With the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships in The Hague being an SSL 2500 event, it was bound to shake up the SSL Ranking, and sure enough there have been some big moves!
Every sailor in the top five of the SSL Global Skipper Ranking has moved, and just four sailors in the top fifty have held their position. Arguably the most important change is at the very top, with long time number one, Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic, losing the top spot to The Netherlands’ 49er supremo Bart Lambriex who is now on 10,500 points.
The form of Bart Lambriex, who sails the 49er with his regular crew Floris Van de Werken, is phenomenal, with every single one of his SSL Global Ranking points being maximum as they are all for first places at major events. That’s three SSL 2500 events, being the past three 49er World Championships, and three SSL 1000 events, being World Cup Regattas and the Paris 2024 Olympic Test Event. The pairing is dominating the 49er class, and are heading towards being the hot favourites at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Demonstrating how tight the SSL Global Skipper Ranking is, Stipanovic is only 74 points behind, and he is only 51 points ahead of Italian Nacra 17 superstar Ruggero Tita, who re-found his best at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships.
The Netherlands’ 49er FX skipper Odile Van Aanholt has dropped a place to fourth in the SSL Global Skipper Ranking, despite finishing second at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships, demonstrating that winning is critical to maintain a top ranking. If she and her crew, Annette Duetz, had won at The Hague, then Van Aanholt would also be on 10,500 points and we’d currently have joint leaders in the ranking.
Up two places to fifth is Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom. The ILCA 6 sailor finished third in the Worlds at The Hague, but the points were enough to propel her into the top five.
The SSL Rankings are updated every Tuesday and include 113,000 sailors (67,000 skippers and 47,000 crew), highlighting the world’s top inshore sailors across a huge range of classes. The SSL Global Ranking does not replace the rankings specific to each class but completes them, to offer a simple and attractive overview of inshore sailing to the general public.