2020: Clarity of Vision
What a way to start a new decade! January 2020 opens up with a splash, as the V70 Wizard dashes and crashes across the Gulfstream in this bracing image!
This is one of my ‘new’ favorite and most thrilling images; with an equally thrilling ‘How-did-you-ever-capture-that?’ tale. Despite wild odds, I willed this shot into being: clearly my ‘vision’ for 2020!
Also, I am so proud to announce this photo of Wizard won Silver in the recent Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image competition. What the America’s Cup is to sailors, the Mirabaud is to professional photographers; singling out “photography which best represents the essence and excitement of the sport.” I am so honored to have been recognized as 2019’s second-place winner, vying against 132 of my esteemed colleagues in this prestigious contest. Thank you to the organization and judges, and to all who voted for me in the Public Award.
But enough about that: let’s talk about this shot!
I had just returned from a speaking engagement at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, rushing back to California to present at Newport Harbor Yacht Club (if you’d like to know more about my awesome Ultimate Sailing multi-media presentations, ask!).
Back home in Santa Barbara, I was prepping to shoot the Hempel World Sailing Championships, an Olympic Class regatta, on Biscayne Bay. But I also had my eye on getting the Pineapple Cup start 
which was to begin a day before the championships and asked Anderson Reggio, the navigator for Team Argo, for his expert opinion on the prospective conditions. To anyone who doesn’t know Anderson: he is more than simply “a navigator.” 
He is a master of all trades, from weather forecasting and onboard navigation, to performance analytics and race management (which is in his blood, from his pro-PRO father Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio). I could not have got this shot without his knowledge and cooperation.
I had had an intuition about trying to get this image. In nearly 60 years of the Pineapple Cup, no-one had ventured out to try capture the spectacle of when the big race boats plow into the Gulf Stream en route to Jamaica. I was nearly possessed, consulting with Anderson daily, and juggling logistics.
But despite a month of hoping and planning and preparation, at the last minute it looked like it wouldn’t happen. Anderson advised an approaching storm front threatened to spoil my plans. Clearly, I have no control of the weather gods!
I returned to Miami anyway, where there was a torrential deluge all day and night. Early the next morning, emails were flooding in like the rain, with clients saying, “Gee Sharon we don’t think this is going to work out.” But Anderson stood firm telling me, “It will clear by 11:00 and all will be good: windy with huge seas, partly cloudy.”
Amazingly at 11 AM the rain cleared and we took off at 1:40 pm for the 2:00 pm start. It had been a very cold northerly front that rolled through, turning Florida into an ice pop. It was freezing in the helicopter, and we flew for hours: with my friend and wingman Craig Leweck, Editor of Scuttlebutt, rolling video. Kudos to Craig, who endured hours of in the air in the frigid conditions, spinning and whirling around the boats on the course.
I took the whole back seat of the Bell 407 helicopter, so I could slide from side to side to shoot bow-on, then the stern, and back again … the seas were enormous and spray was flinging into the helicopter. The storm had left behind humongous seas, and billowy clouds that produced this incredible light! Hats off to my extremely skilled pilot, flying offshore in those conditions: it was super-risky and gutsy, but such an adrenalin rush!
Wizard ended up as the first-to-finish monohull at 3:03:52:13, while Anderson navigated the MOD 70 Argo to victory in the multihull division, smashing the previous record by more than 10 hours and finishing in 2:00:07:44
Thank you Anderson Reggio, Team Argo and Team Wizard for giving me the opportunity to document the indelible moments of yacht racing. It is for you and because of you that Ultimate Sailing exists.And I ended up with a one-of-a-kind, epic day, with the shot to prove it: Wizard lost in frothy waves as she plows through the Gulf Stream on the 811nm race to Montego Bay. What a shot to kick off 2020!
If you don’t already have your 2020 calendar, there’s still time to order! Go to: www.ultimatesailing.com and type in 202020 for a 20% discount. And to everyone who is or has purchased a calendar or merchandise: thank you so much, I appreciate your support and patronage!
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Royal Blue
Oh, that water! That sparkling, rich royal blue that caresses the yachts as they hurtle toward Honolulu on the Transpacific Yacht Race, as depicted in the April 2025 pages of the Ultimate Sailing Calendar.
Maxed Out
We have excitedly shared Gilles’ exquisite work before in the Ultimate Sailing Calendar, and this month focus on the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo. Here an impressive fleet of more than 40 behemoth, majestic maxi yachts battled their rivals and the seas, off the blustery coast of Sardinia.
Make mine a double
The January pages of the 2025 Ultimate Sailing Calendar: in Luca Butto’s featured image the crew hikes hard, defying the explosion of spray buffeting the maxi yacht Cannonball, as it plows to weather at the Tre Golfi Sailing Week in Naples. In the inset image, at the bottom, Stefano Gattini captures the Club Swan 36 Farstar in hot pursuit at the Swan Croatia Challenge.
+About Ultimate Sailing
Sailing is a magnificent, colorful and dramatic sport. This unique sport has many variables with the constantly changing elements, sea conditions, boats, events, competitors and locations. The challenge is to capture on film electrifying moments that take your breath away. Those moments and opportunities are very few, but when they happen... it is ultimate sailing." ~ Sharon Green
Sharon Green has been capturing electrifying images of performance sailing for more than 40 years. Her annual Ultimate Sailing Calendar, featuring the highlights of competitive sailing, is eagerly anticipated by yachting and photography enthusiasts worldwide. Sharon has been published in major boating publications, both locally and internationally, since she first took up a camera while still in high school.
The pursuit of 'Ultimate Sailing' images never seems to grow old. Four decades and I still love the challenge of creating memorable images for my clients and the calendar."
Sharon is happiest when she is on the water or hanging from a helicopter in search of the elusive image that can be called 'Ultimate Sailing'. "My greatest satisfaction is when it all comes together: the anticipation, planning, organizing, traveling and epic conditions that combine to create a thrilling photograph.
The passage of time eludes our grasp: we can only look back in awe and look forward in anticipation. Never did I expect, 40 years ago, that my vision of creating the Ultimate Sailing Calendar would endure and provide such an extraordinary life experience. boundless advancements in sailing, and concurrently radical developments in camera and photographic technology, have kept me on my toes and the years have swept by! I find myself at this landmark anniversary: humbled by your patronage and inspired by your support. To my many friends, colleagues, clients, and subjects who have sustained and fueled this endless passion for capturing the ultimate Sailing image, I extend my deepest love and gratitude.
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