1953 World Championship - Napoli, Italy
The following results are from George Elder's book "Forty Years Among The Stars". In common with the early Logs it is interesting to note that in his results Elder does not give the yacht numbers of the boats which participated in the World's, but only just their names. It was not until the 1950 Log that yacht numbers were included in the results. From 1950 through 1976 both yacht numbers and names were given, but starting with 1977 frequently only yacht numbers were given. The last time both yacht numbers and yacht names were given was 1989.
In later years sometimes fleet designations were omitted. In these cases some of the more obvious fleet designations were supplied. Also from time to time only last names were supplied. First names, where known, were added.
Abbreviations etc: Dsa - Disabled. Dsq - Disqualified. Dns - Did Not Start. Wdr - Withdrew.
1953 - AT NAPOLI
Yacht# Yacht name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Finish Pts. 3316 Merope II A. Straulino N. Rode *Se-Ve-Taranto 1 1 11 1 3 188 3135 Faneca D. Bello J. Tito Cascais 2 3 10 5 1 184 3233 Asterope T. Nordio L. Sangulin Trieste 9 7 3 12 9 165 3371 Myra P. Chancerel C. Gueullette Seine 10 13 6 6 7 163 1655 Ma' Lindo M. Quina E. Cruz Porto 11 5 19 3 11 156 2958 Merope A. Cosentino N. Stella Ischia 6 11 14 13 6 155 3032 Gem III D. Knowles S. Farrington Nassau 15 4 5 25 2 154 3076 Kurush IV C. de Cardenas de Cardenas Jr Habana 8 14 21 4 5 153 3070 Espadarte II J. Finza M. Ricciardi Lisboa 13 6 7 26 4 149 3332 Caprica R. Cisppa C. Rolandi Capri 16 8 16 2 18 145 3290 Vega IV C. W. Lyon Jr Mrs. Nina Lyon Barnegat Bay 20 15 2 15 8 145 2599 Faneca M. Rivelli G. Schettino Formia 14 9 8 8 27 139 3252 Vim W. Shehan D. Hubers Eastern Shore 4 17 15 16 16 137 3191 Melody P. Smart J. de Cardenas C. Long Island Sound 5 21 25 9 12 133 3385 Vega F. Mercier G. Pissani Villefranche 21 12 23 11 10 128 3327 Anna I C. Boselli R. Manara Alto Lario 7 Dsq 1 24 13 119 3172 Candide A. Debarge N. Calonne Paris 3 10 27 7 Dsq 117 3082 Scylla C. Ulmar A. de Cardenas East River 25 16 20 14 14 116 3194 Gloriana III U. Fondi G. deLuca Sorrentina 12 2 22 18 Wdr 110 3207 Bellatrix II B. Splieth N. vonStempel Kiel 23 22 9 22 22 107 3328 Paka VI P. Fischer H. J. Renken Hamburg 18 24 13 17 28 105 3222 Perfidia III H. Looser H. Rusterholz Rapperswil 22 18 18 23 20 104 3227 Xodo IV R. Bueno A. Torres Rio de Janeiro 27 28 4 19 31 96 3111 Pedrito IV E. deMendonca F. Amorim Vila Franca 29 25 17 31 15 88 3108 Elletra A. Moscovite O. Danelon Lignano 30 19 Dsq 10 24 81 3346 Fiadolin II D. Salata O. Magnaghi Lario 17 34 12 20 Wdr 81 3069 Ali Baba IV H. Bryner U. Bucher Lugano 19 31 26 29 21 79 3209 Mari-Tim T. Rozelos A. Ziraud Salamis 26 27 28 28 25 71 3195 Eolo S. diMaio G. Sangiovanni Leuca 33 23 24 30 30 65 2708 Blue Lei J. Both C. Joos Zuerich 24 20 Dsq 38 19 63 3281 Aloha V Y. Lorion J. Carabia Algers 28 29 34 21 32 61 3239 Mechtild J. Pankofer M. Huber Starnberg 36 33 29 35 17 55 3224 Susan O. Lagos A. Vallebona Olivos 34 30 31 36 26 48 2484 Whirlpool H. Day II M. Gray Paw Paw Lake 31 32 30 37 34 41 3220 Evita C. Auteried H. J. Wurmbock Attersee 35 38 37 27 29 39 3350 Bufera D. Milella G. Modugno Bari 37 26 33 34 36 39 2291 Fiammetta P. Migliaccio G. Sartorio Napoli 39 35 32 39 23 37 3249 Fiadolin I P. Bela L. Jolif Cannes 32 37 35 32 33 36 3362 Bimba M. Taylor M. Taylor Lake Maracaibo 38 36 36 33 35 27 3203 Old Nut II C. Henrion F. Thieck Fedala Dns Dns 38 40 37 8
Winning yacht No. 3316. B - Lippincott Boat Works, 1953. Ch. Meeting - Paul Smart.
Ch. I.R.C. - Beppe Croce. Fourteen nations represented.
