“We love sailing because of the freedom of being on the water,” said Carmen. “The constant learning process also draws us in. We continuously test sail setup, settings, and different equipment. It’s really exciting to test and discover different technical aspects of the boat to see how they affect our speed and maneuvers. We like the discovery.”

“As twin sisters, we love that we can share this experience with our best friend,” added Emma. “It is also one of the very few sports where we can compete against boys and girls, as well as with people of different ages.”

About US Sailing’s 2018 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Established in 1961 by US Sailing and sponsored by Rolex Watch, U.S.A. since 1980, the annual presentation of US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards are considered the sport’s ultimate recognition of an individual’s outstanding on-the-water achievements for the calendar year.

Over its history the coveted awards have been presented to 44 men and 37 women, including these distinguished sailors who have claimed the honor multiple times: Ed Adams, Betsy Alison, Sally Barkow, Dave Curtis, Dennis Conner, JJ Fetter, Terry Hutchinson, Allison Jolly, John Kostecki, Buddy Melges, Lowell North, Jan O’Malley, Jane Pegel, Ken Read, Cory Sertl, Lynne Shore, Jud Smith, Jody Starck, Anna Tunnicliffe and Ted Turner.

For more information about these awards, please visit: [http://rolex.ussailing.org.](About US Sailing’s 2018 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Established in 1961 by US Sailing and sponsored by Rolex Watch, U.S.A. since 1980, the annual presentation of US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards are considered the sport’s ultimate recognition of an individual’s outstanding on-the-water achievements for the calendar year. Over its history the coveted awards have been presented to 44 men and 37 women, including these distinguished sailors who have claimed the honor multiple times: Ed Adams, Betsy Alison, Sally Barkow, Dave Curtis, Dennis Conner, JJ Fetter, Terry Hutchinson, Allison Jolly, John Kostecki, Buddy Melges, Lowell North, Jan O’Malley, Jane Pegel, Ken Read, Cory Sertl, Lynne Shore, Jud Smith, Jody Starck, Anna Tunnicliffe and Ted Turner. For more information about these awards, please visit: http://rolex.ussailing.org)

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There was a clear and present theme that spontaneously tied together the two very different speeches of US Sailing’s 2018 Rolex Yachtswoman and Yachtsman of the Year Award recipients.

From behind podium in the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club’s 44th Street Clubhouse, the message from both champion sailors was clear: greatness comes not only from oneself, but from a much larger base of support.

Take Erika Reineke, for example, the outstanding young Floridian sailor and byproduct of Lauderdale YC’s high-powered sailing program. Reineke’s family came late to the sport of sailing, nudging her into South Florida’s cutthroat Optimist dinghy scene at an early age. Reineke says she hated it, but her mom’s cookies got her though tough times and tears. Eventually, she caught on to it. When exactly the switch flipped she cannot say, but she does recall one particular trophy presentation as wide-eyed White Fleeter that could have been the moment.

There she was, sitting on the floor along with all the other kids, waiting for her participation trophy at the annual end-of-season junior sailing banquet. On stage helping pass out the hardware was local Olympic 470 silver medalist Morgan Reeser, his own silver hardware from Barcelona reflecting in bright light beam.

When she had the chance to meet him, all she could muster was the coy smile of a young blonde sailor, and an “OK…thanks,” before dashing outside to play tag with the other kids. That moment, that medal, she realizes now, was a jagged point of inspiration.

Then there’s her Boston College sailing college coach, Greg Wilkinson, who for five years dished out tough love and practical wisdom. To be named the Female College Sailor of the Year is a big deal. Four years is remarkable, but there was Reineke and Wilkinson, together atop the heap, year after year. Reineke still holds dear the worn-paper notes Wilkinson would pass to her between races; nuggets of knowledge that led her to one college sailing victory after another, notes that helped simplify her focus and separate emotion from pressures encountered on the racecourse.

Now she’s the charge of Malcom Page, the new big-time boss of the US Sailing Team. Despite a gold medal at her first international event in 2017, there’s a lot of work to do, and a lot of sailing miles between Florida and Tokyo, but her talent is innate and the path is clear.

