Kiwi World Champions lead Star North Americans

by Annabel Jeaffreson on 16 Nov 2006 After day one of the North American’s, Southern Star Racing’s Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have a convincing lead after winning the first two races.

In a 77 boat strong fleet Hamish Pepper said 'Today was a great start to the regatta. We felt we had good speed and sailed well in the light conditions. But there are still four races to go so it’s early days'

In second place overall is Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (Bronze medalist 2004 Olympics), third place is Ross Macdonald and Mike Wolfs (Silver medalist 2004 Olympics).

Today the prestigious gold star of World Champions made its debut on their main sail. This is the first time in the 83 year history of the Star class New Zealander’s have achieved this honor.

Since winning the Worlds in late October Hamish and Carl have had a break from the boat. This has not been a hindrance with starting the regatta the way they left off at the Worlds.

USA's Andy Horton and Brad Nichol report on www.starclass.org:

It was a tough day on the water due to the tremendous competition in nearly perfect conditions. We sailed two races in 10-12 knots out of the southeast, sunny skies and warm water. As the city of Miami has pointed out on a banner at the US Sailing Center, 'the best venue for dinghy sailing in the world!'

In the first race we were pretty convinced that the left side would have more pressure and a bit of left shift at the top. We were the second boat from the pin with plenty of room to work but some wankers were not set up well and reached down on top of us taking our wind and finally forcing us to tack. Once we were forced into the pack, life got difficult with many boats tacking on us and taking our wind. We rounded the first mark in the middle of the fleet and jibed early, making good gains on the lead pack.

Up the second weather leg we played the middle of the course working hard to hit every shift. We gained a lot of distance on the lead pack but not enough to get in contact with them. Down the run we did our best to make gains but were only able to fight our way to 25th place. World Champion Hamish Pepper won the race after leading at every mark.

In between races we reassessed our tackticks and our boat set up and made some good changes. On the first attempt at a start of the second race we felt much faster. We decided to start more in the middle and work the shifts. We had a great start and executed our plan, rounding the first mark in first. The wind built as we sailed downwind and the lead pack made it to the leeward gate at once.

Upwind, Mark Reynolds went hard left, Hamish Pepper went hard right and we went up the middle. At the top of the course, Pepper had made huge gains and was able to cross us and round the mark in first. Down the run we decided to hold with the pack of boats closest to us. Pepper, jibed out early, sailing downwind all alone in the lead. We continued to work the left and were the first in the pack to jibe out. We made great gains on Pepper but in the end Hamish Pepper was able to hold us off.

With a 25th, 2nd, we are in 10th place with a lot of racing remaining. Tomorrow will be interesting with a cold front coming through Miami that will bring more wind for the end of the week.

