1972 World Championship - Puerto Azul, Caracas, Venezuela
The following results are from the Star Logs. In common with the early Logs 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.
Results:
No. Yacht Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 5663 Sunny Willi Kuhweide Karsten Meyer KF 7 1 3 1 3 1 306 5217 Buho Blanco Joerg Bruder Claudio Biekarch Gua 3 3 4 4 2 3 300 5667 Dingo Ding SchoonmakerThomas Dudinsky BisB 8 5 15 2 8 2 290 5671 Humbug XII Pelle Petterson Ingar Hansson Kat 5 15 1 12 4 5 288 5525 Gem XI Durward Knowles Bill Buchan Jr N 4 4 5 9 5 19 288 5545 Blott XIII Stig Wennerstro Sture Christensson Ons 10 2 7 3 ret 8 285 5631 Subbnboana Eckart Wagner Peter Moeckl ZuW 1 9 4 15 30 8 277 5624 Cantact John AlbrechtsonGoran Tell Vin 6 16 14 8 1 9 277 5643 Noni Mardel Correia Antonio Rocha VF 9 11 8 10 6 1O 272 5479 Something Else Lowell North Peter Barrett SDB 16 12 2 16 9 4 272 5653 No Funcione Uwe Mares Kai Krueger KF 12 6 31 14 11 6 266 5437 Mirage Flavio Scala Mauro Testa SG 2 7 9 6 ret 26 265 5664 Star of the Sea Joseph R. DuplinFrank Eggers BH 14 24 16 5 13 11 256 5630 Riot IV Henry Rowan Delmar Dhein LG 17 27 10 13 7 16 252 5611 Lucky Liz Fritz Riess Fritz Geis SMA 25 28 12 7 27 12 232 5563 Ragamuffin Larry Whipple Karl Pollard PS 20 8 21 24 34 13 229 5645 Hannah Barton Beek Charles Beek LB 23 10 17 21 ret 15 229 5657 Impulse John Buchan Ron Farrell 22 43 20 19 10 18 226 5677 Caracas Josi Steinmayer Marcel Wunderli UB 18 30 13 20 20 20 224 5674 Is Was Hans Vogt Ludwig Buedel 19 22 30 18 18 17 221 5636 Fiamma Oskar Meier Daniel Wyss 11 35 19 11 39 23 216 5551 Mahayana Tryg LiljestrandDag Blidback 13 19 11 30 33 30 212 5656 Mumunha Mario Innecco Robinson Hasselman 39 17 24 22 17 24 211 5608 Hoya Daniel Mullane Robert Wester 24 25 28 26 12 25 203 5433 Nadia Joerg Christen Martin Buergi 32 13 29 33 14 29 198 5407 Rampage Steve Andrews Peter Beam 15 32 18 28 25 31 198 5464 Bavaria S. Scheuregger Karl-Heinz Burkert 25 26 25 23 24 28 192 4729 Twin Ortwin Semmerow Rolf Scholtz 27 20 38 25 21 32 190 5628 Happy End August Weiss Christian Breitenstein 26 18 32 41 15 45 183 5214 Shrew VII William Parks Philip Botsolas 46 34 26 31 29 14 181 5535 Manita Duarte Bello Manuel Espirito Santo 48 21 47 32 16 21 178 5510 Desiree Angelo Marino Gigi Saidelli 29 14 22 17 dns dns 170 5154 Playmate Sonke BreckwoldtWalter Rausch 43 50 33 29 19 37 154 5348 Blue Chip III Dand D. GaillardJack Levedahl 21 42 37 34 28 ret 153 5325 Shamrock Russell Bogie Rick Alexanderson 45 ret 42 35 23 22 148 5204 Spankuk Chresten Jensen Harald Jensen 35 23 57 27 48 36 146 5435 Whitecap Roger Doane David Doane 33 56 27 48 26 46 135 5670 Griffin Dexter Richards Chris Alex ret 46 35 37 35 33 129 5625 Demon V Kenneth Cole Thomas McCook 40 39 23 44 42 43 128 5151 Zwidawurzn Albert Sporer Hans Prechter 28 37 48 45 46 34 125 5644 Zaperoco Thomas Drew-BearJ. R. Drew-Bear 30 29 45 42 49 52 120 5363 Sylke Manfred Meyer Karl-Heinz Bald 36 40 39 46 41 47 113 4836 Der Otto H. Mitterhauser Juerg Oborkofler 49 33 41 49 31 51 112 5573 Eljopeja Hans Ruedel Peter Moeller 31 54 46 43 45 39 111 5635 Virgin Star Ken Klein Robert Thompson Virgin Islands 41 41 40 40 47 42 111 4838 Fury Ken Morton Barbara Morton 42 36 44 39 44 50 110 5140 Cutty Sark Peter Metzner Alex Dumont 47 31 dns dns 38 27 109 4945 Lausbub IV Martin SchwiegerNico Jurgensen 56 48 34 36 50 38 109 5233 Tucana VIII Dierk Thomsen Henner Liebenberg 44 52 43 47 37 40 104 5013 Titila Roberto Mieres Raul Perrachione 37 55 49 38 dns 35 101 5219 Espuma del Mar Daniel Camejo Juan Feld Car 53 38 55 52 32 41 99 5427 Debbie Philip Pines Pual Colinai 51 49 52 50 22 49 94 5544 Flipper III J. Roberts Jr Joseph Roberts Sr 55 53 36 ret 51 44 76 5299 Hang Ten Greg Smith Barry Hess 50 51 54 53 40 dns 67 5484 Fearless Fred Freddy Schiavo Peter Ganterbein 52 45 50 54 ret 48 66 4312 En Garde Gordon Young Fritz Maiweg 57 47 56 51 43 ret 61 5473 Zwentebold Hugo Schott Cyril Dvorak 54 57 53 55 36 ret 60 4522 Playboy Karsten Boysen Helmut Flegel 34 44 51 ret dns dns 60 4253 Trece T. D. Drew-Bear Irwin Hest ret dns dns 56 52 dns 18 4625 Chubasco Rocco CampanelliFrank Geronimo ret dns dns dns dns dns 0
