Three outstanding sailors have been recognised as finalists in the Female Sailor of the Year category for the 2022 Australian Sailing Awards, with their competition results speaking for themselves. The winner will be announced tomorrow night at the Australian National Maritime Museum during the first in-person awards event since 2019.

The first finalist in the category is Nina Curtis from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in New South Wales.

The 2021-22 sailing season will go down in sailing history as a year of firsts for Nina Curtis who became the first female athlete selected onto the Australian Sail GP team.

Nina went on to become the first female athlete to ever win a Sail GP event when the Australian team took the win in Sail GP Cadiz.

Nina and the team then went on to win the Sail GP Sydney event in home waters, finishing a strong season by winning the Sail GP Grand Final in San Francisco.

Capping 12 months to remember, Nina kept her undefeated record in Sail GP intact after winning the Chicago event with the team in June this year.

Nina is an incredible ambassador for female athletes and is constantly pushing and working for gender equity in the sport of sailing.

Mara Stransky from the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is the second finalist in the category.

Post Tokyo Olympics, where Mara finished 14th in a field of 44 overcoming the huge obstacles of a Covid world, she joined a united Australian squad on a four-month European campaign at the end of 2021.

At the World Championships in Oman, Mara finished sixth and re-qualified for the Australian Sailing Team in the best performance since Sarah Blanck's fifth in 2008.

She placed second at Sail Melbourne and went on to spend February and March with new team coaches, Carolijn Brouwer and Ben Walkemeyer continuing Tristan Browns work.

After battling a broken ankle and a bout of ill health, Mara fought back at the French Olympic Week in Hyres, finishing second in the medal race and ninth overall.

She was thrillingly pipped in the medal races to score fourth at the Allianz World Cup in Almere Holland, taking her ISAF World ranking to third.

Mara’s training continued at the Dutch high-performance facility in the Hague.

The year culminated in a break-through performance at Kiel Week where she scored a resounding win against a quality world fleet, posting three bullets and winning the medal race, finishing the season on a champagne note and in full health.

Rounding out the category, Zoe Thomson joined the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (RFBYC) in 2011 at the age of eight - her love of sailing, consistent participation and tenacity shining through with her goal to represent Australia at the Olympic Games.

Zoe is a member of the West Australian Institute Sports Scholarship (WAIS) and the Australian Laser Radial Sailing Squad (ASS).

While the Covid 19 lockdown for nearly two years was a challenging period, Zoe continued to train hard, flying to the Eastern States to train, returning for mandatory quarantine.

Zoe also headed overseas to compete in the ILCA 6 World Championships in Oman, finishing 13th out of a fleet of 63 boats, a tremendous result after not competing for so long.

She went on to win at Sail Melbourne in January 2022, returning overseas to compete in the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma placing 13th; then 16th in the World Cup Hyeres and more recently sixth at Kieler Woche.

Whenever her schedule allows, Zoe also works with young people as a coach and mentor, also taking the Tackers courses at RFBYC.

She is involved in the “Girls Who Sail” programs and is an ambassador for sailing at local schools with the aim of introducing groups to sailing.

Congratulations to each of our three impressive finalists! To learn more about the awards or our finalists, please click here.