Star Class North American Championships
Provisional Overall Results after Day 1

Star

Place	Boat	Skipper	Crew	Sail #:	Fleet	1	2	Total
1	NZL 8187	Hamish Pepper	Carl Williams	NZL 8187	ISOL	1.0	1.0	2
2	FRA 8107	Xavier Rohart	Pascal Rambeau	FRA 8107	NI	5.0	3.0	8
3	CAN 8168	Ross Macdonald	Mike Wolfs	CAN 8168	EB	2.0	8.0	10
4	BRA 8127	Robert Scheidt	Bruno Prada	BRA 8127	GuB	7.0	6.0	13
5	POL 8252	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Dominik Zycki	POL 8252	ISOL	11.0	4.0	15
6	GER 8213	Marc Pickel	Ingo Borkowski	GER 8213	Brm	9.0	7.0	16
7	USA 8250	Andrew Macdonald	Brian Fatih	USA 8250	NH	4.0	19.0	23
8	USA 8239	Mark Reynolds	Skip Dieball	USA 8239	SDB	12.0	11.0	23.0001
9	USA 8268	John Dane III	Austin Sperry	USA 8268	MoB	3.0	21.0	24
10	USA 8156	Andy Horton	Brad Nichol	USA 8156	NB	25.0	2.0	27
11	POR 8145	Afonso Domingos	Bernardo Santos	POR 8145	CP	10.0	17.0	27.0001
12	NZL 8061	Rohan Lord	Peter Fox	NZL 8061	ISOL	24.0	5.0	29
13	DEN 8147	Benny Andersen	Mogens Just	DEN 8147	DF	6.0	23.0	29.0001
14	SUI 8138	Flavio Marazzi	Michael Herrmann	SUI 8138	TB	21.0	10.0	31
15	USA 8273	George Szabo	Mark Strube	USA 8273	SDB	20.0	12.0	32
16	USA 8195	John A Maccausland	Robert Schofield	USA 8195	CR	15.0	18.0	33
17	AUS 7836	Iain Murray	Andrew Palfrey	AUS 7836	LMac	19.0	16.0	35
18	ARG 7700	Alejo Rigoni	Gustavo Gonzalez	ARG 7700	BA	22.0	14.0	36
19	USA 8222	Rick Merriman	Eric Monroe	USA 8222	SDB	13.0	24.0	37
20	AUT 8226	Hans Spitzauer	Christian Nehammer	AUT 8226	Att	28.0	13.0	41
21	BRA 8034	Alan Adler	Ricardo Ermel	BRA 8034	RdJ	18.0	27.0	45
22	GER 7971	Robert Stanjek	Frithjof Kleen	GER 7971	BF	16.0	30.0	46
23	BER 8044	Peter Bromby	Bill Mc Niven	BER 8044	ISOL	38.0	9.0	47
24	ITA 8014	ALBERTO BAROVIER	Umberto Coppola	ITA 8014	SG	17.0	36.0	53
25	NOR 8183	Eivind Melleby	Petter Morland Pedersen	NOR 8183	ISOL	14.0	41.0	55
26	USA 8136	Henry Filter	Will Wagner	USA 8136	AN	26.0	31.0	57
27	USA 8045	Augie Diaz	Phil Trinter	USA 8045	BisB	32.0	29.0	61
28	GER 7991	Matthias Miller	Manuel Voigt	GER 7991	UB	29.0	32.0	61.0001
29	SUI 8009	Christoph Gautschi	Alexander Gouda	SUI 8009	Bod	8.0	57.0	65
30	ARG 7907	Fabian Mac Gowan	Federico Engelhard	ARG 7907	OL	31.0	35.0	66
31	ARG 7213	Julio Labandeira	Luis Hornos	ARG 7213	OL	47.0	20.0	67
32	USA 8264	Peter McChesney	Todd Hiller	USA 8264	AN	30.0	37.0	67.0001
33	USA 8072	Douglas D Smith	Mike Moore	USA 8072	SBC	37.0	33.0	70
34	USA 8153	Eric Doyle	Steve Calder	USA 8153	NH	27.0	45.0	72
35	USA 8245	Joe Zambella	Peter Costa	USA 8245	BH	55.0	22.0	77
36	CAN 8143	Brian Cramer	Tyler Bjorn	CAN 8143	LOC	43.0	34.0	77.0001
37	GER 7863	Klaus Meyer	Dirk Struve	GER 7863	Brm	51.0	28.0	79
38	AUS 8234	Andrew Landenberger	Simon Reffold	AUS 8234	UB	42.0	40.0	82
39	LAT 8135	Eizens Cepurnieks	Alexander Muzicenko	LAT 8135	ISOL	45.0	38.0	83
