Star Worlds - MacCausland-Trinter continue to lead

by Icarus sailing media on 6 Sep 2013 At the Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship series, local Star sailor Andrew Campbell and his crew John von Schwarz conquered the fickle breeze to win the fifth race in the sixth race. John MacCausland and Phil Trinter continue to lead the fleet with an impressive seven point lead, guaranteeing the team will win the regatta as long as they earn a top seven finish in the final race tomorrow.

With the completion of five races, the sailors are each granted one throw out race, where their worst finishing place is removed from their total score. Therefore today’s race was one of the most important races in the series and the combination of aggressive sailors, wind shifts and unexpected changes in wind strength made Race five even more challenging than the previous days races.

The 1220 hrs warning gun for the start was right on time, but similar to yesterday, PRO Bill Stump postponed at the one minute gun. Only 8 of the 66 boats in the fleet had set up at the port end of the line indicating the starting line was too skewed. The Race Committee adjusted the line for the next start but with the anxious Star Sailors pushing the line this afternoon, Stump was forced to call a Black Flag start. Five boats were identified as over early at the start and given a black flag penalty.

On the first leg of the race, sailors saw a steady 10 – 12 knot breeze and a minor wind shift five degrees to the right of the windward mark bearing 285°. Andrew Campbell and John von Schwarz reached the windward mark first and were overlapped with Augie Diaz and Arnis Baltins. Due to the 5° shift, the Race Committee adjusted the leeward mark and notified sailors as they rounded the mark and headed downwind.

During the downwind leg, the breeze dropped to about five knots and shifted back to the left 5° making the leeward gate rounding an integral part of the sailors’ strategy and allowing for some big gains and losses. This time Vince Brun reached the leeward mark first with Campbell rounding close behind.

On the second weather leg, the leading seven boats were never far apart from one another and positions changed frequently. Campbell sailed a flawless second leg and was able to both pass Brun to take the lead again and hold the other top boats at a short distance behind. As the boats rounded the weather mark and began their final downwind leg, Campbell extended his lead.

Just as the first half of the fleet reached the leeward gate, the breeze dropped again to about 1.5 knots. The fleet struggled to round the marks and head back up the last weather leg. Campbell, however, still managed to maintain his lead and hold off MacCausland who was coming on strong to seal yet his fourth second place finish of the series.

Quote from the today’s winner Andrew Campbell
'It was a long race, almost three hours with really wild conditions. We had the whole variety with the crew over the rail and no wind at all. We got out and weren’t going to give it away this time. We led a race earlier in the week, so we were ready to take this one if they were going to give it to us. We started in the middle of the line near Corinthian, the center boat and tacked right away. I think we sailed almost 20 minutes before we could tack back. We were just at the windward mark with Augie Diaz and Arnis Baltins and so those guys put up a good fight.

We split at the bottom gate, where we were very close with Vince Brun and Augie Diaz. We got into the right hand side and it was much, much better on the second and third beats. We knew the right was going to be better, and we were lucky to be able to make a left turn at the bottom and get out to the right side.
On the last beat of the race, it got really light. The big thunderclouds made something change with the breeze. It was really light, really scary, lots of current, not your normal San Diego sunshine and breeze. It was light air. But we were able to grab it at the end, so we’re very happy.

The plan for tomorrow is to do the same thing. We’re going to come home with hopefully some good hardware for San Diego Yacht Club. We’re going to work really hard to put up another good score.'

Provisional results after five races and a discard:
1) J. MacCausland-P. Trinter, USA, 8 pts.
2) X. Rohart-S. Pulfer, FRA, 15 pts.
3) B. Ledbetter-G. Morton, USA, 19 pts.
4) M. Reynolds-H. Haenel, USA, 21 pts.
5) G. Szabo-C. Moss, USA, 22 pts.
6) V. Brun-B. Terhaar, USA, 26 pts.
7) A. Campbell-J. von Schwarz, USA, 27 pts
8) A. Diaz-A. Baltins, USA, 32 pts.
9) J. Buckingham-A. Sperry, USA, 38 pts.
10) C. Buchan-J. Buchan, USA, 45 pts.

