Star Sailors League Finals – 100 days to go and first team confirmed

by Star Sailors League on 24 Aug 2017 There are a little more than 100 days to the SSL Finals 2017 in Nassau Bahamas, from December 4th to ninth, and just a few regattas that can give points and change the top 10 skippers of the SSL Rankings until September 12th, when the leaders for 2017 will be definite.

The plan for the fifth edition of the most important event for the Star Sailors League will follow the path of the previous SSL Finals, with four days of Qualification Series after which the top 10 teams will go ahead to the final knock-out stage of the competition.

The first qualified team will get a bye to the Final, the runner-up will go to the semi-finals and teams from third to 10th will have to fight on yet one more race in the quarter-finals. All of this action will happen on the last day of competition, on Saturday December 9th, and in the late afternoon the winners of the SSL Finals 2017 will be crowned directly after racing at Nassau Yacht Club.

To access to SSL Finals you can either be among the top 10 sailors in the SSL Rankings, be the first crew, a young talented sailor, a VIP invited for your achievements in your career or the ISCYRA World Champion. Norwegian Eivind Melleby with American Joshua Revkin won the Star World Championship in July in Denmark and so owned the right to have a spot in Nassau: Melleby and Revkin are the first SSL Finalists to confirm their participation to the fifth edition of the SSL Finals.

Josh Revkin raced at every single SSL event since 2013, be it the four previous SSL Finals or the Grand Slams; Eivind Melleby was at two SSL Finals and with Josh finished second at the SSL City Grand Slam in Hamburg in 2016. The team has good vibes and works well together, we can expect great things from them in Nassau, particularly if it’s a windy year in Montagu Bay – they seem to like strong breeze like those almost stormy days in Svendborg at the Worlds.

The Opening Ceremony is confirmed to take place on Monday December 4th late afternoon, details haven't been formalized yet but a cocktail party will surely follow. The Medal Ceremony will be held right after sailing on Saturday December 9th, on a big podium in Montagu Beach and that evening there will be the Gala Dinner with Price Giving Ceremony at Nassau Yacht Club.