2016 World Championship - Miami, FL, USA

2016 World Championship - Miami, FL, USA
April 9 - 17, 2016

Results

REGATTA REPORT

Race One Report:

72 teams from 13 nations, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine and United States, faced tough conditions and high competition on the first day of the Star Worlds 2016.

The race course offered spectacular conditions on Biscayne Bay with winds of 15 knots and gusts of 18 knots at the top of the course from 80° and very choppy. The Race Committee set the Course “0” with 2.2 miles long legs and fired the first signal on time at 11.30 hrs with 3 attempts. The third start was done under Black Flag. Finally, the third trial to start this first race was valid but unfortunately, some Star Sailors flew off the pin getting over. They were: Paul Cayard / Brian Fatih, James Babel / Scott Benson, Torben Schmidt Grael / Guilherme de Almeida, Allan Cullen / Dave Martin and Robert Stanjek / Frithjof Kleen.

Competitors had to fight for a good position on the first upwind leg. At the first part, the majority of the fleet sailed to the left side of the course to the windward and then most of them moved to the right. At first, looked like the right was the favored side but at the top of the windward, the tricky and typical lefty of Biscayne Bay gave an advantage to the fleet that was coming from the left, making the sailors reached the first mark without much separation.

The disqualified sailors abandoned the race and the fleet saw several position changes as Paul Cayard was coming first as many of others BFD Sailors that were at the top. Through the reach, the last Star World Champion, Lars Grael, made a great recovery next to the Team Croatia and Team Argentina. The wind shifted on the last second upwind making the Race Committee reset the marks. This time the wind shift right at the top of the mark and some sailors got over the lay line making big changes on the positions of the sailors: The second upwind was rounded by John MacCausland / Dave Caesar, followed by Brian Ledbetter / Joshua Revkin.

The fleet completed the downwind and by the third upwind the definition of this first race finally came: George Szabo / Steve Mitchell led the fleet and the second place was held by Luke Lawrence / Ian Coleman who had a tight finish against Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada who finished in the third place. Tomorrow the regatta schedule continues with the second race of the Star World Championship 2016. Everything can happen as three Top Star Sailors of the Class got BFD:Paul Cayard, Torben Grael and the team Robert Stanjek & Frithjof Kleen giving the fleet a little advantage.

Race Two Report:

The race course offered typical conditions of Biscayne Bay with the wind at 15 – 18 knots from the 90 degrees and 2 foot waves. The Race Committee set a Course 3 with 2.2 mile long legs and fired the first signal on time at 11.35 hrs. The start line was clear. Torben Schmidt Grael & Guilherme de Almeida enjoyed a perfect beginning at the pin with pretty good speed. Although the start was a key factor, the upwind leg is very long and Robert Stanjek & Frithjof Kleen took a big advantage before the first mark and kept it until the end. He executed a perfect race reading the shifts better than anyone else, he was able to secure the first place crossing the line for at least, 10 boat lengths of distance with the second.

Torben Grael worked hard during the whole race to finally clench the second place finish ahead team of Diego Negri with a tight finish making a boat-to-boat combat right before the finish line. Although Team Germany, Stanjek & Kleen and the Team Brasil, Grael & de Almeida had a good race, they were disqualified yesterday so there is still big battle to fight for them.

The most consistently sailor that humbly had a great race was Augie Diaz who is leading the Overall Results after obtaining a 3th and 4th position through the two first races. He said that he was fortunate to get fourth and that the crew is very important.

Race Three Report:

At 10.15am the Race Committee got teams off on race day 3 at the Star Worlds 2016 to complete the third race of the schedule. Plenty of sunshine and very light conditions. The race got underway after a postponement due to light winds around 4 and 6 knots depending in which place of the course you were measuring it. The Race Committee waited for the wind to establish and 12.35 pm the first Warning Signal was shot with a Course 3 (five legs) at 2 miles a leg, 5 knots of wind speed and a pretty flat water with a beautiful blue sky.

They had to go through three attempts before having a clear start: The first was postponed to adjust the starting line so they avoided a general recall. The second one, the RC was forced to order a general recall when the majority of the fleet was over at the pin before the gun. And finally the third one was completely clear. With each day the competition the Star fleet grew more intense. Torben Grael had a great start but it was not enough to reach the top: He went to the left with some of the top sailors that were expecting for a lefty but the middle-right side of the course was finally favor and those ones that went to left couldn’t cross the fleet despite to a wonderful start.

Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada got the first mark in second place behind Brian Ledbetter who was leading the fleet. Diego Negri also was very close at the third place. On the downwind leg, engaged in a one-on-one battle for the best position, Augie gain the advantage of a good speed being the first boat to round the downwind mark. Diego Negri, who was coming behind Augie also took the opportunity of this battle and got second place maintaining almost all the race when at the end Brian Ledbetter stole his position and Negri finished at 4th place behind Robert Cullen who made a great recovery along the race.

