Star Sailors League - Finalists decided on Lake Neuchatel

by Bob Fisher on 12 Sep 2015 Friday 11th September 2015: The third day of the Star Sailors League Lake Grand Slam was “on hold” for hours due to a lack of breeze on Lake Neuchatel, and finally called off at 1600. Races 8 & 9 will not be held.

The first two days racing for the 68 competitors did however more than fulfill the requirement to seed out the top eleven crews – a total of seven races were completed in a variety of breezes. Mark Mendleblatt and Brian Faith (USA) were the overall leaders; their consistency with six races in single figure, put them eight points ahead of Torben Grael and Guilherme de Alvimedia, of Brazil, who scored three first places. They, in turn, were a point ahead of the first day’s leaders, Augie Diaz and Arnis Baltins (USA) on 34.

The other seeded for the final stages are:
Ivan Gaspic & Jose Revkin CRO
George Szabo & Patrick Ducommun USA
Robert Stanjek & Frithjof Kleen GER
Xavier Rohart & Stephanano Lillia FRA
Jean-Baptiste Bernaz & Pascal Rambeau FRA
Mateusz Kusznierewicz & Dominic Zycki POL
Johannes Polgar & Markus Koy GER
Jorge Zarif & Bruno Prada BRA

Hubert Merkelbach & Gerrit Beatel GER were unlucky – they finished level on points with Zarif and Prada but the Brazilians best race was a fourth against the Germans fifth.

The format for the last day is that the eleven, less the leaders, will race the quarter-final and the top six will progress to the semi-final with Mendelblatt and Fatih. The top four in this race will go to the final when the champion of the Lake Grand Slam will be decided.