Star Class Honoring the Past, Leading the Future
Report by Sergey Cherny, Ukrainian fleet
secretary;
On 18-22 May Ukrainian sailors celebrated the
Centennial of the Star Class.
At the Windmaster Regatta 2011 twelve Star boat
from Ukraine,
Russia and Georgia competed on the waters of
Kiev artificial lake.
Among the competitors and honour guests of
regatta were the legends of
Star Class and Worlds sailing Valentin Mankin,
Sergey Mashovets, Guram
Biganishvili and George Shaiduko.
At the present time in Ukraine there are two
Star Fleets - Dnipro fleet, which is
headed by Commodore and President of the Sailing
Federation of Ukraine
Vasyl Gureev; and the Eastern Ukraine fleet,
Commodore Sergei Shevchenko. During
past ten years the fleets have grown from 4 to
16 boats.
Four active members take part in major
international events.
Competition at the Windmaster Regatta was in a warm and friendly atmosphere with a light north wind force 4 -10 knots. Race committee chairman Sergei Shcherbakov set the start exactly in line with the wind conditions and all the races lasted from two to nearly three hours.
Despite a busy schedule Legends of Star Class Guram Biganishvili (four races) and Valentin Mankin (two races) showed the highest class and were an example for young sailors.
In an interesting regatta, it was won by Ivan Chehlaty and Sergei Timokhov, European champions in the Soling class. the second crew was Ukrainian Champion in 2009 Andrei Golovanov and Alexander Mosyazhenko.
After the national celebration Ukrainian sailors Pavel Bondar and Nikolay Dmitrenko went on to the Hungarian Centennial regatta, where they won.
The participants at a Centennial Star Class Party came up with the idea of a similar celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Star. We hope that they will succeed!