Regatta Report
from the 1973 Star Class Log with Introductory remarks from Starlights
The 1972 World's Championship provided many firsts: the first World's in Venezuela, at the magnificent Club Puerto Azul; the first six race series, with a worst-race exemption, the first World's to be sailed under special relaxed qualification requirements, and the first ever to be sailed so early in the year (March). The last two conditions were occasioned by coordinating the international yachting calendar in an Olympic year.
The weather was perfect, with winds less heavy than those expected off Puerto Azul at this season. Although the seas were long and sometimes steep, the winds blew 5 to 15 knots under brilliant sunshine (which was also brutal to those who hadn't protected their skins). The sixty entries were the best from twelve nations, five different countries being represented by the first five boats in the final score.
As Paul Elvstrom came to fame through his Olympic gold medals in the Finn Class, so also Willi Kuhweide, the new Star champion of the World, was the Finn gold medalist in 1964. Joerg Bruder, recently crowned North American Champion in November at Miami and runner-up in this World's, is also a Finn World's Champion. The top of the Finn Class indeed produces formidable Star sailors.
Prior to the series the South American Championship was sailed in almost the same waters, and Ding Schoonmaker, with Tom Dudinsky crewing, won his fourth consecutive Silver Star in that event. Kuhweide was pushing Schoonmaker hard until he failed to finish the fourth race, which put him out of contention (standard scoring, no worst race exemption). The ever-consistent Stig Wennerstrom was second. Most of the same starting list competed in both series; but for the World's the course was moved farther out to sea, creating a whole new set of conditions and equalizing the chances, with no advantage to those who had sailed the close-in course the previous week or the previous year.
In the opening race, Eckart Wagner had Subbnboana in a perfect position at the flag end at the start, and led all the way to the finish line. John Albrechtson's Contact staged a serious threat on the last weather leg, coming within five lengths of the leader, but dropped back to sixth at the finish. Flavio Scala sailed Mirage to second and would have been a high series contender but for two bad final races, (a throw-out helps a lot, but you don't have two of them). Bruder was third.
After two general recalls at the beginning of the second race, Kuhweide, Scala, Wennerstrom and Schoonmaker hit the top end of the line together and split immediately toward shore. Sunny powered into a lead which she held all the way around the course. Bruder, the "down wind terror", moved himself up to third at the end of the first round, having been sixth at the first weather mark.
In the third race, in fifteen miles of wind, all those who travelled the shore route overstood the weather mark except North and Correia, who consequently rounded first and second, followed by Petterson and Bruder. By the end of the leeward leg Petterson had moved into first, where he stayed, to finish one minute ahead of North, Kuhweide and Bruder in that order. Joerg's unfailing consistency earned him the Vanderveer Trophy after three races, with a one point series lead over Willi. But already people were calculating that if Kuhweide could throw out that 7th, he was going to be almost impossible to beat. He could, and he was. He poured it on in the fourth race, to assume the series lead, which he never relinquished, by means of a two minute win in that race.