Regatta Report
- report by George Elder
The 1953 series was sailed off Napoli beneath ominous Vesuvius that towered in the background. Straulino won again, but only by four points, over - guess who - the ever persistent Duarte Bello. Nordio, of Trieste, was a poor third. Since under our rotating rule the same fleet cannot hold the event for two consecutive years, the location had to be decided on aggregate points and it went back once more to Cascais. Now that really is remarkable. Three times Duarte Bello took the World's Championship back to Portugal by aggregate points. He had the help of Capucho in '46 and '49 and of Tito in '50, but Bello was the anchor man each time and sewed it up. The third time he did it single handed. Here you have a record for both a fleet and a skipper, which I doubt will ever be matched again.
Report from the 1954 Log
Before the series had even started, it began to be evident that the 1953 Star Class World’s championship, sailed at Naples would be conducted on a scale of social and ceremonial magnificence never seen. As the week developed, the contestants were overwhelmed with parties, dinners, operas and festivities until it became increasingly difficult to remember that there was also a series of races going on.
At the opening ceremony, the flag raising was conducted by the Italian Navy, with the competitors standing at their boats and reviewed and welcomed by the Admiral commanding the entire Navy. He was accompanied in the reviewing group by the Class Officials, Executive President Paul Smart, International President Carlos de Cardenas, and Beppe Croce, Chairman of the IRC and 2nd Vice President for Europe. The Admiral spoke personally with each contestant, and at the end of the review said in an aside, "I wished each one of them the best of luck and victory; just how that can happen I don't know!"
The wizards Agostino Straulino and Nicolo Rode had just finished another triumph in the European Championship the previous week; and they went on to win the Worlds, taking three daily firsts in the five races. This sentence could have been applied with equal accuracy to the 1952 World's: but there the similarity ends. In Portugal in 1952 Straulino appeared to have things pretty much his own way. Winning the first three races and following these with a second and a third, he was never really threatened; and he won the event by the unprecedented margin of 25 points.
1953 was different. Merope Il won the first two races, but not by very large margins; and then dived to eleventh in the third. Throughout the event the score was tight, and the runner-up, Duarte Bello's Faneca from Cascais, finished the series only four points astern of Merope. This is not to imply that Straulino was not the master of the situation; but he had to work hard to maintain this mastery. Bello turned in a performance studded with fine sailing and keen strategy which might well have carried him to final victory in any other championship, as it nearly did in this one.
First Race
Beppe Croce's race committee set a triangular course for the first race, which got away over a square line in a light breeze. Straulino and Rode won by about a minute over Duarte Bello and Joao Tito in Faneca. The surprise of the race was the third place taken by Albert Debarge—a surprise because he moved from fifteenth to third on the last windward leg, which he accomplished by sailing wide of most of the fleet. Another surprise was the fine sailing the first time around of Paul Fischer from Hamburg, second at the first weather mark. But he did not like the strengthening wind: when it increased from the original 8 knots to nearly twice that much, his boat wallowed, and he slipped back and back to finish 19th. Faneca moved up from third to take his place.
Shehan's Vim was the best of the Americans, moving up from 5th to 4th the second time around; and another American boat, Melody, was right behind her. These two seemed to like the increasing wind. Cosentino, sailing the Old Merope, was today as always among the leading group. He finished just a length behind Smart for 6th. De Cardenas, not far the behind, took 7th away among from Carlo Bosell, sailing Anna I, which most of the time had been among or very close to the first line.
Second Race
Again Straulino and Rode, but this time not at every mark. Gloriana Il, sailed by Ubaldo Fondi of the local Bay of Naples Fleet, rounded the first mark first. In about a 6-knot breeze, starting at the inshore end of the line, Fondi, a nephew of our Rear Commodore, whipped over immediately on to the port tack and headed for shore. Straulino, starting at the apparently favored committee-boat end, held out to sea on the starboard tack. But the leaders of that group, when they wanted to tack over to port to avoid the slop in the light air, found their way blocked by half the fleet still on starboard. Knowles managed best to work back, to gain 4th; but many others, tiring of going under the sterns of starboard boats, gave up and headed back out to sea—which was their undoing. (Among them was every American entry.) Thus early in the series it was apparent that there was a right place to go and a wrong one. The only difficulty with this discovery was that it didn't hold true, and yesterday's right place became today's wrong place, and tomorrow was always another race and usually another story.
At the first mark Ma-Lindo, sailed by Mario Quina of Portugal, was third, after Gloriana and Merope ll. Then came Knowles, Fiuza, Nordio, and Cosentino, with Bello back in 8th place. Bello gained one and lost one on the first run of this windward-leeward course.
The wind increased a little on the second round, and Faneca moved up through the fleet to take third at the mark, which she held to the finish.
This had been a good course: a dead beat followed by a good run, With a fair line and the start on time. But only one tack paid off—the inshore one—and it is hard for 40 boats to go to the same place at the same time. They tried it at the windward mark, and there was a horrendous jam, caused partly by too close spectator boats. Several protests resulted, but only one disqualification.
