Star North American Championship - Szabo takes title

by Star North Americans on 24 Aug 2010 Star North American Championship 17 to 22 August at California Yacht Club.

The final race of the Star North American Championship was a match race, pure and simple. While the two leaders - 2009 Star World Champion George Szabo and Brazilian Lars Grael - did not engage before the start, after the first cross it was match racing 101.

Szabo and his crew, Frithjof Kleen controlled that match race throughout as both boats moved steadily backwards in the fleet. The pair finished deep - it was the throwout for both - but Szabo was smiling. He’d done what was necessary to win another North American Championship - his third. Szabo also beat his boss, Mark Reynolds, who took second place. It’s interesting to consider how the final day might have played out if Reynolds had not been disqualified by the judges for 'rocking' in Race 4.

Saturday Report

A complete understanding of MdR local knowledge proved to be a big handicap on Saturday when the wind started light from 235; built quickly and shifted right to 255 - with some huge bumps. But the breeze turned off almost as quickly as it built, and backed to the left.

Once again George Szabo and crew Frithjof Kleen were incredible in the light stuff. On the first beat of the day in five - maybe six knots of breeze - they rounded well in front of the pack. They protected that advantage for an easy win. Meanwhile, the regatta leader Lars Grael did everything wrong and wound up deep - 24th. It was Grael’s only double digit finish of the regatta.

For the second race of the day it was breeze-on with the bumpiest race course that many of the competitors have ever seen. Local knowledge would encourage a skipper to go right, but that was absolutely wrong. The breeze died, the bumps remained and the left paid. Grael was launched and won easily with Szabo five boats further back.

Now that six races have been completed, a discard kicks in which shakes things up a bit. Szabo is back in the lead with a slim three point advantage over Grael. John MacCausland, Mark Reynolds and Carl Buchan are 14 or 15 points further back - tightly bunched, and dueling for the remaining spot on the podium.

Race report
In seven to eight knots of breeze, 2009 Star World Champion George Szabo has been almost untouchable. He logged straight bullets on Day One in those conditions, and scored a deuce in Race Three on Day Two in identical conditions. However, for the second race on Day Two the Santa Monica Bay was covered with small white caps, and Szabo dropped into double digits - 12th place. That opened the door for Lars Schmidt Grael, sailing with Ronald Seifert. With straight single digit scores the two Brazilians moved four points ahead of Szabo into the lead for the championship.

Former Star World Champions and multiple Olympic medalists Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel drew a flag from the judges for 'rocking' in Race Four. Reportedly this was Reynolds first kinetics violation ever. Although they did a 360 degree penalty turn they still were able to finish second in that race for their fourth consecutive single digit finish. Unfortunately - the penalty for rocking the boat is a 720 degree turn - not a 360, which led to their disqualification, and moved Carl & Jamie Buchan into third place.

While Reynolds and Haenel are out of contention for the moment, after six races are completed they will be able to discard that DSQ, so no one will be ignoring their shiny new silver (definitely not white) very fast PStar.

Results: 