She’s young-there’s decades between herself and Yachtsman of the Year, Peter Duncan, a world champion of the J/70 class and top Etchells helmsman. Duncan, of Rye, New York’s American YC, has been at the game for a long time, racing with his family early on, alongside the family dog. A Long Island Sound water rat of sorts, Duncan took to the casually early on and taught sailing as a summer sailing job through college. He went on to a lucrative career in New York real estate, kids, family and all of that, but the Etchells was his entre to top-level racing. It’s kept him there as well, and now that he’s an empty nester, he’s free to dive in deep. He’s dabbled in other classes – Melges 20 and Melges 24- but the J/70 is the new demand on his attention. Between late 2016 and 2017, he says, he racked up more than 100 days of sailing with A-List crews to get him up to speed.

One of those sailing days, he recalls, was an inglorious tuning session in England. Smitten with blistering speeds downwind on the Solent that day, he’d neglected to notice one well-marked and well-known shoal and bricked the boat at full pace.

Live and learn.

The team that ultimately got Duncan to the dance at the Audi J/70 World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy, last year were Jud Smith, the white-haired sailmaker from Marblehead and Yachtsman of the Year, who did bow and strategy, and the dynamic duo of Willem Van Waay and Victor Diaz de Leon. Van Waay, says Duncan, is the best trimmer and overall enthusiast he’s ever sailed with. It’s widely known in the class, that if you can tap Van Waay, you’re guaranteed a place at the front of the fleet. Same goes for his protégé Diaz de Leon.

Beyond acknowledging his sailing teammates, Duncan concluded his remarks to the Rolex luncheon attendees with a nod to his family; a wife that understands his commitment to win sailboat races, and the kids understood he had to do his thing. Like Reineke, he acknowledges, he is nothing, without the mountain of support that holds him above the rest and allows him to strive for excellence.

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A total of 12 men and six women had been shortlisted for the 2015 honors based on nominations submitted by members of US Sailing, with these two sailors then selected for the noteworthy distinction by a diverse panel of sailing journalists.

Established in 1961 by US Sailing and sponsored by Rolex Watch, U.S.A. since 1980, the annual presentation of US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards are considered the sport’s ultimate recognition of an individual’s outstanding on-the-water achievements for the calendar year. The winners will be honored on Thursday, March 3, 2016, during a luncheon at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan, when they will be presented with specially-engraved Rolex timepieces.

Rolex Yachtsman of the Year – Steve Benjamin (Norwalk, Conn.) has been named the 2015 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in recognition of a year that featured 10 wins, including the Etchells North American Championship in Rye, NY. Benjamin skippered his team to victory in the 35-boat fleet, aboard Terrapin. Benjamin, along with crew George Peet, Luke Lawrence and Julian Sudofsky, won the championship by 15 points through eight races.

Benjamin’s dominance in the Etchells went beyond the North American Championship. He placed second out of 43 boats at the World Championship in Hong Kong. His teams won at the Piana Cup, Long Island Sound Championship and Coral Reef Cup, among others.

In reflecting back on his successes, Benjamin commented on how everything came together for him and his teams in 2015. “It came down to all the quality time we were able to spend on the water together. We raced and practiced so much this year, it really helped us continue to improve from one event to the next, and be better teams.”

“This award goes to all the great sailors and crew I’ve had the opportunity to race with this year,” added Benjamin. “I had some incredible team members to help me every step of the way, and perhaps the biggest supporter of them all is my wife, Heidi.”

Steve and Heidi Benjamin’s Carkeek 40, SPOOKIE, had a clean sweep of overall wins in every offshore race they entered in 2015, including Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Marblehead to Halifax, Ida Lewis Distance Race, and the Vineyard Race.

“I’ve been at this a long time, so this is truly an astonishing honor.”

Benjamin, son of a boatyard owner, started sailing at the age of nine when his parents introduced him to the sport through a junior sailing program at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, NY. Benjamin went on to experience an outstanding college sailing career. He earned College Sailor of the Year honors in 1978 as a member of the Yale University sailing team.

Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year – Annie Haeger (East Troy, Wisc.) has been named the 2015 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year in recognition of her impressive list of top results in 470 Class competition throughout 2015.

Haeger and crew Briana Provancha (San Diego, Calif.) made their mark on the international stage by winning gold at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They won the event by seven points through 10 races in a highly competitive fleet featuring the gold and silver medal-winning boats from the London 2012 Games.

“Winning gold at the Olympic Test Event was a major confidence booster, and it reinforced that if we can earn US Olympic Team selection we have a chance to medal at the Games.”

