NZL Rookies first and third in first race of Star Worlds

by Sail-World NZL on 2 Oct 2006 The rookie New Zealand crew of Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have won the first race of the Wells Fargo Bank Star World Championship in San Francisco.

A second New Zealand crew of Rohan Lord and Miles Addy have finished in third place in the opening race from a seventy six strong fleet.

It is the first World Championship race ever for Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams, who is running a parallel America's Cup campaign with BMW Oracle Racing. Rohan Lord has previously competed in the Star class, however today's is easily his best ever result.

The two Kiwi crews were first and second around the second mark, after trailling Steve Gould and Greg Sieck (USA) around the first. Gould and Sieck dropped badly on the first run, but recovered well to finish in fifth place.

Rohan Lord amd Miles Addy led the 76 strong fleet for two legs before dropping back to fourth place on the fourth leg - handing the lead over to Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams who held the lead to the finish.

Popping in between the two Kiwi crews was the US combination of a Andy Horton and Brad Nichol, who were generally in the top three all around the course.

Lord and Addy lost their lead after sailing into a hole about 100 metres from the bottom mark on the penultimate leg of the seven leg (including two dog-legs) course. However they recovered well and close up to be within one second of Horton and Nichol at the finish.

In contrast, Pepper and Williams were a minute clear of the second placed crew.

Fourth placegetter was Flavio Marazzi and Martin Kozaczek (Italy), who were the first of the 2004 Olympians home. They finished in fourth overall at Athens.

Top placed Australian Iain Murray placed 15th on the first beat and flicked around that level for much of the race before climbing to seventh place at the finish - a good effort considering the carnage amongst the big names of Star boat sailing behind him.

Olympic Gold medallist, Robert Scheidt (Brazil) was one of the few able to recover from a big shift just after the start. Scheidt and crew, Bruno Prada, were buried at 29th place after the first beat, but climbed rapidly to get up into seventh place by mark four and sixth at the finish.

His compatriot, the 2004 Olympic Gold medalist, Torben Grael, was 15th in today's race, with other top Olympian Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell (GBR) back in 35th place.

The course on San Fransisco Bay was sailed in shifting conditions with generally light breezes - insufficent for the crews to droop-hike down the side, and mostly these giants of sailing were on deck. It was only on the final beat that the crews were able to sail in a fully hiked position.

The Star Worlds consist of six races, only one discard and with no Finals or Medal Race. The course consists of seven legs (including two dog-legs at the top mark).

Tommorrow will be a crucial day, with the wind expected to swing south east and become even more shifty, but without the holes in the breeze that caught so many today.

