Star Sailors League- Mendelblatt and Faith fire up to take Final

by Bob Fisher on 7 Dec 2014 Saturday 6th December 2014: The Star Sailors League is over for another year with a new champion after four days with a total of twelve races. The class was blessed with four glorious days of sunshine and generally brisk winds, although on finals day it was at it’s lightest with the wind down to 15 knots at the best

The first race of the day saw four of the top ten – numbers 2-11 (in the qualifying rounds) eliminated. Just one race to sudden death was the feature of the final day. The six left were joined by the winner of the qualifying round, Freddy Loof and Anders Ekström for another sudden death round when three more were eliminated, leaving four to race for the championship.

It was a day of blood on the water and from some particularly rich veins. It was also over quickly and while having little at stake except continuing to the semi-finals. There were 15 knots of breeze from the east-north-east and a general recall for the ten boats the first time. The second time they were clear away and it was the Poles Kusznierewicz and Zycki who led at the first windward mark on the double windward/leeward course.

Downwind they were temporarily displaced by the champions, Scheidt and Prada from Brazil but they came back on the next upwind leg and held on for the rest of the race despite spirited challenges from those who had higher thoughts. Mendelblatt and Fatih were second and in third place was Finn double world champion Giles Scott (GBR).

The four teams eliminated were Negri/Lambertin (ITA), Gaspic/Sitic (CRO), and the Germans Polgar/Koy and Starjek/Olesen.

The top six were joined by the top placed pair from the earlier races, Olympic Champions, Freddy Loof and Anders Ekström for the semi-final race from which the top four placed teams would race the final. Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih, seemingly on fire today, took an early lead, holding it to the first windward mark and rounded ahead of Mateus Kuszznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) and the Loof/Ekström team.

Downwind there, was considerable place changing but Mendelblatt kept the lead from Loof, but Jorge Zarif kept up the pressure so that by the time they were rounding the top mark, he had split the leaders and held his place to the finish. Time then for three more to drop out of the competition and they were, somewhat surprisingly, the defending champions Scheidt and Prada, as well as Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot of France and the British tyros Giles Scott and Steve Milne.

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Instead of the accepted two rounds of the 1.2 mile leg windward/leeward course, it was changed to three rounds with 0.8 mile legs; it maintained the excitement. Jorge Zarif made the perfect start off the short starting line but Mendelblatt immediately tacked away to clear his air. It was a paying move in the shifty 12 knot breeze and while Zarif held on, the other two soon followed Mendelblatt. Zarif challenged downwind and kept second placeuntil the third beat when Mateusz Kuznierewitz put in a spirited charge to lead at the last windward mark.

The championship was settled on the final run when MendelBlatt challenged the Polish crew for the lead and Zarif went deep on the left hand side of a run that was almost a broad reach and took himself out of contention. Mendelblatt sailed with great panache to lead the four boats home with Freddy Loof second and Mateusz Kusznierewicz third. The New Champions were crowned in style, and together with the other podium sailors ended in the pool at the Nassau Yacht Club.


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