Place	#	Skipper / Crew	Yacht Club / Fleet	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Total
1	13	George Szabo / Frithjof Kleen	San Diego / SDB	1	1	2	12	1	6	- 21	23
2	15	Mark Reynolds / Hal Haenel	San Diego / SDB	4	3	8	- 43 dsq	2	12	1	30
3	1	John A MacCausland / Rick Peters	Cooper River / CR	2	8	- 19	10	6	2	5	33
4	7	Carl Buchan / Jamie Buchan	Corinthian / PS	9	5	- 16	3	3	9	4	33
5	38	Lars Schmidt Grael / Ronald Seifert	RYC - ICB / Par	3	2	7	1	24	1	- 26	38
6	3	Eric Doyle / John Von Schwarz	San Diego / NH	16	- 20	9	2	11	4	8	50
7	32	Arthur Anosov / Jon Klerk	Seneca / SL	- 18	15	1	4	15	3	14	52
8	14	Gastao Brun / Gustavo Kunze	Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro / RdJ	13	7	5	8	10	- 19	12	55
9	26	Rod Hagebols / Phil Chadwick	Treasure Island / WSFB	6	16	4	- 22	8	16	7	57
10	45	Ryan Cox / Avery Stewart	Ventura / SMB	14	4	3	13	16	13	- 30	63
11	16	Fabio Bodra / Arthur Lopes	YCSA / SP	11	11	18	- 20	13	8	6	67
12	22	Derek DeCouteau / Dave Martin	Corinthian Seattle/S. Sound S.S. / BI	5	9	21	6	9	24	- 25	74
13	10	Steve Gould / Greg Sieck	St. Francis / WSFB	19	14	13	15	4	10	- 23	75
14	34	Jim Buckingham / Brian Fatih	Newport Harbor / NH	- 23	21	11	9	14	11	13	79
15	9	Dave Watt / Michael Thompson	Corinthian / PS	7	22	10	19	- 26	20	2	80
16	39	Ben Mitchell / Myles Prichard	California / LB	10	12	20	17	- 25	25	3	87
17	5	William Buchan / Erik Bentzen	Corinthian / PS	- 30	17	6	5	21	14	27	90
18	31	Jock Kohlhas / Richard Burgess	Cedar Point / CLIS	15	- 24	22	11	5	21	18	92
19	40	Foss Miller / Stu Frost	Corinthian YC Seattle / PS	26	13	25	18	- 31	7	10	99
20	46	Charles Beek / Will Swigart	Newport Harbor / NH	8	18	15	26	17	- 28	16	100
21	2	Erik Lidecis / Michael Marzahl	Bahia Corinthian / NH	20	- 23	14	16	18	18	15	101
22	21	Alejandro Bugacov / Erick Lange	California / SMB	22	6	12	- 33	23	22	17	102
23	18	Jon VanderMolen / TC Belco	Gull Lake / GL	24	- 26	26	7	22	5	19	103
24	42	Steve Brown / Diego Del Pino	Bahia Corinthian / NH	- 43 ocs	28	17	24	7	17	11	104
25	33	Mike Hanna / Brian O'Mahony	Santa Barbara SC / SMB	12	10	- 33	14	20	26	29	111
26	12	Leland E. Kellerhouse / Magnus Liljedahl	San Diego / SDB	17	25	24	- 28	12	23	22	123
27	25	Joe McCorkell / Ian Coleman	SSA / AN	- 29	27	29	25	28	15	9	133
28	11	John O'Donnell / Philip Toth	Los Angeles / LB	31	19	- 32	29	27	27	20	153
29	37	Allan Cullen / Ray Rogers	Royal Vancouver / EB	27	30	23	32	- 34	29	28	169
30	23	Douglas R Steele / Stephan Cohen	California / LB	- 33	29	27	23	29	32	33	173
31	44	Mike Phinney / Brad Balmert	Lorain Sailing & YC / SLE	32	32	28	- 34	19	34	31	176
32	27	Jon J.Pelliconi / Henry Brawner	California / SMB	21	37	31	30	32	31	- 38	182
33	24	Huy Nguyen / Shannon Earle	South Coast Corinthian / SMB	25	36	30	21	- 43 dnf	43 dns	39	194
34	35	Jorge Benedid / Matthew Benedid	South Coast Corinthian / LB	- 41	34	36	27	33	30	35	195
35	43	Jim Durden / John O'Mahony	California / LB	28	31	39	36	30	- 43 dnf	32	196
36	36	Henry Larkin / Edward Bishop	Kitsilano / EB	38	33	37	37	- 40	35	24	204
37	20	David Branch / Bill Brosius	Saint Helens / BI	35	35	- 41	35	35	33	36	209
38	8	Hans R Bucher / Paul Kresge	Dillon / CD	36	- 39	35	38	37	38	34	218
39	6	Stephen Gunther / Tim Ostrander	Dillon / CD	37	40	34	- 41	38	36	37	222
40	41	Timothy Ray / Brian Mahony	California / SMB	40	41	38	31	36	- 43 dns	43 ocs	229
41	29	Richard I. Sears Jr / Jeff Scott	Dillon / CD	39	38	- 42	40	39	37	40	233
42	28	Tom Hulme / Chuck Gerlach	California / SMB	34	42	40	39	- 43 dns	43 dnc	43 dns	241

Event website click here