40	ITA 8183	Antonio Tamburini	Renzo Ricci	ITA 8183	SI	41.0	42.0	83.0001
41	GER 7887	Philipp Rotermund	Florian Fendt	GER 7887	Glu	40.0	46.0	86
42	ITA 8290	Silvio Santoni	Sergio Lambertenghi	ITA 8290	NG	35.0	52.0	87
43	USA 8043	Jock Kohlhas	Arthur Anosov	USA 8043	BisB	50.0	39.0	89
44	NED 8263	Erik Broekhof	Erik Veldhuizen	NED 8263	Med	33.0	58.0	91
45	BAH 8265	Steven Kelly	William Holowesko	BAH 8265	N	36.0	55.0	91.0001
46	CAN 8236	Hans Fogh	David Caesar	CAN 8236	LOC	48.0	43.0	91.0002
47	USA 8095	Gunti Weissenberger	Chris Brown	USA 8095	NCB	49.0	44.0	93
48	AUS 8269	James Spithill	Magnus Liljedahl	AUS 8269	WSFB	80.0 [DNS]	15.0	95
49	SUI 8232	Henrik Dannesboe	Igor Kaptourovitch	SUI 8232	BSL	46.0	50.0	96
50	USA 8227	Jon Vandermolen	T C Belco	USA 8227	GL	44.0	53.0	97
51	CHI 8181	Rodrigo Zuazola	Marcelo Ferreira	CHI 8181	VAL	39.0	59.0	98
52	USA 8215	Bill Allen	Brad Lichter	USA 8215	WH	54.0	47.0	101
53	ARG 8169	Alberto Zanetti	Juan Pablo Engelhard	ARG 8169	OL	23.0	80.0 [OCS]	103
54	USA 8278	Peter Vessella	J Darin Jensen	USA 8278	WSFB	80.0 [DNS]	25.0	105
55	IRL 8158	Maxwell Treacy	R Anthony Shanks	IRL 8158	ISOL	80.0 [DNS]	26.0	106
56	USA 8080	Fotis Boliakis	Guy Avellon	USA 8080	CLIS	52.0	56.0	108
57	CAN 7626	Mark Passmore	Larry Scott	CAN 7626	LOC	60.0	51.0	111
58	USA 8235	Larry Whipple	Doug Brophy	USA 8235	PS	57.0	54.0	111
59	FIN 8094	Staffan Lindberg	Erkki Heinonen	FIN 8094	Fin	34.0	80.0 [OCS]	114
60	USA 8036	Jack Rickard	Tom Ferrier	USA 8036	WH	68.0	48.0	116
61	USA 7866	John Manderson	Matt Semler	USA 7866	Mid	58.0	60.0	118
62	ITA 8277	Renato Irrera	Corrado Cristaldini	ITA 8277	Pal	53.0	67.0	120
63	USA 7425	Barbara Beigel-Vosbury	Shane Zwingelberg	USA 7425	AN	56.0	64.0	120
64	USA 8279	Claude Bonanni	Richard Burgess	USA 8279	TaB	62.0	63.0	125
65	USA 8063	Bert Collins	Brent Ostbye	USA 8063	AN	61.0	66.0	127
66	GER 7450	Stefan Lehnert	Peter Menning	GER 7450	Brm	65.0	62.0	127
67	USA 8077	Thomas Londrigan Jr	Matt Pederson	USA 8077	LS	80.0 [OCS]	49.0	129
68	USA 8065	G Brooks Sperry	Tim Ray	USA 8065	WSFB	63.0	68.0	131
69	ARG 7976	Martin Pendola	Ariel Simonet	ARG 7976	BA	59.0	73.0	132
70	GER 8016	Hubert Rauch	Ingo Schappeler	GER 8016	And	72.0	61.0	133
71	USA 8000	Harry W Walker	Chris Rogers	USA 8000	BisB	64.0	70.0	134
72	USA 8083	John Chiarella	Robert Carlson	USA 8083	Sun	70.0	65.0	135
73	USA 7916	Timothy J Delaney	Michael Delaney	USA 7916	SLE	66.0	72.0	138
74	USA 7659	Rick Peters	Christel Gruenewald	USA 7659	SMB	67.0	71.0	138
75	USA 8084	Robert Teitge	Fielden Fleming	USA 8084	DR	69.0	69.0	138
76	USA 7999	Tiani Hausen	Ellie Holloway	USA 7999	BisB	73.0	74.0	147
77	USA 7956	Tony Herrmann	Rebecca Ruhm	USA 7956	WLM	71.0	80.0 [DNF]	151
78	USA 8132	Thierry De La Villehuchet	Witold Gessing	USA 8132	Mid	80.0 [DNS]	80.0 [DNS]	160
78	SWE 8256	Fredrik Loof	Anders Ekstrom	SWE 8256	SC	80.0 [OCS]	80.0 [OCS]	160