In the fifth race, after two recalls, Albrechtson got the best start at the committee boat end and won the race after a see-saw battle with Wennerstrom. Bruder, hitting a leeward mark, dropped from third to fifth while re-rounding, but climbed back up to second at the finish. At this point Kuhweide maintained a slim lead over Bruder, slightly less if you counted this discard.
Kuhweide left no doubt about discards or anything else by taking another first in the sixth and final race of the series. Schoonmaker sailed beautifully to pull up to second after being eighth at the first mark, but could not come near Bruder in the score for series second.
West Germany mounted a tremendous effort, with 13 boats, a number surpassed only by the U.S.A. with 20. But the keynote was international. A German Lufthansa pilot, in a U.S. plastic hull with a Brazilian aluminum rig and Austrian sails, won the series. Second was a five-year-old U.S. wooden hull sailed by Brazilians, with Brazilian mast and Austrian sails; and third was an all-U.S. outfit.
From the Race Committee Chairman
Puerto Azul was an experiment of the G.C. locating the World's, a practice now embodied in the World's Rules for each year after 1973. It was successful because of excellent racing conditions; excellent accommodations for the contestants, visitors, and the yachts: and excellent entertainment and opportunities for sightseeing.
The nightmare of all race committees is a race either not started or called off for lack of wind. We did not have that problem. We did have a deep water problem for marks, which the marineros overcame by back power in the absence of power winches. Although the locations were not customary, we had them move the marks out to sea after the South American Championship, to get the port tackers off the beach. The three turning buoys then remained in place, and were lighted at night. But, the Committee Boat had to be anchored for each race for both the start and the finish, it was anchored by snaring a grappling hook in a crack in the hard bottom (usually after several tries).
Although the wind blows at approximately 90 (lust as it did when Columbus on his third voyage explored these shores 500 years ago), sometimes it would vary by 5-10° in either direction, making it necessary to adjust the line for a right angle by pulling up or dropping back. Since the current was unpredictable, and could change as much as 180° during a race, it was necessary to anchor bow and stern and we used a Boston Whaler to kedge out the stern line. Shifting position was thus doubly complicated.
Charlie de Cardenas, my able Vice-Chairman, has a wind pennant on a collapsible aluminum radio antenna which he holds against the front of a hand bearing compass to get true wind direction. Except for some last minute windshifts, this device gave us lines exactly square to the wind for both start and finish. At least they were square where we were, although the wind may have differed at the other end of the 600 yard starting line. The boats are so close in performance now that the O course is much better for taking finishes.
For the sixth race we used course I, and moved the turning marks the evening before to adjust for the increased length. Although the late Tom Tranfaglia was great as chief recorder, Charlie's tape machine proved a worthy asset as a means of verifying the numbers I had called, especially on the last day with its closely bunched down-wind finish. We had done some calculating and gave Willi a gun for winning the race and some toots for winning the series.
Charlie himself, with his multilingual ability, made communications with the sailors on the boat and with the marker yachts over the radio very efficient. This talent was invaluable the day the Committee Boat engines conked out and we needed the whaler to take us two miles to the finish.
The races were held within binocular range of the large sea wall that protects the entrance to the harbor. The boats were hauled after each race, two hoists and a portable crane serving assigned sectors. Each boat had its own stall with a sun-cover under which it could be backed. At night, armed patrolmen protected the equipment from petty pilferage. There were proper bulletin board arrangements and a room for the I.R.C. and protest hearings close at hand. A Star could be rolled on its trailer to one of two steel towers with platforms, and the rigging serviced all the way to the top without removing the mast. Have you tried installing a new main halyard in an aluminum mast? In the launching area there was a store with marine supplies, and the marina repair shop.
With the start a little over a mile from the harbor there was no need for tows, no last minute panic, and the boats were washed down in their stalls soon after the end of each day's race. This gave lots of time for post?mortems over a local brew or soft drink. Our living accommodations were also near at hand. We were quartered in three high-rise buildings named, naturally, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The climate is moderate to warm, but very "salt moist". Star sailors constantly coat their spars and rigging to prevent corrosion.
The Club Puerto Azul has at least 5,000 members who flock there from Caracas in great numbers on weekends. The facilities, all available to us, included several restaurants and snack bars, sports areas from checkers to bocci, bowling lanes, and tennis courts, a beach on the Caribbean with surf, and a beach in the harbor with no surf.
With the prospect of the large fleets in the World's in the future, we must look for localities with as many of the desirable features provided at Puerto Azul as we can find: reliable racing conditions, good organization, good accommodations at reasonable cost, and an entertainment schedule for the week. There was a camaraderie unequalled before which I am sure was the result of our being so close in all our activities.