Haeger and Provancha experienced success in other high-caliber women’s 470 events, including the European Championship (3rd place) and the South American Championship (4th place).

“Winning this award was never something I was ever expecting or aiming for, since Briana and I have been totally focused on the Olympics,” said Haeger. “To be on a list with so many amazing sailors, and to win this on behalf of my incredible teammate and the US Sailing Team Sperry, is unbelievable. I am just so honored.”

“In winning this award, I’m not representing myself, but Team Haeger/Provancha as a whole. I am very blessed to have Briana in the front of my boat. I think she is the best crew in the United States.” Haeger also noted that her fellow national team athletes have played a prominent role in her development. “Our US Sailing Team Sperry veterans like Stu McNay, Dave Hughes, and Paige Railey have pushed us to improve. They have been so helpful, and we want to represent them well.”

Haeger started sailing at age eight on Lake Beulah in Wisconsin. Coincidentally, she was in the same “Learn to Sail” junior sailing program as the 2014 Yachtswoman of the Year, Stephanie Roble.

In parallel with the Yachtsman of the Year, Steve Benjamin, Haeger was also a tremendously successful college sailor. She was named College Sailor of Year in 2011 and a three-time ICSA Women’s Singlehanded National Champion as a member of the Boston College sailing team.

Steve Benjamin

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At first glance, Terry Hutchinson and Stephanie Roble appear to be the archetypal bookends of professional sailing. Hutchinson, though far from finished, has been at the pinnacle the sport—including earning his first Rolex Yachtsman of the Year accolade in 2008—which has brought him to where he is today. On the other side, sailing’s new golden girl, Roble, is just getting started.

When I arrive, Roble is holding a stuffed koala bear and hand drawn card from the Kilroy family, delivered in person by Liam Kilroy, the 11-year-old helmsman on the Melges 20 Team “WildMan,” with herself, Steve Hunt, and Erik Shampain. As Roble makes her way across the room, she is waylaid nearly every step she takes by a well-wishing friend or admiring peer. Dawn Riley envelops her in a hug, Gary Jobson eagerly shakes her hand, and even more guests approach to introduce themselves.

Meanwhile, Hutchinson patiently waits in the lobby for his wife and children to arrive with his suit, chatting with old friends. Only hours before, Hutchinson was crossing the finish line of—and winning—the Caribbean 600 aboard Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente, followed immediately by boarding Fauth’s plane to Teterboro Airport to arrive just in time for the luncheon. Even on his day, without his jacket, Hutchinson is barred from entering the model room. Despite the delay, he’s in good spirits and eagerly awaits the arrival of his loved ones, who appear just in time for lunch to be served.

Jobson takes the stage following the meal, proudly pointing out each of the returning award recipients and panelists who are scattered around the dining tables. Riley, introduces Roble first, and congratulates Rolex on an excellent choice of Yachtswoman of the Year.

Rolex USA President & CEO, Stewart Wicht, then presents Roble with her award, and pauses for a moment to let the room in on their most recent conversation over lunch. “Steph is currently ranked number three in the world, but soon to be number one,” he says. Roble nods in agreement. “We all agree on that,” he says, “So, well done.”

In their awards speeches, the two reveal that they are similar in the most fundamental ways. As Jobson is quick to point out, he is thrilled that Rolex is honoring two successful tacticians. Both are alumni of Old Dominion University, and Hutchinson and Roble credit ODU coach Mitch Brindley for their collegiate success—though Hutchinson argues that the harsher side of Brindley he experienced was different than Roble’s.

But perhaps the most important takeaway is that both winners focused on one central theme to which they attribute their success—the strength of their support team. These groups, which include their families, mentors, coaches, and teammates on the water, are what both Roble and Hutchinson identify as the keystones of their careers.

“When I think about the most successful times in my life,” says Roble, “It has been when a strong team has been backing me up. This year has been a prime example of that.”

In a more reflective mood, Hutchinson speaks about his father’s influence on his determined personality, his appreciation for Hap Fauth’s mentorship, and his constant support from coach James Lyne. In a difficult moment in his speech, Hutchinson gestures to a back corner of the model room to point out the empty space where the America’s Cup once lived.

“I had so many people who stayed with me through the toughest times,” he says, “I hope that someday that trophy can be brought back here, and return to where it belongs.”

To which the room erupts into applause.

2014 Rolex Yachtsman & Yachtswomen

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