Honoring the Past, Leading the Future
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Dear Star Sailors,
The Starclass is on a continuous successful course.
In September we had 2 silver star events back on back: the Eastern Hemisphere Championship was run by the prestigious Union Yacht Club Attersee/Austria. The winner of the 52 Stars fleet was Augie Diaz with former olympic crew Christian Nehammer. Second place went to Peter O'Leary/Joost Houweling on equal points with Haico de Boer/Pedro Trouche.
Just the next week our Star North American Championship took place in famous Toms River YC.
Exeptional: during only one week it was again former World Champion Augie Diaz who won another Silver Star on a different continent, this time with current European Champion Henry Boening! Second place was Tomas Hornos/Josh Revkin ahead of George Szabo/Kevin Hetherington-Young.
Again the famous Star Vintage Gold Cup was another big success in this year! The winners were Eivind Melleby/Josh Revkin.
And we had much more great exciting regattas all over the world!
Congratulations to all competitors and winners! Find more exiting details in this e-starlight by our media manager Rachele Vitello.
And there is still one more Silver Star to win this year: the 2019 South American Championship will be sailed in the Club Nautico Olivos/Argentina, where we had fantastic championships during former years, already 25 entries, so make your entry soon!
Now it’s also the best time to plan the next racing season that will start soon with some pinnacle events in the beginning of the year 2020:
-our World Championship in Nassau, one of the best sailing venues in the World- don’t miss it!
-Winter-series in Miami/Florida
-the Christmas race in Nice/France
As some ISCYRA officer terms will expire during the end of 2019, there will be new elections.
So please find all detailed information in this e-starlight edition!
I wish you all good sailing-stay tuned!
Hubert Merkelbach
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2020 Worlds Preview
Make your plans to attend the 2020 Star World Championship to be sailed February 3-8 in Nassau, Bahamas. The NOR is now published and more information can be found on the website link below. Plan on shipping your boat to Miami following to sail the Star Winter Series.
WEBSITE |
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SCHOONMAKER CUP - November 9-10
CREW CLINIC - November 23-24
COMMODORE'S CUP - December 7-8
ZAGARINO MASTERS - January 4-5
MIDWINTERS - January 9-12
ISCYRA Worlds - Nassau - Jan 31-Feb 8
BACARDI CUP - March 1-7
SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP - April 17-19
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BACARDI CUP Registration is now open!
March 1-7, 2020
Register HERE
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2020 Bacardi Cup Promo Video
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ISCYRA Annual General Meeting
September 1, 2020
European Championship
Stockholm, Sweden
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ISCYRA Elections and Resolution Voting
Per the STCR, all members will receive a ballot in early November for officers and Resolutions. Please make sure to look for this in the coming days and the submit your vote by December 10.
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Regatta Wrap-up
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2019 Eastern Hemisphere Championship in Attersee, Austria
Augie Diaz (USA) and Christian Nehammer (AUT) are the 2019 Star Eastern Hemisphere Champions
The Eastern Hemisphere Championship was held in Attersee, Austria. Three days of great sailing with different conditions every day, so that the sailors had to adjust again and again to the wind, weather and waves and could not lower their attention. Wednesday was the "last summer day", Thursday is the day between the seasons and Friday is called the "first autumn day" in Attersee: winds from the north, up to 17 knots with big waves and the water almost ink black, proved the saying right.
The final ranking was decided only on the last day. The fleet was extremely nervous for the first start and as a result there were two general recalls before the committee hoisted the Black Flag that put the fleet in order. Third time was the charm and the last day was on.
Alexey Zhivotovskiy from Russia was the best at mastering the conditions on this last day. He was in the lead at the first windward mark, and kept the lead until the very end to win the race. Second place went to Peter O'Leary from Ireland, who kept improving over the week. The third place went to Christian Paucksch from Germany with his crew Vera Geck from Austria. She was the first woman on the podium in this series. The overall leader Augie Diaz with local crew Christian Nehammer closed the race with a 4th place and that was enough to ensure him the Eastern Hemisphere Championship title and he decided to not compete in the seventh race. Star Class President, Hubert Merkelbach from Germany, lost his last small chance to win the title with a 17th place finish.
“The Attersee is a beautiful lake and the sailing there is very good – said EHC Winner Augie Diaz – but, what makes the Attersee so special, is the people! The Club and organizers did a great job and they made us feel very welcome. I really enjoyed sailing with Christian Nehammer and the Attersee is his home so he knows the lake well- big advantage for us. The key for us was that we were fast and were able to be consistent”.
The 2016 Star World Champion, Augie Diaz (USA), with his crew Christian Nehammer (UYC Attersee), earned another title for his rich collection. He didn’t manage to get a single bullet in the series, but with an absolutely consistent performance he is the 2019 Eastern Hemisphere Champion. He won the series with an eight point margin and a great score sheet: 2, 2, 3, 6, 2, 4, DNC!! The 2nd place went to Peter O'Leary (IRL) with Joost Houweling, who registered solid improved throughout the week, (7, 11, 2, 18, 1, 2, 4), one of the surprises of Attersee, was undoubtedly Haico de Boer from The Netherlands with his Brazilian crew Pedro Trouche.
