Final day of Star Worlds a scramble for top four

by Michelle Slade on 6 Oct 2006 Positions in the fleet begun to take final shape on Day 5 of the Wells Fargo Private Bank Star World Championships, hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club.

However, it’s still tight at the head with the top four having a realistic chance of winning. The breeze today was light and shifty as it’s been all week, from the west 8-9 knots, smooth water and a slight ebb tide.

Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom (SWE), took first place today, ahead of Jim Buckingham and Mike Dorgan (USA). Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) took third, while Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) took fourth. Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams (NZ) were in fifth place.

Racing was superb out on the Berkeley Olympic Circle, with tight racing throughout between Buckingham and Loof, and defending champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau.

Commented Rohart, 'It’s really tough racing. We missed a small wind shift on the second beat and dropped a few places. Everyone is working hard to be tighter. It’s so difficult to be clever all the time here. Guys like Robert, Hamish and Andy (Horton), are really clever with what’s going on with the wind here. I’m impressed with the level. We’re starting well, our speed is average and our downwind is really nice. The week’s not finished.'

Pepper and Williams are putting on an excellent performance, and look hard to beat, showing great skill at emerging from deep to lead. It’s an exciting time for New Zealand, a country just now delivering up Star sailors and already with two teams sitting in the top five places overall in the best show down of Star sailors that many present at this international regatta have ever witnessed.

Pepper said, 'It’s been our week. Carl’s doing a great job downwind. We may not be in the best place at each mark but we’re focused on being consistent. In tricky conditions there are always options which we’ve been looking for. We’ve not made any big mistakes mind you, the top guys seldom make mistakes so it’s hard to put too much time on them. We’re just working at being conservative at the start and not too aggressive and slowly chip at it, working on speed and going the right way. Our boat speed’s as good as anyone’s.'

Scheidt is optimistic that his team has a chance at the gold star, 'Hamish is in a very good position with an advantage but there are still 4 or 5 guys who have a chance of winning tomorrow, which makes it very exciting. We’ve been very consistent so far even though we didn’t expect such light winds. It’s been difficult racing, shifty and a challenging current. We’ve just been sailing with the wind and not taking too many chances, trying to make the right decisions and be in the right position.'

QUOTES FROM THE BOATS
Defending World Champion Xavier Rohart (FRA), 3rd overall:
'We came here struggling against time as our boat was late getting here and we’ve been getting used to the wind and current. We were here last year for 10 days for training which helped. What is really working well for us is the input we get from our coach. We are really working well as a team which is a major plus.'

Mike Dorgan (USA) 7th overall:'We had a bad start believe it or not. We started next to Rohart and (Mark) Reynolds was above us just as our mainsheet came out of the cleat which immediately spat us out the back. We tacked 3 or 4 times and worked the middle. We were on starboard and with the current noticed that we were right on the lay so we pinched up a little and rounded in third – it should have been a disastrous first beat! We’re having fun because we were up sailing against two world champs today and we’re just weekend warriors with desk jobs and families. We’re from Southern California so we’re used to light and tricky conditions which it has been all week so we’re enjoying the conditions and all that’s happening at the Club here.'

Steve Mitchell (GBR), 31st overall:
'We looked good off the start and were in the top 5 heading for the top mark. We had gauged the tide wrong and over-stood the mark by a huge distance which put us back to about 40th so spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. It hasn’t been a good regatta for us. The problem as we see it is that there are pro sailors, pro judges, and just one pro race officer which is an issue when there’s a lot at stake like there is for many sailors here. The first two races this week were hard and there were plenty of gold stars getting low places. We should have had top results in the last two races but they were taken away by jury. It’s hard when we have a big team supporting us. We hope the wind blows tomorrow so we can at least take home one good race.'

