Star Class Honoring the Past, Leading the Future
The Star Class is fortunate to have two capable candidates running for the position of Commodore. Please read their statements below before submitting your ballot, to be mailed to all voting members next week.
JOHN CHIARELLA
Dear fellow Star sailors, it has been an honor to serve you as Commodore.
I ask for your support, so I may continue working with all fleets and Star Class officers to guide the Class forward.
To date I have developed the boat loan program, collected and maintained the World Championship Trophies, designed and had a proper display cabinet built for their display, currently at the Bacardi building in Miami.
I am part of a team writing a book about the Star Class World Championship skippers and crews, headed by our author Carol Cronin, researching and interviewing former World Champions, the exclusive edition to be available next year in time for the World Championships.
Early this year I felt that was important that as a class we need to stay connected as we all were all affected by the pandemic.
The result was holding Town Hall meetings which are still in progress, and I hope you will join in on Zoom when your District is contacted.
It has proved to be very well received and many common threads of information have been shared. Not surprisingly, some of the most common are, build fleets, encourage participation and make it attractive to younger sailors.
I have attended many Star Class meetings as an officer of the Class and as Commodore. The Star Class is very important to me and I feel very strongly about helping to lead it into the future.
Youth sailing is one of my focus issues, promoting this opportunity for young sailors through the boat loan program has proved a great success.
Again, let me express my thanks for the honor of serving you, and I ask for your continued support to serve as your Commodore.
Sincerely, John Chiarella
Commodore International Star Class
RAINER ROLLENBLEG
Dear fellow Star sailors,
Allow me to introduce you to my campaign as Commodore for the Star Class in 2022.
I had the honor to serve you in the past as International Vice President Eastern Hemisphere, as First European Vice President and Second European Vice President as well as several years on the I.G.C., AdComm and Judiciary Board, of course as Fleet Captain and Secretary as well, and I remember these years with great joy and satisfaction. In these years I was introduced also to John Chiarella, our actual Commodore, on the occasion of a Bacardi Cup or World Championship in the U.S.. John did a great job for the class the past years. Thanks, John!
A few words to introduce myself to the younger generation which might not know me from racing. Besides the three presidential offices I vested, I am an 18 times competitor in the Worlds (8 times in Europe, 8 times in North America, 2 times in South America), winner of the Seniors' Trophy in the Worlds 1998 and of one silver star, 2 times second and one time third in silver star events, owner of 14 star boats in my career, and living amongst the stars for more than 50 years. Two times, 1976/77 and 1998, I was together with the late President Dierk Thomsen closely involved in the policy and strategy to gain back the Olympic status. I am multilingual of course (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Latin). Only so much about the past.
Honouring the past is important, but we have to face serious problems right now in order to lead the class into better future, in particular in times being as difficult and complex as we are experiencing them. Allow me to address a few here, together with my vision for our class and my tenure as Commodore.
Leadership accompanying
I think that we will need innovative, evolutive and visionary leadership not only on the operational levels, but also on the floors commonly considered just representative or honorary. Even there we need gentlemen who are enterprising and goal getting. Well, I am at an advanced age as well, but I am still doing my physical fitness program every day (not as intensely as I did when I competed in the Worlds, but just 40 minutes a day) and I am still active in my profession as a lawyer (provided I like the case). This leads me to believe, that I can be a Commodore actively accompanying the leading bodies of the class, bringing my experience in the class to the role and building on the many already existing relationships for the benefit of the class.
Challenges
My main concern regards the frightening decrease of activity and membership worldwide and especially in North America where the activity recently shrank down to 30 or 40 active boats and members.
Facing this situation I remember to have made good experiences with developing the class in Eastern Europe prior to and after the fall of the iron curtain in 1989. This was one of the reasons that large parts of Eastern Europe were integrated into the 17th district, at that time my district. In exchange Switzerland, going well, came to the 9th united with France, which at the same time suffered in terms of activity. Today's situation is comparable and one solution could be to work towards something similar to 1989 this time again.
However In the coming years we will also have to build new fleets and to regenerate existing, but suffering fleets, to encourage participation and make the star attractive to younger and female sailors, even by unconventional means. Again I will bring my experience from the past to the table and work with all of you to strengthen the class also at its grass roots – within the fleets where you are all sailing.
I ask you for your vote in the upcoming election of the Commodore and for your support, so I may help to realize the objectives challenging us right now and in the near future, working with all fleets and Star Class officers to guide the Class into a prosperous future.
Sincerely,
Rainer R. Roellenbleg,
District 14, fleet PdV
Life member of the Class