FULL RESULTS
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2019 North American Championship in Toms River Yacht Club, New Jersey, USA
Augie Diaz wins the second Silver Star in less than two weeks
The Star North American Championship was hosted by the Toms River Yacht Club on the Barnegat Bay in New Jersey this year. A star-studded list of competitors arrived for four days of scheduled racing including Gold Star world-champions USA’s John McCausland, George Szabo and Augie Diaz. Silver Star Continental Champions Tomás Hornos and Brian Ledbetter from the USA. Local favorites included Allan Terhune Jr. having grown up at the host yacht club and rock star crews from Brazil like European Champion Henry Boening, Pedro Trouche, reigning Star Sailors League finals winner and American Joshua Revkin, a North American and World Champion.
The last day of racing, spectators witnessed three races. Having yet another day of 15-20+ breeze, it seemed like the team that could keep their boat in one piece and their heads in the game would shake out to the top of the leader board. Hornos and Revkin got tripped up with an OCS in the penultimate race, but managed to pull of a 7th place in the race. An impressive feat, but one that put them on their back foot going into the last race.
With pens and paper scribing on the film boat factoring in the single drop, it came to light that George Szabo, who had been leading the scoreboard the whole week had been slowly, but surely reeled in by Augie Diaz and his Brazilian crew Henry Boening. The two gold stars went into the last race tied on points with Tomás Hornos and Josh Revkin a mere 3 points behind. Not only was the championship on the line, but the coveted "Rooster" was as well. All week long, individual race winners signed a rooster flag, a tradition for the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association. Whoever won the last race got to keep the flag and the buzz amongst the skippers of who would be so fortunate was palpable. At the first top mark of the race, John MacCausland, who’d had an up and down week with both a bullet and a breakdown, led the race with Diaz and Hornos in the mix. Szabo and crew Heatherington-Young weren’t able to keep up with the scramble and ended up taking 3rd overall. Hornos and Revkin took home 2nd place and Augie Diaz with Henry Boening who with an early gybe on the downwind leg won the rooster and the overall championship.
"This was a very tough event for me - said NAC and EHC Augie Diaz - not only because I had just come back from Europe, but because the competition and conditions were really tough. Toms River Yacht Club did a spectacular job of organizing and giving us a great event and again the people there are what makes the difference. We had a tough first race when we got 13th and we were hoping to make that our throw out but with the varying conditions we were not sure. In the end it came down to the last day when we had three races in 15 to 18 knots and a tough battle between George Szabo, Tomas Hornos and ourselves. Maguila (aka. Henry Boening) and I were very fortunate to be able to prevail."
"The North Americans was a tough event with very good level and tough conditions - said his crew for the NAC, Brazilian superstar Henry Boening – The Race Committee did a great job for us and we were very welcomed by the Club. It was nice sailing again with Augie again and getting another good result."
FULL RESULTS
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2019 Vintage Gold Cup
2-5 Oct, Gull Lake Michigan, USA
Eivind Melleby and Joshua Revkin are the winners of the 2019 Vintage Gold Cup
After an eight-race series with very challenging conditions, Eivind Melleby from Norway and Joshua Revkin from Boston, are the 2019 Vintage Gold Cup winners with an impressive four bullets in the score sheet.
A beautiful brisk and sunny morning welcomed the 26 teams competing at the Gull Lake Yacht Club. The wind was blowing from the southeast at about 12 knots and soon the fleet was on the water very eager to get going with the final three races scheduled on the last day.
Eivind Melleby (NOR) and Joshua Revkin (USA) were leading the series by a mere three point advantage over Lars Grael (BRA) and Arnis Baltins (USA), and the competition between the two on the race course was palpable. On the first of today’s three races, the Norwegian team got the their third bullet and the Brazilian team was right behind them in second. In the second race, Olympic medalist Lars Grael was the first across the finish line. Evind Melleby scored the highest number of the series, a 10th, which was then dropped after the last race. The playing field remained open between the two for the final race. The Norwegian/American duo did not miss their opportunity to win the race and the series, while Grael/Baltins scored a fifth that brought them into second overall at the 2019 Vintage Gold Cup regatta. Arthur Anosov and Dave Caesar (USA) are third, with just seven points from the winners. They were very consistent in the last two days of the regatta, winning two races and claiming two seconds out of today’s three races.
“It was good that we pulled the longer straw in the last race to seal the deal.” Commented 2017 Star World Champion Eivind Melleby. “We had some troubles in today’s second race and we were back in the pack, but we luckily sorted that out. It’s been great racing here at the Vintage Gold Cup, with the lake’s very shifty conditions, we even had a couple of auto-tacks today and it is always fun. We had a good week, it’s fantastic to sail on these beautiful wooden boats and seeing 26 of them on the line is just a great sight.”
