Cory Sertl elected as Vice President of World Sailing

Cory Sertl at the 2018 Sailing Leadership Forum in St. Pete Beach, Florida © Metthew Cohen

World Sailing capped off an eventful week of committee meetings, thoughtful discussions, spirited debate, and important decision-making by announcing results for the World Sailing Presidential and Vice Presidential elections.

Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.), President of US Sailing, was officially elected as one of seven new Vice Presidents of World Sailing at the General Assembly on Sunday, November 1. Sertl will serve on World Sailing's Board of Directors for a four-year term.

New World Sailing Vice Presidents:

• Cory Sertl (USA)
• Tomasz Chamera (POL)
• Sarah Kenny (AUS)
• Philip Baum (RSA)
• Yann Rocherieux (FRA)
• Duriye Özlem Akdurak (TUR)
• Marcus Spillane (IRL)

Four Presidential candidates were up for election in the first round and no candidate received more than 50% of votes. A second round of voting was required between the top two candidates. Kim Andersen (DEN) and Li advanced to the second round.

In the second round of voting, 128 Member National Authorities, in good standing with World Sailing, sent verified votes to the Independent Scrutineer. Receiving 68 votes, Quanhai Li was elected as World Sailing President. Andersen received 60 votes.

Read the World Sailing Election announcement.

US Sailing is excited to work closely with World Sailing leadership and all Member National Authorities on supporting sailors, increasing participation, providing competition, and equal opportunity around the world.

Sertl was thrilled and honored to receive the news about her new position with World Sailing and looks forward to the challenge.

"It is indeed a privilege to serve the sport of sailing in the role of Vice President," said Sertl. "World Sailing has immediate challenges to tackle and solve with finances and delivering Sailing at the Olympic Games next summer. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the new Board."

Sertl follows Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.), Past President of US Sailing, as a member on World Sailing's Board of Directors. Jobson served two terms on the Board at World Sailing (2012-2020). He was congratulatory of Sertl and the newly elected Board members. Jobson also reflected on the collective progress made over the past several years on important issues facing the sport.

"Congratulations to Cory Sertl for being elected as a Vice President of World Sailing," said Jobson. "Cory has served on the World Sailing Council for the past 12 years and is well prepared to serve on the Board. My two terms as a Vice President comes to an end. It has been an energetic 14 years serving on the Board of US Sailing, President of US Sailing and on the Board of World Sailing. I am particularly pleased that we will have an Offshore Doublehanded Mixed Long Distance Race in the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. I am also proud of the tremendous progress we've achieved by creating Gender Equity in the Olympic Games and by extension the entire sport. I wish Cory and the other newly elected Board members good luck over the next four years."

US Sailing has been well represented over the years on a number of World Sailing committees. We would also like to recognize and thank Gary Bodie who is retiring from World Sailing Delegation. He represented Group P (US Sailing and Sail Canada) on Council and made significant contributions on the Events Committee that helped shape the racing format of Sailing at the Olympic Games.

Stan Honey (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Dina Kowalyshyn (Annapolis, Md.) will be representing Group P as Council members for the next four years. Honey is one of the best navigators in the world and has set numerous sailing speed records in various sailboats around the globe. He won US Sailing's 2010 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award. While Kowalyshyn is an accomplished sailor and a naval architect who has led the World Sailing Equipment Committee as Chair the past four years.

In October of 2018, Sertl was elected President of US Sailing to serve a one three-year term for the National Governing Body. She is especially proud of how much US Sailing contributes to the World Sailing through the efforts of its delegation of volunteers serving on committees and commissions of the federation. This is a long tradition for US Sailing and as Sertl looks back on the past four years, she greatly appreciates the efforts of her fellow delegation members: Betsy Alison - Para World Sailing, Liz Baylis - Match Racing, Gary Bodie - Events and Council, Jim Capron - Racing Rules, Tom Duggan - Race Officials and Race Management, Fred Hagedorn - Regional Games, Sally Honey - Special Regulations, Stan Honey - Oceana & Offshore, Dina Kowalyshyn - Equipment, Tom Rinda - Sailor Categorization, Dick Rose - Racing Rules, Ashley Tobin - Constitution and Steve Wrigley - Team Racing.

Sertl commented, "US Sailing is committed to continuing this tradition of service and leadership at World Sailing."

Sertl has had an extensive and successful sailing career both on and off the water. Her sailing experience ranges from dinghies and match racing, to one design keelboat racing at the highest levels of national and international competition. Sertl was a U.S. Olympian at the 1988 Olympic Games as a 470 sailor, and she also launched Olympic campaigns in 1992 and 2004. She is a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award winner in 1995 and 2001. Sertl is also a certified US Sailing Instructor Trainer and coach.

Sertl has been active on behalf of US Sailing as a delegate to World Sailing since 1995. She has served as a representative on the Council for North America and Chairs the Youth Events Sub Committee and Youth World Championships Committee.

Sailing is a family activity for the Sertls. Cory and her husband, Mark have two grown children, who sailed at the college level - Katja (Boston College, 2016) and Nick (Harvard, 2018).

Learn more about Cory Sertl and how she plans to serve the sport as a Vice President of World Sailing.

World Sailing Election Process Details

The election of the President and seven Vice Presidents was conducted by an electronic ballot. World Sailing Member National Authorities (MNA), in good standing with World Sailing, were eligible to vote. Each MNA selected at least two male and two female candidates for Vice President.

Eligible candidates are endorsed by at least five World Sailing MNAs with the term of office beginning at the close of the General Assembly. The Board of Directors are elected for a period of four years.

The first round of voting was held on October 9-16, 2020. This was the main voting period for the Presidential and Vice Presidential elections.

Controlling and regulating the process was World Sailing's Election Committee chaired by Philip Cotton and supported by Melanie Willmore and David Kellett, who have overseen the process. In addition, KPMG was appointed as the Independent Scrutineer.