Star World Championship - San Diego Yacht Club to host

by Judy Parker on 24 Jul 2013 The 2013 Star World Championship is set to take place from 28 August - 8 September and will be hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club. This will be the eighth time SDYC has hosted the prestigious regatta.

San Diego sailmaker Mark Reynolds, known as 'The star of the Star Class,' heads the list of entrants. Reynolds has won three Olympic medals, including two golds, and two Star world championships.

Other San Diego Yacht Club members signed up are former world champions George Szabo and Eric Doyle. Szabo’s crew is Craig Moss, and Doyle's crew is Payson Infelise.

Also entered is Bill Buchan, a former world champion and the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the Star class. Buchan will sail with Erik Bentzen.

San Diego has a long and illustrious history with the venerable Star class, which makes it all that much more special that this regatta is returning to America's Finest City.

The list of past world champions includes San Diego sailing stalwarts Malin Burnham, Lowell North, Dennis Conner, Gerry Driscoll and Reynolds.

In 1945, Burnham, then 17, became the youngest skipper to win the Star Worlds. He continued his shining sailing career by becoming helmsman of Enterprise in the 1977 America's Cup trials, winning the Lipton Cup four times, and heading the Sail America effort that brought America's Cup to San Diego Yacht Club in 1987.

North, who crewed for Burnham in their 1945 Star Worlds victory at only 15, became the first sailor to win four Star World Championships, and finished second five times. He also won an Olympic gold medal in Star Class in 1968. North was known for his meticulous scientific approach, and in 1957 put his engineering degree toward sail making. He opened his first North Sails loft in San Diego in 1957, and became one of the world’s foremost sail makers.

Conner is a two-time Star World champion, four-time winner of America's Cup and winner of a bronze medal in the 1976 Olympics. He's known as one of the best all-around sailors in the world, having raced every size of boat from the smallest one-man dinghies to the largest ocean racing maxi-yachts.

Driscoll won the 1944 Star Class World Championship, three Lipton Cups and two Congressional Cups. A great contributor to the sailing world and San Diego community, Driscoll helped organize the San Diego Yacht Club's junior sailing program.

Other San Diego Star Class Worlds winners include Paul Cayard, Joe Londrigan, Vince Brun and Rick Star Worlds 2013