Star World Championship, day 1 - Brazilians on top

by Star Worlds 2013 on 2 Sep 2013 On day one of the Star Worlds, sailors faced tough conditions and high competition. Star sailors Lars Grael, John MacCausland, and Andrew Campbell battle to win the first race of the Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship today.

The race course offered conditions typical of San Diego with the wind at 10 – 12 miles per hour from the West North West at 285° and three foot waves. The Race Committee set a Course three with 2.1 mile long legs and fired the first signal on time at 1230 hrs.

With five seconds left to the start, the Race Committee postponed the race to avoid a general recall as well as make some course and starting line adjustments. Shortly thereafter, the windward mark bearing was changed to 285° the second starting sequence began.

Second start had an individual recall and four boats were called OCS: USA 7294 Charles and Chas Beek, USA 8260 Bill Buchan and Erik Bentzen, USA 8306 Thomas Springer and Dave Wood, and USA 8361 Tom Londrigan Jr. and Rick Peters.

USA 8361 Tom Londrigan Jr. and Rick Peters filed for and were denied a redress by the Race Committee to have their OCS score changed.

Although the start was the key factor in sailing a successful race, competitors had to fight for a good position on the first upwind leg. The majority of the fleet sailed to the right side of the course and reached the windward mark without much separation.

Americans Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel were the first to round the first mark, followed closely by Andrew Campbell and John von Schwarz. The fleet saw several position changes throughout the first downwind leg, then the top boats began to sail away from the rest of the fleet. Brazilians Lars Grael and Samuel F. Goncalves were able to take the lead from Andrew Campbell in the second downwind leg after Campbell was penalized by the judges for violating Rule 42, and maintain their position all the way to the finish.

Quotes from today’s race winner Lars Grael:
'We started in the middle of the starting line and we were looking to cross the fleet as soon as we had the chance. We were in a good position, but teams in the corner on the right came off a bit better.
We rounded the first mark in fourth place, managed to finish the first downwind leg in second. Then we were in a good fight with Andrew Campbell, but it was a pity he was penalized (rule 42) and we got the lead.
In the last upwind leg we protected the right, so we decided not to cover him just do our best and it was good enough.

Our plan is to be top 10. We know it is very difficult to be top five in each race. The fleet is very even, we have a lot of gold star winners. The level is very high. We have to make a good average and not make too many mistakes to be in the top 10. That is our goal.'

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Place	#	Country		Sail# / Skipper	Crew	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Total
1	74		BRA	8474 Lars Schmidt Grael	Samuel F. Goncalves	1						1
2	97		USA	8490 John MacCausland	Phil Trinter	2						2
3	82		USA	8209 Andrew Campbell	John von Schwarz	3						3
4	62		USA	8362 Vincent Brun	Brian Terhaar	4						4
5	54		USA	8440 Jim Buckingham	Austin Sperry	5						5
6	37		FRA	8237 Xavier Rohart	Serge Pulfer	6						6
7	20		USA	8320 George Szabo	Craig Moss	7						7
8	29		USA	8129 Mark Reynolds	Hal Haenel	8						8
9	03		USA	8203 Brian Ledbetter	Gregg Morton	9						9
10	92		USA	8323 Eric Doyle	Payson Infelise	10						10
11	23		USA	8023 Mike Dorgan	Matt Dorgan	11						11
12	48		USA	8448 Carl Buchan	Jamie Buchan	12						12
13	65		USA	8465 Augie Diaz	Arnis Baltins	13						13
14	72		USA	8072 Doug Smith	Myles H. A. Prichard	14						14
15	28		CAN	8028 Steven Fleckenstein	Rob Mulder	15						15
16	90		BRA	8390 Alessandro Pascolato	Henry Raul Boening	16						16
17	68		ARG	8268 Alejandro Bugacov	Eugenio Cingolani	17						17
18	51		SUI	8479 Jean-Pascal Chatagny	Patrick Ducommun	18						18
19	80		USA	8082 Ben Mitchell	Julian Busch	19						19
20	31		GER	8331 Hubert Merkelbach	Gerrit Bartel	20						20
21	71		CAN	8271 Allan Cullen	Dave Martin	21						21
22	43		CAN	8143 Brian Cramer	Cam Lymburner	22						22
23	15		USA	8015 Donny Massey	Isao Toyama	23						23
24	91		USA	8291 William Swigart	Brian Fatih	24						24
25	09		USA	7209 Mark Butler	John Rudderham	25						25
26	84		USA	8484 Larry Whipple	Mark Strube	26						26
27	98		USA	7620 Derek De Couteau	Jamie Stewart	27						27
28	58		SUI	7929 Michel Niklaus	Tyler Bjorn	28						28
29	96		USA	8229 Tomas Hornos	Josh Revkin	29						29
30	99		USA	8000 Arthur Anosov	David Caesar	30						30
31	35		CAN	8235 Mark Passmore	Chris Rogers	31						31
32	66		CAN	8466 Stuart Hebb	Mike Wolfs	32						32
33	83		CAN	8389 Jerry Wendt	Bryan Milne	33						33
34	41		USA	7741 Benjamin Sternberg	Valentin Veytsman	34						34
35	59		BRA	8459 Admar Gonzaga Neto	Andre Serpa	35						35
36	47		UKR	8247 Vasyl Gureyev	Vitalii Kushnir	36						36
37	85		USA	7985 Steve Brown	Erick Lange	37						37
38	78		SWE	7978 Ingvar J-son Krook	Benjamin Pettersen	38						38
39	40		USA	6840 Chris Wright	Kyle Henehan	39						39
40	57		SUI	8409 Christoph Gautschi	Dominik Schenk	40						40
41	88		USA	8088 Stephen Gould	Greg Sieck	41						41
42	21		USA	7621 Peter Costa	Jessica Costa	42						42
43	63		FRA	7663 Guillaume Rasse	Nina Aviles	43						43
44	79		USA	8379 Bill Allen	Eric Beckwith	44						44
45	89		USA	8189 Robbie Haines	Chris Barnard	45						45
46	17		CAN	8017 Bruce Long	Paul Cobban	46						46
47	55		USA	8215 John Chiarella	Bob Carlson	47						47
48	25		USA	7425 Laura Beigel	Read Beigel	48						48
49	10		USA	8410 Mike Phinney	Rick Burgess	49						49
50	50		USA	8163 Jon Pelliconi	Henry Brawner	50						50
51	95		USA	8065 Doug Steele	Andy Dippel	51						51
52	56		BRA	8403 Frederico H. V. de Lima	Renato Moura	52						52
53	87		USA	8087 Keith Donald	Kevin Elterman	53						53
54	44		USA	7844 Foss Miller	Malcolm Macneil	54						54
55	81		USA	8187 Robert A Teitge	Sam Eadie	55						55
56	76		VIE	8176 Huy Nguyen	Andro Korlaet	56						56
57	69		USA	8269 Jock Kohlhas	John Wulff	57						57
58	53		USA	7531 William Gerard	Bill Gerard	58						58
59	67		USA	8267 Stephen Gunther	Chris Wurtz	59						59
60	52		USA	8162 Chuck Driscoll	Jim Oberg	60						60
61	16		GER	8416 Hubert Rauch	Kilian Weise	61						61
62	77		USA	7977 Paul Kresge	Jon Kidder	62						62
63	94		USA	7294 Charles Beek	Chas Beek	67 ocs						67
64	60		USA	8260 Bill Buchan	Erik Bentzen	67 ocs						67
65	06		USA	8306 Thomas Springer	David Wood	67 ocs						67
66	61		USA	8361 Tom Londrigan, Jr.	Rick Peters	67 ocs						67