Wondering about the female finalists
Published on October 25th, 2024
by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
An 11-person panel was tasked by World Sailing with evaluating the entries and advancing four nominees for the Female Rolex World Sailor of the Year. This list is then put forth for voting, with a public vote to make up 50% of the final decisions and 50% contributed by World Sailing’s panel.
Oddly, the public has been given very little information for which to base their vote, and nowhere near the detail (I hope) the selection panel had at their disposal. Oddly more, however, was the four nominees advanced for the vote.
Not making the cut was Lara Vadlau (AUT) who won the Paris 2024 Gold medal as helm in the first ever Mixed Dinghy (470) event. In this era of female advancement, and as helms tend to get more credit, Vadlau’s omission is surprising as she was one of only three female helms in the top ten.
Also missing the cut was Caterina Banti, who alongside helm Ruggero Tita, won the 2022 awards. This duo again obliterated the Mixed Multihull field at Paris 2024 alongside winning the World Championship. Tita is a nominee on the men’s list, but Banti’s equal achievements were not enough.
With only four nominees, not everyone could make the 2024 shortlist but there is a significant anomaly selected – Vuyisile Jaca (RSA). While the other three were Paris 2024 Gold medalist, Jaca’s 2024 achievement was as crew – not skipper – on the all-women team that won the 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race.
This was the inaugural edition of this fully crewed, retro race that was in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. Racing was without computers, GPS, and high-tech materials, with navigation using sextants and paper charts. Jaca was one of 13 crew on a 1979 aluminum-built 58-footer.
In a perfect world, the nominees would highlight all facets of the sport, but Olympic years do highlight the gold medalists. The Ocean Globe Race is pretty far from elite offshore competition, but as Jaca represents South Africa, is World Sailing promoting diversity and inclusion?
If World Sailing wanted to highlight how an all-women team won this retro race, why not advance English skipper Heather Thomas? What Banti did as crew wasn’t good enough, but Jaca made the cut? She was the first African black woman to win an around the world race, which is definitely an achievement, but is it worthy of this award? Standing by for the vote results.
2024 Rolex World Sailor of the Year finalists – Female
• Odile van Aanholt & Annette Duetz (NED): 49erFX – World Championship (1st), Olympics (1st)
• Marit Bouwmeester (NED): ILCA 6 – World Championship (11th), Olympics (1st)
• Vuyisile Jaca (RSA): Farr 58 – Ocean Globe Race (1st)
• Ellie Aldridge (GBR) Formula Kite – World Championship (2nd), Olympics (1st)