Johanna Poksi became an international sailing judge

At the World Sailing Annual Congress held in Ireland, the international governing body for the sport decided to award our club member Johanna Poksi the qualification of International Judge. As of today, there are only two international sailing judges in the Baltic states: Johanna and her father Andrus Poksi, who received the highest judging category in 2006.

Applying for international judge status requires holding a national-level qualification. Johanna obtained her club-level judge status from the Estonian Sailing Federation in 2017 and her national category in 2019. As the first step toward applying for the international level, she had to complete a seminar and pass a test, which she successfully did in October last year in Riga. For the practical requirement, she needed to participate in four international regattas and receive positive evaluations from the jury chair at three of them. Johanna achieved positive assessments at the Kiel Week regatta, the Travemünde Week regatta, the ORC Offshore Sailing World Championship in Tallinn, and the ILCA 6 & ILCA 7 U21 World Championships in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. The International Judge qualification is valid for four years.

One important prerequisite for becoming a successful sailing judge is strong competitive experience in dinghy classes. Johanna describes her sailing journey as follows:
“I started sailing in the Optimist class in 2006 at the age of six at the Tallinn Yacht Club Sailing School in Pirita, coached by Maria Veessaar. Later I sailed the single-handed Zoom8 and the double-handed RS Feva together with Maris Seersant and later Mari-Ann Holter. I also spent a couple of years sailing the double-handed 470, and in 2015 I became Estonian champion together with Mari Põldmaa.”

For many years, Johanna has taken part in major Estonian regattas as a judge, as well as serving as an umpire at Tallinn Race and other regattas with finals. We wish Johanna successful and exciting international regattas around the world and look forward to welcoming her back to officiate at our club’s competitions!