Tough Day at Star Worlds at ISAF Worlds in Cascais

by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 9 Jul 2007 A long afternoon and long evening on the water for the 2007 Star World Fleets. Going into the final day of racing two-time Star World Champions and Olympic Gold medalist skippers, Mark Reynolds and Torben Grael sit in 12th and 13th place with 80 and 83 points, respectively. Weather forecast is for consistent heavy breeze on Monday.

From the time that Irishmen Maxwell Treacy and Anthony Shanks crossed the line until the last boat was scored in the Silver fleet’s first race of the day, over ten minutes passed. Treacy/Shanks led a pack of five boats around the first weather mark as a port tack header hit the rest of the fleet that was nearing the top of the leg.

Treacy/Shanks led around the course and were followed by Argentineans Julio Labandeira and Enrique Della Torre throughout the race. The Ricks, Rick Merriman and Rick Peters were third in the race. As the wind dropped off during the last two legs, and the fleet got overrun by the top half of the Gold fleet positions behind the leaders got scrambled up a lot.

Bad News

Teams who were scored with an OCS in the Silver fleet’s first race were Croatians Dan Lovrovic and his father, Marin Sr., Giullio Gatti and Sergio Lambertenghi and Lorenz Zimmerman and Michael Martin.

The Gold fleet started their first race nearly a leg and a half of the Silver fleet’s first start. Wind conditions throughout the day were up and down. Yesterday’s extreme light air did not return to the course, but crews had to pay attention to shifts, micro bursts and puffs that didn’t necessarily move down the course as fast as expected.

The regatta leaders were fairly evenly spread across the line for the first start. Current within the washer machine made starting conditions difficult.

The heartbreaker came for Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki when the pin’s anchor rode got caught between their skeg and rudder. By the time that they parted company with the pin, they trailed the fleet by 200 yards and about 2 minutes.

The Big Fella (Iain Murray) and Andrew Palfrey (Australia) rounded the weather mark just ahead of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. Croatians, Marin Lovoric and Sinisa Milulicic were in third and Diego Negri and Gigi Viale were in fourth. The usual suspects were not far behind.

As the top of the Gold fleet got mixed up with the Silver fleet Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau took the lead. Murray/Palfrey hung tough throughout the race and Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada moved their way from twelfth around the first weather mark to seventh around the second weather mark to a 30-second lead by the time they reached the third weather mark.

Their biggest gain came on the second run. Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams and Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel also worked their way up through the fleet.

Current played a major factor during the many attempted starts of the Gold fleet’s second race. As you can imagine, the black flag came out and there were two general recalls under the black flag. Boats sent home for the day included: Pickel/Zycki, Grael/Ferreira, Dane/Sperry, Marazzi/Christen, Miller/Voigt, Stanjek/Koy and Szabo/Scott.

At one point during the attempted starts, many competitors were so hot and the wind was so light that they took their spray tops off. By the time the actual race was started, they were suited up and ready for heavy air conditions again.

Probably the most aggressive starter on the line, Percy/Simpson rounded the weather mark first followed by Rohart/Rambeau, Bromby/McNiven and Kusznierewicz/Zycki.

Percy/Simpson extended their lead throughout the race and they were so far ahead that the rest of the fleet could use them as a great judge of the conditions up to weather.

Their win was as close to a horizon job as there has been in this regatta. Scheidt/Prada had a fantastic final run and passed Kusznierewicz/Zycki to take second. Rohart/Rambeau finished fourth and Negri/Viale finished fifth.

More Bad News

It just wasn’t Dan Lovroic and Marin Lovroic Sr.’s day. Their top section broke at the bottom of a beat and the two were towed home with the top of the main sail and the top section dangling by the halyard and flailing in the wind. Carl Anderson and Ed Morey had an unbelievable port-starboard incident at a weather mark. Thankfully there was no damage, because there was plenty of momentum. As they struggled to complete their second circle on the way to the offset mark, their boom hit the shroud of another boat. Imagine the anguish of doing two sets of circles over such a short distance.

The Silver fleet had a long day. Not only did they have to wait around for the Gold fleet to start their second race, the wind went light during their final race. To top it off, they sailed into the harbor a little before 9:00 in 40 knots of breeze! Maxwell Treacy and Anthony Shanks sailed snake eyes for the day. The Swiss team of Daniel and Beat Stegmeier had a finished the day with a 5,2. Merriman/Peters scored a 3,8. Benny Andersen and Morgens Just rolled a pair of sixes.

Going into the final day of racing two-time Star World Champions and Olympic Gold medalist skippers, Mark Reynolds and Torben Grael sit in 12th and 13th place with 80 and 83 points, respectively.

Assuming that there is racing on Monday despite the weather forecast, expect the interesting dynamics to be among the Americans, Irish and Croatians as they vie for the final country qualifying slots.

Medal Round Contenders are:
1. Scheidt/Prada, BRA, 15;
2. Rohart/Rambeau, FRA,19;
3. Percy/Simpson, GBR, 25;
4. Pepper/Williams, NZL, 32;
5. Negri/Viale, ITA, 32;
6. Kusznierewicz/Zycki, POL, 44;
7. Pickel/Borkowski, GER, 52;
8. Loof/Ekstrom, SWE, 57;
9. Murray/Palfrey, AUS, 70;
10. POR, Domingos/Santos, 73.