After the first downwind, Augie took the controlling position over the fleet rounding all the marks first positioning solidly in the top in today’s race and now he leads the table for 6 points forward of Diego Negri. Tomorrow the teams will have a Lay Day where they will enjoy a Sailor’s BBQ at the historic Stiltsville - a group of wood stilt houses located one mile south of Cape Florida on sand banks on the edge of Biscayne Bay. Thus event is sponsored by Boston Beer and Coral Reef Yacht Club.

Race Four Report:

The Star sailors kicked off race 4 with the signal given at 11.55am . It was generally a clear start with only a single individual recall for the 72 teams competing in the fourth race of the 2016 Star World Championship. The single recalled team was San Francisco’s Andrew Macdonald & Brad Nichol. The race was comprised of a Course 3 (five legs) at 2 miles a leg, 7 knots in 140° of wind direction.

The fleet was divided in two as they crossed the line. Playing the middle-right in the first leg was more favored but speed was also a big factor for this light wind day. As the day progressed, the wind turned slightly to the right and climbed to 10 knots. Brian Ledbetter rounded the first mark at the top of the fleet and maintained his position until the last mark rounding. On the last leg, Diego Negri took a lefty in the last crossings before the finish line overtaking the Silver Olympic Medallist, Brian Ledbetter for the win.

Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada posted a third place and keep their lead in the overall results. Diego Negri continues in 2nd place overall just 4 points behind Augie. Brian Ledbetter climbed to 3rd overall after his last two strong finishes.

Race Five Report:

The conditions were gorgeous. The 7 Knots had built up to 10 knots at 185 ° of wind. It took four attempts for the 72 teams to begin the fifth race in the 2016 Star World Championship. The fleet was aggressive on the starting line and with the majority of the boats over early, the Race Officer ordered a general recall. Following the general recall, Race Committee squared the starting line pushing the pin forward for the next start. Shortly after the second starting sequence began and the fleet was once again over so they went into a third one. Only three teams were over: Lars Ahlstrom & Lars Edwall: Bert Collins & Jacob Doyle and James Babel & Scott Benson. Throughout the rest of the race, the Race Committee continued to monitor the unstable wind and made every necessary adjustment to ensure the sailors had a fair race.

The race was intense and the leaders changed at every mark. It was a stressful one, watching the sailors fight in a boat-to-boat combat for the lead. At the first mark, Peter Vesella took the lead with a tight fleet rounding. Paul Cayard came from the left side of the course and tacked behind Peter consolidating the second place. The downwind was a speed battle where Luke Lawrence took a big advantage rounding the second mark in first position. He was ahead of the fleet till the last downwind where Diego Negri took the lead and made a solid race to the finish line. With five of six scheduled races completed and with the worst score discarded there are still 3 teams on the bubble hoping to sail well enough to keep their hopes alive for the gold.

Race Six Report:

The final race of the Star Worlds 2016 was crucial as there were five contenders in the running and only one point between the first place, Diego Negri & Sergio Lambertenghi and second place, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada. Light winds on Biscayne Bay delayed the start of the last day of races, but at 12.30pm, the wind climbed to 7 knots and the Race Committee completed the sixth race, as scheduled.

After four attempts the Race Officer ordered a black flag and the start was good except for ten star sailors that were over. The battle began at the starting sequence when Augie Diaz and Diego Negro chased each other fighting for the control of the start line. A pack of boats arrived at the windward mark with Paul Cayard leading. Brian Ledbetter was winning the regatta with a mid-fleet position because Augie and Diego where far behind in the sixties. The day was a shifty one so concentration and patience were required for the entire race. The Race Committee had to call for a change course for several of the legs during the afternoon as the wind oscillated first to right and then to left in this position changing game.

On the third leg, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada did a great job reading the shifts recovering from a 60th to a 7th by the second windward mark. From there, it was all about tactic as Diego was close behind them. The US Team pushed Diego and Sergio to the wrong side resulting in Diego finishing 7th and Augie finishing 5th. The points were just enough for Augie and Bruno to be crowned Star World Champions. Luke Lawrence & Ian Coleman won the last race of the Worlds with Paul Cayard close behind them.

Angie summed up the last race: “An incredible feeling!!! Not sure if I deserve it, but I take it. We did a great job the last race. Bruno did an outstanding job of coming back, time after time, after we have gain big advantages. In fact, in the middle of the last windward leg I thought that Diego was winning the worlds, because we had a big right shift and we went a very far right and he was right behind us and we won, he got second, so he would win the worlds. I just feel very fortunate, it’s a group of elite sailors that I really don’t know if I belong to but I am very very happy and I have to thank God, I have to thank Bruno Prada, my father for helping me so much for my sailing career and it’s a great feeling to be a World Champion.” And he affirms that Bruno Prada is a Gold Medal Maker.

For Bruno Prada this is the fourth World Championship Title after sailing with the Olympic Medallist, Robert Scheidt. He has been sailing with Augie for seven years and he feels that a dream came true: “One of my big achievements was winning a Worlds with Augie Diaz. To win a Star World Championship you have to be in a special week and definitely we were in this special week. We started doing good races, getting confident and for a reason that I cannot explain, some energy, everything that we do worked well. It’s a little bit of plan it but sometimes you plan it and it doesn’t work.”