Honoring the Past, Leading the Future

President's Message

Dear Star sailors,

This time we  have really good news for you: fortunately our racing season has started again. Not as a normal routine year : occasionally we saw less competitors as normal, but all were in good spirits and happy to participate in regattas and meet their old friends again.

The winner of the first silver Star event  2021 -the Western Hemisphere Championship sailed in April in Miami - were  Paul Cayard / Luke Lawrence. 2nd place went to Jorgen Schonherr / Markus Koy followed by 3rd Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada.
With a little delay also the European Star sailors started at the end of May with the 17th District Championship and the European Championship back to back in beautiful Split /Croatia. 34 Stars sailing 7 races in great conditions for the European Championship title, which was finally won by Italian team Enrico Chieffi and Ferdinando Colaninno. 2nd on the podium was Hubert Merkelbach/Kilian Weise, 3rd again as in Miami --Augie Diaz this time sailing with Christian "Bezi“ Nehammer. Reports and details can be found in this e-starlight
Beside these Silver Star events numerous of District and National Championships were sailed as well as  traditional weekend Star regattas. 
As an outlook into the future we would like to refer to our further Silver Star events in Newport Beach /USA (August) and in Ilhabela/ Brazil (November) as well as Buenos Aires/ Argentina (December).

The highlight of the season will be the World Championship and the U30 World Championship in Kiel – the sailing city. The organizers have done everything to present a fantastic championship on land and on the water. For questions regarding entry of the country, travelling  or COVID there is a service team available. To enable the organizers to plan better, we ask everyone to register promptly – wouldn’t it be great to have a record number of participants!

Even more good news: 9 new boats have already been built in 2021 by our 3 active boat builders. While talking about our suppliers, who  had a bad last season : wouldn’t it be time once again to check and think of new set of sails or spars to start the season off full speed?

I wish you all health and the very best and hope to meet you soon at our next regattas.
 
Stay tuned,

Yours sincerely,

Hubert Merkelbach  

2021 STAR WORLDS IN KIEL, GERMANY

An iconic location for the 2021 STAR WORLD CHAMPION, after a forced leap year, the most awaited for event in the calendar is here, and it is right in the heart of European Olympic sailing, the sailing venue of the 1972 Games and the place of the mythological Kieler Woche, the Kiel Olympic Week.

So many Star Class legends have trained here and competed at Kieler Woche, often chosen to select athletes for the Olympics for its tough conditions and high level of competition.

After many years, the Star will go back being part of that epic week of sailing competition, the Star World Championship will end up being just during Kieler Woche with all other classes racing and parties going on in the city, not far from the Olympic Center on the water. But, the Star Class will have its own Race Course, with its own Race Committee, close to the harbour (and not one hour out in the sea), all the Star boats will be moored together, with the trailer park not far behind the moorings. Star sailors will also have their VIP lounge to meet and greet before and after racing.

2021 Major Regatta Calendar

The 2021 Star European Championship in Split, Croatia was nothing but perfect. Seven out of seven races were sailed, all in different conditions with medium to strong sea breeze, waves and flat water, light north wind and, most important, a good challenge and fun for 34 teams, all hungry for it after a long year with no international regattas. The European Championship was won with a day to spare by former Star World Champion Enrico Chieffi sailing with Fernando after six flawless races. They put their boat in the water on the day before the last one seven points behind Star Class President Hubert Merklebach and Kilian Weise (GER), who had been unstoppable in the strong breeze. Day Three’s different conditions, shiftier wind from the North between 4 and 6 knots, didn’t sit well with the German team who discarded an 18 and scored a 12. Chieffi/Colaninno had on the other hand a brilliant day with two amazing starts and were excellent at managing the race course of the difficult racecourse, it was the perfect day to win their first Star European title.
 
Their comments right after racing:
“What an amazing sailing, I mean this morning it was so difficult, light air going everywhere, this afternoon was more of a sea breeze, but we have a good boat and we raced very well, great starts, and it was a great day, nothing more than that!!”
“I am a very happy ‘old’ guy who is really enjoying this moment, because you know, at this stage of my life, every good thing is a present, and this is such a great gift!!” Commented Enrico Chieffi, Star World Champion in 1996 in Rio de Janeiro.
 
While we had the winners with one day to spare, the battle for second and third has been up until the very last race. The winner was Argentinian naval architect Juan Kouyoumdjian and Enrico Voltolini (ITA), who finished fourth overall. Seconds are Star Class President and former European Champion Hubert Merklebach with Kilian Weise (GER), who had been leading for the first two days of the series. In third, the 2016 Star World Champion Augie Diaz (USA) and Christian Nehammer (AUT).

Dear Fellow Sailors and Friends,

Over the past 18 months we have all been struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic.  Some of us are now able to resume a relatively normal life, while others continue to struggle to obtain the vaccination.  Sadly, some are grieving the loss of family members and friends.

On a positive note, many of our sailing events have been rescheduled and planning is moving forward on many others, including the Worlds in Germany and the Worlds in the United States.

Additionally, we are very fortunate to have a number of individual sailors, fleets, and yacht clubs furnishing Star boats for young sailors, some from other Classes and some new to sailing, as well as imparting their invaluable knowledge about rigging and sailing at a competitive level.

The Star Loan program has been part of this effort to engage new sailors and has been very successful.  You can find more information about this program on our website.

Under the leadership of our President, Dr. Hubert Merkelbach, and the efforts of our committees, we continue to move our Class forward. At times, this has been challenging given the many issues and roadblocks created by the virus, but we can finally “see the light at the end of the tunnel”.

There is currently a very exciting project in the works involving our World Championship Skippers and Crews and I am honored to be part of this effort.    We will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Star World Championship and we are moving full speed to have this ready to present at the 2022 Star World Championship. 

I sincerely hope that you and your families are well and I look forward to seeing many of you soon,

My Best Wishes,

John Chiarella
Commodore, International Star Class