Diego Negri (ITA), 17th overall:
'After rounding in the top five at marks 2 and 3, we dropped many places on the last run as we couldn’t find the right breeze. We stayed in the middle and couldn’t get out. At the last shift on the last run we had 8 boats pass us just 100 meters from the mark which is not funny. We’ve had a good regatta so far. We recently won the European Championships so we hoped to be in the top 10 here but I know now it’s not easy to do well in this group. We’re not feeling good about San Francisco conditions, we only had a little practice here. We’ve sailed the Star for less then a year and hope for the top 15 tomorrow.'

(For full information visit www.stfyc.com, click on Regatta Information and Star Worlds)

2006 Wells Fargo Star Worlds - San Francisco, USA
Provisional Results - Day 5

Star

Place	Boat	Skipper	Crew	Sail #:	Fleet	1	2	3	4	5	Total
1	NZL 8187	Hamish Pepper	Carl Williams	NZL 8187	Isol	1.0	20.0	4.0	1.0	5.0	11
2	BRA 8127	Robert Scheidt	Bruno Prada	BRA 8127	GuB	6.0	4.0	13.0	5.0	3.0	18
3	FRA 8107	Xavier Rohart	Pascal Rambeau	FRA 8107	NI	14.0	5.0	5.0	2.0	8.0	20
4	USA 8156	Andy Horton	Brad Nichol	USA 8156	NB	2.0	9.0	1.0	32.0 [ZFP]	9.0	21
5	NZL 8061	Rohan Lord	Miles Addy	NZL 8061	Isol	3.0	2.0	10.0	11.0	46.0	26
6	SUI 8138	Flavio Marazzi	Martin Kozaczek	SUI 8138	TB	4.0	1.0	14.0	15.0	12.0	31
7	USA 8207	Jim Buckingham	Mike Dorgan	USA 8207	NH	13.0	23.0	19.0	4.0	2.0	38
8	SWE 8256	Fredrik Loof	Anders Ekstrom	SWE 8256	SCF	33.0	13.0	12.0	13.0	1.0	39
9	POL 8252	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Dominik Zycki	POL 8252	Isol	17.0	10.0	67.0 [OCS]	21.0 [ZFP]	4.0	52
10	SUI 7990	Daniel Stegmeier	Beat Stegmeier	SUI 7990	TB	18.0	3.0	18.0	30.0 [ZFP]	19.0	58
11	ITA 8224	Luca Modena	Michele Marchesini	ITA 8224	NG	51.0	12.0	6.0	14.0	26.0	58.0001
12	USA 8267	Mark Mendelblatt	Mark Strube	USA 8267	TaB	25.0	8.0	16.0	34.0 [ZFP]	10.0	59
13	USA 8239	Mark Reynolds	Hal Haenel	USA 8239	SDB	44.0	26.0	3.0	10.0	22.0	61
14	GER 8213	Marc Pickel	Ingo Borkowski	GER 8213	Brm	43.0	35.0	2.0	9.0	20.0	66
15	USA 8268	John Dane III	Austin Sperry	USA 8268	MoB	34.0	17.0	9.0	16.0	24.0	66.0001
16	AUS 7836	Iain Murray	Andrew Palfrey	AUS 7836	LMac	7.0	30.0	17.0	23.0	21.0	68
17	ITA 8266	Diego Negri	Luigi Viale	ITA 8266	VE	62.0	14.0	7.0	37.0	11.0	69
18	POR 8253	Afonso Domingo	Bernardo Santos	POR 8253	CP	29.0	7.0	29.0	6.0	47.0	71
19	ITA 8076	Luca Simeone	Ferdinando Colaninno	ITA 8076	Rom	39.0	22.0	24.0	12.0	13.0	71.0001
20	ARG 7907	Fabian Mac Gowan	Federico Engelhard	ARG 7907	OL	10.0	33.0	28.0	20.0	18.0	76
