20 yacht racing photographers from 13 nations have reached the final round of the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award 2023. The winners will be announced on Thursday (16 November) at the Mets equipment fair in Amsterdam.
A total of 144 professional photographers from 30 different nations had previously submitted their best sailing motifs for the most prestigious sailing photography competition. Two of the 20 best images of the year were taken by German photographers. Alongside classic photographer Tobias Stoerkle, Christian Gossmann also has a chance of winning the main prize. While Stoerkle sent in a picture from the 8mR World Championship off Genoa, Gossmann entered the competition with a strongly staged sunset at this year's Silverrudder.
As many as seven German photographers made it through to the first elimination round of the best 80 sailing images of the year. In addition to the two finalists, Felix Kling, Sascha Klahn, Christian Beeck and last year's runner-up Eike Schurr as well as Felix Diemer. The latter made it into the top 20 of the audience award alongside Gossmann, who is therefore represented twice. For one month, anyone interested was able to vote for their favourites among the best 80 pictures.
The winner of this prize will also be announced on Thursday at the Mets Amsterdam equipment fair. The pictures will also be exhibited at the World Sailing annual conference (13 to 18 November). There is a third award to be won: The delegates of both events will vote and select the so-called Delegates Award.
About the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award and the 2023 jury
Launched in 2010, the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Award brings together the best yacht photographers in the world. No fewer than 150 photographers from 29 countries entered an image for the award in 2022. The winner of the main prize at the time was Spanish photographer Nico Martinez. The black and white image he submitted was taken during the TP52 World Championships in Cascais. The international jury voted unanimously in favour of Martinez, who is now part of the six-member panel himself.
He is joined on the jury by Swiss national Nicolas Mirabaud, Managing Partner of the Mirabaud Group. In addition, there are two experts employed by World Sailing: Sustainability Director Alexandra Rickham and Communications and Digital Director Scott Dougal. The committee is completed by two journalists. One is Laurène Coroller, who works for the French trade magazine "Voiles et Voiliers", and the other is YACHT author Tatjana Pokorny. She has reported from the last eight Olympic Games, covered all America's Cup editions since 2000 and all Ocean Races since 1993/1994, and is also a great admirer of yacht and sports portrait photography.