Event website

Place	#	Country		Sail# / Skipper	Crew	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Total
1	97		USA	8490 John MacCausland	Phil Trinter	2	- 11	2	2	2		8
2	37		FRA	8237 Xavier Rohart	Serge Pulfer	6	- 16	1	1	7		15
3	03		USA	8203 Brian Ledbetter	Gregg Morton	9	1	3	6	- 20		19
4	29		USA	8129 Mark Reynolds	Hal Haenel	8	7	- 61	3	3		21
5	20		USA	8320 George Szabo	Craig Moss	7	6	4	5	- 26		22
6	62		USA	8362 Vincent Brun	Brian Terhaar	4	5	- 41	12	5		26
7	82		USA	8209 Andrew Campbell	John von Schwarz	3	19	- 22	4	1		27
8	65		USA	8465 Augie Diaz	Arnis Baltins	13	3	- 33	8	8		32
9	54		USA	8440 Jim Buckingham	Austin Sperry	5	- 67 ocs	11	7	15		38
10	48		USA	8448 Carl Buchan	Jamie Buchan	12	- 22	9	18	6		45
11	31		GER	8331 Hubert Merkelbach	Gerrit Bartel	20	4	- 25	13	12		49
12	51		SUI	8479 Jean-Pascal Chatagny	Patrick Ducommun	18	2	20	- 51	14		54
13	28		CAN	8028 Steven Fleckenstein	Rob Mulder	15	- 25	7	25	9		56
14	85		USA	8336 Steve Brown	Erick Lange	- 36	35	10	9	11		65
15	90		BRA	8390 Alessandro Pascolato	Henry Raul Boening	16	10	- 40	26	13		65
16	92		USA	8323 Eric Doyle	Payson Infelise	10	15	19	21	- 34		65
17	43		CAN	8143 Brian Cramer	Cam Lymburner	22	8	15	- 38	24		69
18	98		USA	7620 Derek De Couteau	Jamie Stewart	27	27	6	- 43	10		70
19	72		USA	8072 Doug Smith	Myles H. A. Prichard	14	21	- 52	17	19		71
20	41		USA	7741 Benjamin Sternberg	Valentin Veytsman	- 33	13	17	27	22		79
21	91		USA	8291 William G. Swigart	Brian Fatih	24	18	18	20	- 31		80
22	96		USA	8229 Tomas Hornos	Josh Revkin	29	17	13	22	- 67 bfd		81
23	74		BRA	8474 Lars Schmidt Grael	Samuel F. Goncalves	1	20	36	- 37	28		85
24	80		USA	8082 Ben Mitchell	Julian Busch	19	33	29	- 34	4		85
25	99		USA	8000 Arthur Anosov	David Caesar	30	- 37	24	14	23		91
26	59		BRA	8459 Admar Gonzaga Neto	Andre Serpa	34	32	16	10	- 45		92
27	15		USA	8015 Donny Massey	Isao Toyama	23	29	- 51	23	21		96
28	66		CAN	8466 Stuart Hebb	Mike Wolfs	- 67 dsq	31	12	31	27		101
29	47		UKR	8247 Vasyl Gureyev	Vitalii Kushnir	35	14	- 45	24	29		102
30	09		USA	7209 Mark Butler	John Rudderham	25	- 36	30	16	35		106
31	23		USA	8023 Mike Dorgan	Matt Dorgan	11	9	43	- 67 dnf	44		107
32	88		USA	8088 Stephen G Gould	Greg Sieck	40	23	- 54	11	33		107
33	68		ARG	8268 Alejandro Bugacov	Eugenio Cingolani	17	40	- 42	30	25		112
34	58		SUI	7929 Michel Niklaus	Tyler Bjorn	28	43	14	28	- 67 bfd		113
35	60		USA	8260 Bill Buchan	Erik Bentzen	- 67 ocs	24	44	35	17		120
36	57		SUI	8409 Christoph Gautschi	Dominik Schenk	39	26	23	32	- 53		120
37	52		USA	8162 Chuck Driscoll	Jim Oberg	- 59	48	8	47	18		121
38	78		SWE	7978 Ingvar J-son Krook	Benjamin Pettersen	37	30	49	15	- 51		131
39	56		BRA	8403 Frederico H. V. de Lima	Renato Moura	51	- 60	26	41	16		134
40	61		USA	8361 Tom Londrigan, Jr.	Rick Peters	- 67 ocs	12	39	19	67 bfd		137
41	10		USA	8410 Mike Phinney	Rick Burgess	- 48	28	32	44	39		143
42	50		USA	8163 Jon Pelliconi	Henry Brawner	- 49	41	34	36	32		143
43	71		CAN	8271 Allan Cullen	Dave Martin	21	- 53	37	48	38		144
44	21		USA	7621 Peter F. Costa	Jessica Costa	41	- 57	27	39	40		147
45	87		USA	8087 Keith Donald	Kevin Elterman	52	52	5	- 58	41		150
46	35		CAN	8235 Mark Passmore	Chris Rogers	31	39	- 58	53	30		153
47	79		USA	8379 Bill Allen	Eric Beckwith	43	42	- 50	29	49		163
48	06		USA	8306 Thomas E. Springer	David Wood	- 67 ocs	46	31	40	47		164
49	83		CAN	8389 Jerry Wendt	Bryan Milne	32	54	47	33	- 55		166
50	81		USA	8187 Robert A Teitge	Sam Eadie	54	- 63	21	52	48		175
51	40		USA	6840 Chris Wright	Kyle Henehan	38	- 59	55	49	37		179
52	89		USA	8189 Robbie Haines	Chris Barnard	44	34	35	- 67 dnc	67 dnc		180
53	63		FRA	7663 Guillaume Rasse	Nina Aviles	42	56	- 60	57	36		191
54	25		USA	7425 Laura Beigel	Read Beigel	47	- 58	38	56	50		191
55	44		USA	7844 Foss Miller	Malcolm Macneil	53	47	28	- 67 dnf	67 bfd		195
56	16		GER	8416 Hubert Rauch	Kilian Weise	60	51	- 67 dsq	42	42		195
57	84		USA	8484 Larry Whipple	Mark Strube	26	38	- 67 dnc	67 dnc	67 dnc		198
58	67		USA	8267 Stephen Gunther	Ed Morey	58	45	- 62	50	46		199
59	17		CAN	8017 Bruce Long	Paul Cobban	45	- 67 dnf	48	54	54		201
60	95		USA	8065 Doug Steele	Andy Dippel	50	49	56	46	- 57		201
61	69		USA	8269 Jock Kohlhas	John Wulff	56	44	- 64	45	58		203
62	94		USA	7294 Charles Beek	Chas Beek	- 67 ocs	50	46	61	52		209
63	76		VIE	8176 Huy Nguyen	Andro Korlaet	55	64	53	- 67 dns	43		215
64	55		USA	8215 John Chiarella	Bob Carlson	46	55	57	- 60	59		217
65	53		USA	7531 William Gerard	Bill Gerard	57	- 61	59	59	56		231
66	77		USA	7977 Paul Kresge	Jon Kidder	61	62	63	55	- 67 bfd		241