2006 Wells Fargo Bank Star Worlds
St Francis YC, San Francisco

Provisional Results - Race 1

Star

Place	Boat	Skipper	Crew	Sail #:	Fleet	1	Total
1	NZL 8187	Hamish Pepper	Carl Williams	NZL 8187	Isol	1.0	1
2	USA 8156	Andy Horton	Brad Nichol	USA 8156	NB	2.0	2
3	NZL 8061	Rohan Lord	Miles Addy	NZL 8061	Isol	3.0	3
4	SUI 8138	Flavio Marazzi	Martin Kozaczek	SUI 8138	TB	4.0	4
5	USA 8088	Steve Gould	Greg Sieck	USA 8088	WSFB	5.0	5
6	BRA 8127	Robert Scheidt	Bruno Prada	BRA 8127	GuB	6.0	6
7	AUS 7836	Iain Murray	Andrew Palfrey	AUS 7836	LMac	7.0	7
8	USA 8189	William Fields	Richard Burgess	USA 8189	SMB	8.0	8
9	SUI 8009	Christoph Gautschi	Jurg Konig	SUI 8009	Bod	9.0	9
10	ARG 7907	Fabian Mac Gowan	Federico Engelhard	ARG 7907	OL	10.0	10
11	IRL 8028	Maurice O'Connell	Edmund Peel	IRL 8028	Isol	11.0	11
12	CAN 7899	Alex Fox	Dunnery Best	CAN 7899	LOC	12.0	12
13	USA 8207	Jim Buckingham	Mike Dorgan	USA 8207	NH	13.0	13
14	FRA 8107	Xavier Rohart	Pascal Rambeau	FRA 8107	NI	14.0	14
15	BRA 8240	Torben Grael	Marcelo Ferreina	BRA 8240	Gua	15.0	15
16	USA 7844	Foss Miller	Greg Newhall	USA 7844	PS	16.0	16
17	POL 8252	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Dominik Zycki	POL 8252	Isol	17.0	17
18	SUI 7990	Daniel Stegmeier	Beat Stegmeier	SUI 7990	TB	18.0	18
19	CRO 7955	Marin Lovrovic Jr	Marin Lovrovic Sr	CRO 7955	Isol	19.0	19
20	JPN 7979	Kunio Suzuki	Daichi Wada	JPN 7979	Isol	20.0	20
21	BAH 8265	Steven Kelly	William Holowesko	BAH 8265	N	21.0	21
22	USA 8273	George Szabo	Eric Monroe	USA 8273	SDB	22.0	22
23	NED 8263	Erik Broekhof	Erik Veldhuizen	NED 8263		23.0	23
24	USA 8267	Mark Mendelblatt	Mark Strube	USA 8267	TaB	24.0	24
25	USA 8260	Bill Buchan	Erik Bentzen	USA 8260	PS	25.0	25
26	HUN 7900	Robert Forintos	Andras Komm	HUN 7900		26.0	26
27	USA 8176	Erik Lidecis	Michael Marzahl	USA 8176	NH	27.0	27
28	POR 8253	Afonso Domingo	Bernardo Santos	POR 8253	CP	28.0	28
29	UKR 8157	Arthur Anosov	David Caesar	UKR 8157	CLIS	29.0	29
30	USA 8059	Peter Vessella	J Darin Jensen	USA 8059	WSFB	30.0	30
31	HUN 8166	Tibor Tenke	Jozsef Bendicsek	HUN 8166	Ore	31.0	31
32	SWE 8256	Fredrik Loof	Anders Ekstrom	SWE 8256	SCF	32.0	32
33	USA 8268	John Dane III	Austin Sperry	USA 8268	MoB	33.0	33
34	USA 8222	Rick Merriman	Rick Peters	USA 8222	SDB	34.0	34
35	GBR 8144	Iain Percy	Steve Mitchell	GBR 8144	SO	35.0	35
36	CAN 8143	Brian Cramer	Tyler Bjorn	CAN 8143	LOC	36.0	36
37	ITA 8183	Antonio Tamburini	Renzo Ricci	ITA 8183	SI	37.0	37
38	ITA 8076	Luca Simeone	Ferdinando Colaninno	ITA 8076	Rom	38.0	38
39	AUS 8234	Peter Conde	Andrew Hunn	AUS 8234	Isol	39.0	39
40	USA 8246	Philippe Kahn	Joe Londrigan	USA 8246	SCF	40.0	40
41	ITA 8180	Francesco Bruni	Gilberto Nobili	ITA 8180	Pal	41.0	41
42	GER 8213	Marc Pickel	Ingo Borkowski	GER 8213	Brm	42.0	42
43	USA 8239	Mark Reynolds	Hal Haenel	USA 8239	SDB	43.0	43
44	AUT 8216	Roberto Tomasini Grinover	Walter Passegger	AUT 8216	AU	44.0	44
45	USA 8177	Karl Anderson	Edward Morey	USA 8177	BH	45.0	45
46	USA 7531	Richard Pearce	Paul Manning	USA 7531		46.0	46
47	USA 6890	Brian Huse	Scott Killam	USA 6890		47.0	47
48	USA 8250	Andrew Macdonald	Brian Fatih	USA 8250	NH	48.0	48
49	USA 8041	Brian O'Mahoney	David Pleman	USA 8041	LB	49.0	49
50	ITA 8224	Luca Modena	Michele Marchesini	ITA 8224	NG	50.0	50
51	USA 8043	Jock Kohlhas	David Bolles	USA 8043	BisB	51.0	51
52	UKR 8205	Vicente Gimeno	Luis Felipe Herman	UKR 8205	Ukr	52.0	52
53	USA 8195	John Maccausland	Bob Schofield	USA 8195	CR	53.0	53
54	ARG 8212	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Nicolas Rosas	ARG 8212	Lar	54.0	54
55	CHI 8181	Rodrigo Zuazola	Marcos Fuentes	CHI 8181	Chile	55.0	55
56	SWE 7978	Ingvar Krook	Andreas Fuerer	SWE 7978	AR	56.0	56
57	LAT 813	Eizens Cepurnieks	Aleksander Muzicenko	LAT 813	Isol	57.0	57
58	NZL 7609	Steve Johnson	Stephan Cohen	NZL 7609	Isol	58.0	58
59	BUL 7437	Nedko Vassilev	Paul Erikson	BUL 7437	Isol	59.0	59
60	USA 8215	Bill Allen	Brad Lichter	USA 8215	WH	60.0	60
61	ITA 8266	Diego Negri	Luigi Viale	ITA 8266	VE	61.0	61
62	CAN 7451	Dennis Burgess	Dave Kershaw	CAN 7451	EB	62.0	62
63	USA 7254	Derek Decouteau	Joseph Donnette	USA 7254		63.0	63
64	USA 4103	Scot Merrick	Crystine Lee	USA 4103	WSFB	64.0	64
65	ITA 8014	ALBERTO BAROVIER	Umberto Coppola	ITA 8014	SG	67.0 [DNF]	67
65	SUI 8232	Henrik Dannesboe	Igor Kaptourovitch	SUI 8232	BSL	67.0 [DNF]	67