Third Race
The third race was one of the really light Ones, the wind never going over about 8 miles per hour; and often it was much lighter, straining the nerves of all concerned. Merope did not win, but another Italian boat did: Carlo Boselli's Anna l, from Como. Boselli, an erstwhile dinghy sailor only a year in Stars, led all the way to beat Bill Lyon, whose second was the best American performance of the week. Straulino was well hemmed in at the jam at the start, and this time he was unable to stage his customary spectacular recovery. Bello, one of the last to get clear, turned in a great performance, climbing from 21st at the first mark to 10th at the finish. Tito Nordio, from Trieste, put on an exhibition of downwind sailing Which will long be remembered, passing boat after boat on each downwind leg to take third at the finish. He is a sailor to be reckoned with in any Star series (former European Champion, and winner Of daily firsts in the World's '48 and '50).
Roberto Bueno's Xodo IV was a surprise fourth in a race full of surprises; and Knowles was his usual consistent self, taking fifth. Merope Il now led Faneco by only two points; but it was enough to give the Vanderveer Trophy to Straulino for the third time.
Rest Day
"Rest" day called a temporary halt to the racing, but not by any means to the entertainment program. The ever-attentive Navy furnished transportation for the crowd to beautiful Capri, where first the Blue Grotto was the rendezvous and then Gracie Fields' swimming pool, which was soon filled with barging Star skippers, while their wives went off to buy everything in sight. The Capri Tourist Commission was host at a sumptuous luncheon; and after a day filled with sightseeing, most of the company returned more tired than if they had raced.
Fourth Race
After two postponements to let a light but shifty breeze settle down, a windward-leeward race was on its way, and so was Merope Il. The wind increased somewhat until two were on the rail. This time there was not a great advantage in going inshore. At the first mark it was Straulino by about a minute over Caprice, sailed by young Roberto Ciappa of the Capri Fleet. De Cardenas was third, followed by the venerable Ma Lindo; these two later switched places to finish in the opposite order. The ever-consistent Bello finished fifth, but that was not quite good enough for someone aiming to beat the Defender in the series.
The Lyons, who had finished second the day before, were 15th, and Knowles' Gem dropped unaccountably to 25th. And so it happened day after day: everybody took at least one tumble except Straulino and Bello, and even they had their bad moments.
Fifth Race
Bello got away for a first in the last race, not the first time he has accomplished this feat in a World's Championship series. For most of the first round Straulino was down far enough in the fleet so that Faneca led on points. All eyes were on Straulino. It looked for a while as if, in the light going, the Defender would not be able to gain back enough boats to stave off the Portuguese challenge. But gain them back he did, one by one, until he got up to Knowles, who held second place. Gem he could not pass; but third was more than enough for the series, with Bello a hard-fighting runner-up. There was then a big gap of 19 points down to Nordio, who took third, and then a tightly grouped bunch, as the final score tabulation shows.
As the race finished, a celebration to end all celebrations got under way. At the harbor entrance, which was lined with thousands of cheering spectators, each contestant was welcomed by naval gunfire; and Straulino's welcome was nothing short of deafening. Finally there was so much smoke around the entrance from the fireworks that some of the boats had to head back to sea until it cleared. Ashore practically everybody was tossed overboard.
Conclusion
A glance at the summaries shows that the Italian and Portuguese boats were markedly in the ascendency in this year's series. Special mention should be made of Mario Quina's series fifth with Ma-Lindo, No. 1655, the oldest boat in the series by 7 years. Young Philippe Chancerel sailed Myra to fourth for the best showing by far Of any French entry in a World's Championship. Chancerel, who also won the 1953 Swedish Open Championship, is a skipper to be watched in the future.
The sails used by the first four boats differed widely in make and material. The first and third boats used duck sails by various sailmakers; the second, on American synthetic sail most of the time; and the fourth, a Parisian-made duck sail.
Straulino is not the first double Gold Star winner the Class has had, but he belongs to a very select company. The others are Nye, Fleitz, von Hutschler, Iselin and Beardslee; and of these, only von Hutschler and Beardslee did it consecutively.
Several records were broken by the series. It was by far the largest European World's Championship ever sailed, as well as the most international on record anywhere: sixteen nations were represented. Six of the first eight finishers were from different countries.
All thanks go to the International Race Committee and the officers of the Italian Navy responsible for the running of the event. The IRC consisted of Beppe Croce, Chairman, 2nd V.P. for Europe; Jean Peytel, 1st V.P., Gian Luigi Logorio Serra, XIV Dist. Secretary; Rear Commodore Riccardo Fondi; and Mrs. Charlotte Ulmer. Alternates: Serge H. N. Toy, XVI Dist. Secretary; Paolo Nessi, Ass't. XIV Dist. Secretary; Commodore Padolecchia; and Messrs. Di Lorenzo and Gricelli.
The editor is indebted to Pres. Paul H. Smart for supplying the information in this report and for his assistance in its preparation.