21	BRA 8240	Torben Grael	Marcelo Ferreina	BRA 8240	Gua	15.0	31.0	15.0	42.0	17.0	78
22	USA 8195	John Maccausland	Bob Schofield	USA 8195	CR	54.0	32.0	22.0	24.0	7.0	85
23	USA 8273	George Szabo	Eric Monroe	USA 8273	SDB	23.0	28.0	8.0	26.0	31.0	85.0001
24	ITA 8180	Francesco Bruni	Gilberto Nobili	ITA 8180	Pal	42.0	21.0	34.0	20.0 [ZFP]	14.0	89
25	USA 8260	Bill Buchan	Erik Bentzen	USA 8260	PS	26.0	6.0	67.0 [DSQ]	22.0	40.0	94
26	ARG 8212	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Nicolas Rosas	ARG 8212	Lar	55.0	46.0	22.0 [RDG, 22.0]	28.0	6.0	102
27	UKR 8157	Arthur Anosov	David Caesar	UKR 8157	CLIS	30.0	27.0	20.0	60.0	25.0	102
28	USA 8059	Peter Vessella	J Darin Jensen	USA 8059	WSFB	31.0	45.0	11.0	52.0	16.0	103
29	USA 8222	Rick Merriman	Rick Peters	USA 8222	SDB	35.0	24.0	21.0	29.0	32.0	106
30	CRO 7955	Marin Lovrovic Jr	Marin Lovrovic Sr	CRO 7955	Isol	19.0	18.0	25.0	65.0	45.0	107
31	GBR 8144	Iain Percy	Steve Mitchell	GBR 8144	SO	36.0	16.0	67.0 [OCS]	16.0 [ZFP]	42.0	110
32	SUI 8232	Henrik Dannesboe	Igor Kaptourovitch	SUI 8232	BSL	67.0 [DNF]	29.0	32.0	18.0	36.0	115
33	ITA 8014	ALBERTO BAROVIER	Umberto Coppola	ITA 8014	SG	22.0	39.0	35.0	38.0	23.0	118
34	SWE 7978	Ingvar Krook	Andreas Fuerer	SWE 7978	AR	57.0	43.0	26.0	25.0	29.0	123
35	BAH 8265	Steven Kelly	William Holowesko	BAH 8265	N	21.0	40.0	36.0	61.0	27.0	124
36	USA 8176	Erik Lidecis	Michael Marzahl	USA 8176	NH	28.0	25.0	23.0	55.0	53.0	129
37	SUI 8009	Christoph Gautschi	Jurg Konig	SUI 8009	Bod	9.0	42.0	42.0	51.0	38.0	131
38	IRL 8028	Maurice O'Connell	Edmund Peel	IRL 8028	Isol	11.0	11.0	67.0 [OCS]	50.0	59.0	131
39	AUS 8234	Peter Conde	Andrew Hunn	AUS 8234	Isol	40.0	19.0	30.0	58.0	44.0	133
40	USA 8088	Steve Gould	Greg Sieck	USA 8088	WSFB	5.0	44.0	45.0	40.0	50.0	134
41	CAN 7899	Alex Fox	Dunnery Best	CAN 7899	LOC	12.0	55.0	52.0	33.0	41.0	138
42	CAN 8143	Brian Cramer	Tyler Bjorn	CAN 8143	LOC	37.0	36.0	38.0	45.0 [ZFP]	28.0	139
43	USA 8250	Andrew Macdonald	Brian Fatih	USA 8250	NH	49.0	28.0 [ZFP,MAN, 28.0]	67.0 [OCS]	48.0	15.0	140
44	USA 8177	Karl Anderson	Edward Morey	USA 8177	BH	46.0	37.0	37.0	44.0	30.0	148
45	JPN 7979	Kunio Suzuki	Daichi Wada	JPN 7979	Isol	20.0	41.0	67.0 [OCS]	36.0	52.0	149
46	USA 8189	William Fields	Richard Burgess	USA 8189	SMB	8.0	38.0	46.0	62.0 [ZFP]	58.0	150
47	USA 8246	Philippe Kahn	Joe Londrigan	USA 8246	SCF	41.0	47.0	67.0 [OCS]	30.0	39.0	157
48	USA 7844	Foss Miller	Greg Newhall	USA 7844	PS	16.0	48.0	40.0	59.0	55.0	159
49	NED 8263	Erik Broekhof	Erik Veldhuizen	NED 8263		24.0	49.0	67.0 [OCS]	43.0	43.0	159
50	USA 8215	Bill Allen	Brad Lichter	USA 8215	WH	61.0	51.0	33.0	40.0 [ZFP]	37.0	161
