Finn world champion Wright, 32 - regarded as one of the fittest sailors in the fleet - is a potent force in Britain's team.

He led the medal race from start to finish to claim his title at the Finn World Cup in San Francisco last month.

It capped off an impressive 2009-2010 season which included golds at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta and the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma.

And he found form again at the European Championships in Split in May where he earned a silver medal and claimed the overall World Cup series title for the second running.

Wright is delighted to be in the running for the ISAF Rolex award.

"It’s very exciting and I’m really happy to have been nominated," he said.

"It’s such a prestigious award, and to win would have to count as a big lifetime achievement.

"I wasn’t expecting to have been nominated – you don’t really think about these sorts of things when you’re out there doing your thing.
 

 

"There are some great names in world sailing who have won this award – I’m just so pleased to have had such a successful and consistent year and to have even been nominated."

Launched in 1994, the awards are recognised as the pinnacle a sailor can reach.

They are presented every November to one male and one female sailor, with Ben Ainslie the last British recipient for a record third time in 2008.

Wright finds himself shortlisted alongside Laser and Etchells world champion Tom Slingsby, Formula Windsurfing world champion Antoine Albeau, 470 World Champions and World Cup winners Mathew Belcher & Malcolm Page, Melges 24 and 32 world champion Lorenzo Bressani and record-breaking offshore sailor Franck Cammas.

The female nominees are nine-time kitesurf World Champion Kristin Boesse, Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Siripon Kaewduang-Ngam, RS:X world champion and Double World Cup winner Blanca Manchon, and 470 world champions Lisa Westerhof & Lobke Berkhout.

The ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs) around the world will now be invited to vote.

The winners will be unveiled at the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year presentation and dinner on November 9 at the Zappeion in Athens, Greece.