“Dilly Dilly is a fantastic boat that Jon VanderMolen gave us.” Added crew Josh Revkin, and he continued, “We loved it, everything was working very well and we are very happy to have won it for him.”
The perpetual “Robert M. Boudeman Family Trophy” passed from the hands of the two time Vintage Gold Cup champion, Paul Cayard, to Eivind and Josh, at the official awards ceremony at the impressive Gilmore Car Museum.
Co-chair of the event Don Parfet, also received the prize for winning the Classic category, reserved to wooden Star boats that have a wooden mast and boom.
“It was a fabulous event, but I am biased of course!” Said Don Parfet, “We had four classic rigs and I have the privilege of winning that category with the oldest boat in the fleet, it was a lot of fun. We had tight racing among the Classic and super tight among the Performance wooden boats, so I couldn’t be happier about the turnout and the conditions... maybe just a little cold but we are sailors, we love it like that! In a few months we will begin to think about the 2020 edition, there’ll be a lot more to come, we’re going to have to find more wooden boats because more sailors want to join this event!”
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My Charter Experience as a U30 Youth Star Sailor
Dear fellow Star Sailors,
My name is Chas Beek and I am currently competing throughout the USA as a Junior sailor in the Star Class. I have had many memorable experiences traveling around the country to different regattas, but it has always been a dream of mine to compete in a Star Class event in another country. This dream came to life just the other week when I sailed in the 58th Annual Oktoberfest Regatta with my sister, Hannah, crewing for me on Lake Ammersee in Germany.
Having very little experience traveling abroad and chartering boats, I thought this was going to be a rather difficult and confusing matter, but I decided to try. I started by communicating via email with some very helpful German sailors and let them know what my situation was. I explained what my goals were and asked how I could reach them with the limited budget I had. They were very understanding and helped me immensely with contacting other sailors that might have a boat for me to race and a place for me to stay. I was surprised with how hard they worked to make my plan come to reality. In just over a couple of weeks I had everything I needed to race Stars in Germany, plus much more.
The event started on a Thursday night with a barbecue of traditional Bavarian food and local beer. The following morning after having breakfast with live Bavarian music and doing the last minute rig checks, we launched our boat for the first time and started our sail to the race course (leaving early for some practice) with about 10-14 knots out on the lake. We were given four races this day due to a predicted low pressure system arriving the next day. With 40 boats on the starting line each race was started with the U flag.
Having not the most experienced crew, naturally we had our throwout in the first race and quickly progressed as the day went on. We had descent starts but lacked up-wind boat speed and finding the “right” side of the course, we always re-gained our positioning on the runs.
There were a lot of shifts and light spots on the course so it made for a challenging day as I think everyone would admit, but still an amazing day on the Ammersee.
After four races, it was president Hubert Merkelbach and crew Marcus Koy in the lead. The next day of racing was postponed for a few hours on shore while we were waiting for the breeze to settle in and come from the north. Finally doing so at 1530, we went over our debriefing from the previous day and had two more starts on Saturday, which would be the lasts of the regatta. The wind was similar to the day before, maybe blowing a little more in the puffs and much more consistent over the course. With Hannah having four races under her belt, she was turning into an amazing crew!
We had our best race overall in the 6th and final race, sailing right behind the eventual champions, the Italian duo Flavio Favini and Sergio Lamberthengi. Not being able to hold positioning throughout the race, we still finished near the top just to find out at the dock we were called over at start and given an OCS, which hurt our finishing result. Difficult to bear, but still have to give credit to Klaus Pittrich for running an amazing regatta on and off the race course. The day ended with a huge party at the Herrschinger Sailing Club with traditional Bavarian foods and drinks and even a couple lederhosens. A huge thank you to the German sailors who helped me. It would not have been possible without a boat or a place to stay.
If I was able to do this with limited time and resources, I think every Junior Sailor has the same opportunity that I had and I recommend that all the Junior Sailors start traveling more often. We need this class to continue in growth and with all the exceptional sailors we have competing beside us, they make it very, very possible.
Between the glory of sailing abroad and the rich friendships that I made this was an experience that I would love to take part in again and has permanently shaped my Star Boat imagination. Not personally knowing most of the sailors prior to my trip, they took me in with open arms and I believe they would do the same to every Junior Sailor in the future. With the Junior events coming up next year, I can only imagine the hospitality and opportunity juniors will have across the world! See you on the race course!
Regards,
Chas Beek
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2020 Silver & Gold Events
click on the logo for more information
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Eastern Hemisphere
April 30- May 3
Cannes, FRA
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North Americans
Aug 18-23
Newport Beach, CA USA
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Europeans
September 1-6
Stockholm, SWE
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South Americans
November TBD
Rio de Janeiro, BRA
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