51	HUN 8166	Tibor Tenke	Jozsef Bendicsek	HUN 8166	Ore	32.0	34.0	31.0	67.0 [ZFP]	67.0 [OCS]	164
52	USA 7531	Richard Pearce	Paul Manning	USA 7531		47.0	54.0	48.0	34.0	35.0	164
53	CHI 8181	Rodrigo Zuazola	Marcos Fuentes	CHI 8181	Chile	56.0	67.0 [OCS]	41.0	46.0	34.0	177
54	HUN 7900	Robert Forintos	Andras Komm	HUN 7900		27.0	58.0	53.0	41.0	57.0	178
55	BUL 7437	Nedko Vassilev	Paul Erikson	BUL 7437	Isol	60.0	53.0	44.0	39.0	51.0	187
56	LAT 813	Eizens Cepurnieks	Aleksander Muzicenko	LAT 813	Isol	58.0	52.0	43.0	35.0	62.0	188
57	CAN 6890	Brian Huse	Scott Killam	CAN 6890	VI	48.0	56.0	47.0	44.0 [ZFP]	49.0	188
58	ITA 8183	Antonio Tamburini	Renzo Ricci	ITA 8183	SI	38.0	57.0	67.0 [OCS]	67.0 [ZFP]	33.0	195
59	USA 8043	Jock Kohlhas	David Bolles	USA 8043	BisB	52.0	50.0	39.0	56.0	61.0	197
60	AUT 8216	Roberto Tomasini Grinover	Walter Passegger	AUT 8216	AU	45.0	62.0	50.0	47.0	60.0	202
61	CHI 7972	Vicente Gimeno	Luis Felipe Herman	CHI 7972	Chile	53.0	59.0	51.0	45.0	54.0	203
62	USA 8041	Brian O'Mahoney	David Pleman	USA 8041	LB	50.0	61.0	54.0	67.0 [ZFP]	56.0	221
63	NZL 7609	Steve Johnson	Stephan Cohen	NZL 7609	Isol	59.0	64.0	55.0	67.0 [ZFP]	48.0	226
64	USA 7254	Derek Decouteau	Joseph Donnette	USA 7254		64.0	60.0	49.0	66.0 [ZFP]	67.0 [OCS]	239
65	CAN 7451	Dennis Burgess	Dave Kershaw	CAN 7451	EB	63.0	63.0	56.0	67.0 [BFD]	63.0	245
66	USA 4103	Scot Merrick	Crystine Lee	USA 4103	WSFB	65.0	65.0	57.0	63.0	64.0	249

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About the St. Francis Yacht Club
Founded in 1927, the St. Francis Yacht Club is steeped in over 75 years of yachting and racing traditions. From the start, the St. Francis Yacht Club's membership roster has included many of the Bay Area's most prominent citizens and greatest sailors. Early racers for the St. Francis included such champions as L.A. Norris, Mark Fontana, Myron Spaulding, Arthur Rousseau, Painless Parker and Lester Stone. Today, it is names like Paul Cayard, John Kostecki, John Bertrand, Stan Honey, Morgan Larson, and Russ Silvestri who continue to keep the St. Francis name in the forefront of world-class sailing. The annual regatta schedule at the St. Francis is one of the most aggressive regatta calendars in the world. Part of the attraction of racing at St. Francis Yacht Club is the excellent and challenging racing conditions unique to San Francisco Bay. With the skyline of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop, the St. Francis Yacht Club prides itself on being able to provide all visitors with every comfort and amenity while dazzling them with their surroundings.