The National Sailing Hall of Fame (NSHOF) this week announced that eleven sailors will comprise its 11th class of inductees.

Among the inductees are Capt. William D. “Bill” Pinkney, the first African American to solo-circumnavigate the world via the Capes, who will be the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and three female sailors, Dawn Riley, Jane Wiswell Pegel and Lynne Jewell Shore.

The NSHOF has recently come under fire for mostly inducting white men. In February, Cruising World’s Herb McCormick called the NSHOF, the “National Sailing Hall of Ancient Pale Dudes” because 84 of its 90 inductees were white males. The inclusion of Pinkney and the three female sailors, some of whom McCormick named in his column, may be a sign that the NSHOF will be recognizing a more diverse set of worthy sailors in its future classes.

The Class of 2021 will be formally celebrated on Saturday, October 16, 2021, with an induction ceremony in Newport, RI. The event will be held in the newly renovated Armory Building, former site of the international press corps during the 12 Metre America’s Cup era in Newport and future home of The Sailing Museum.

The members of the Class of 2021 join 90 current Hall of Famers, all of whom will be featured in the Legends of Sailing exhibition at The Sailing Museum, which is scheduled to open in May of 2022.

The Class of 2021 includes:

  • Alexander “Red” Bryan and Cortlandt “Bud” Heyniger – founders of Alcort, Inc. and designers and producers of the iconic Sunfish.
  • William “Carl” Buchan – championship sailor, Olympic gold medal winner and 1988 defender of the America’s Cup.
  • Agustin “Augie” Diaz – Rolex Yachtsman of the Year; Star, Snipe and Laser World Champion; and 505 North American Champion.
  • Gilbert T. Gray – Olympic gold medalist in the Star Class debut Olympiad, race official and chief measurer.
  • Lynne Jewell Shore – one of the first women to win an Olympic gold medal in sailing, Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and former Executive Director of Sail Newport.
  • Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce – the founder of the U.S. Naval War College (1884) and leading educator on seamanship and training for the Navy.
  • Jane Wiswell Pegel – a three-time Martini & Rossi (now Rolex) Yachtswoman of the Year and winner of several National and North American Championships in sailing and iceboating.
  • Dawn Riley – the first woman ever to manage an America’s Cup syndicate and the first American to sail in three America’s Cups and two Whitbread Round the World (now The Ocean Race) races.
  • Richard “Dick” Rose – a thirty-year member of World Sailing’s Racing Rules of Sailing Committee, he is considered “the” international authority on the Racing Rules of Sailing.
  • The Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for 2021 is Captain William D. “Bill” Pinkney, the first African American to solo-circumnavigate the world via the Capes.

You can read a recent Soundings story about Pinkney here.