Sailing Energy, world's nautical photography referent, receives the 2025 Communication Timón Award

Jesús Renedo and Pedro Martínez changed the paradigm of nautical photography by uniting their forces. “You have to workd a lot to be in the right place at the right time and be able to photograph unique moments”.

Photographers Jesús Renedo and Pedro Martínez, creators of the agency Sailing Energy, will receive this year the Communication Timón Award that is given by Gaceta Náutica. Their work has turned their company into an international referent for sailing photography, with projects for World Sailing, the main international federations, as well as Olympic teams and prestigious regattas.

Both got to this job by family heritage. Pedro Martínez is the son of the recognized nautical photographer Nico Martínez, awarded with the same award in 2021, while Jesús Renedo, whose father was also a great photography amateur, worked a shipowner of recreational crafts before turning the camera into his profession. The union of both was set in 2014, during Santander's World Champs, when they began working togetehr in an innovating system for the management and distribution of regattas' images.

Through Sailing Energy, they developed a methodology that revolutioned the way of delivring olympic sailing photographies: they classified the images by sailor and they placed them into an database accesible through searcher, something unusual then in the nautical area. The International Federation adopted their system after the 2016 Rio Games, which marked the definitive take-off of their agency.

Renedo and Martínez agree that the secret to nautical photography is is anticipating to events to capture scenes that can only be foreseen by someone who knows the sea and its dynamics. “You have to work a lot to be in the right place at the right time and be able to photograph unique moments” explains Renedo. Martínez adds that “in water you depend on the speedboat's shipowner, the wind, the light and the movement; controlling all that and keeping the team safe forms an essential part of the work”.

Their trajectory has taken them all over the world, reporting high-level regattas such as the Olympic Games or the World Tour. From its beginnings in dinghy sailing to the most demanding competitions, Sailing Energy has played a decisive role in giving visibility to the sport of sailing, especially during the 2012–2016 Olympic cycle, when social media greatly amplified the reach of its images.

For both, the recognition of Gaceta Náutica means a surprise and a satisfaction. “Normally, photographers and journalists are on the other side; it’s nice when someone suddenly remembers you, and you get to switch roles for a moment,” they said.

Renedo and Martínez now observe an audiovisual landscape in full transformation, marked by an overabundance of images and the rise of artificial intelligence. However, they believe that this saturation will eventually lead to a return to authenticity: “The audience will once again value what is genuine, what is real, the unrepeatable moment captured in the place and at the very instant it happens,” says Renedo.

The 2025 Timón Award for Communication recognizes professionals who have made an outstanding contribution to promoting nautical activities and marine sports. The category was established in 2018, when cameraman and editor Ugo Fonollá received the award for his “embedded” work aboard several boats competing in that season’s Volvo Ocean Race. Since then, the award has been given to journalists Fernando Fernández, Yolanda Llinás, Jordi Jiménez, and Neús Jordi; photographer Nico Martínez; and communicator Fernando Garfella (posthumously).