Photo Credit: Photo Credit: FRIED ELLIOTT / friedbits.com


1963 World Championship - Chicago, Illinois

1963 World Championship - Chicago, Illinois

The following results are from the Star Logs. In common with the early Logs from 1950 through 1976 both yacht numbers and names were given but starting with 1977 frequently only yacht numbers were given. The last time both yacht numbers and yacht names were given was 1989. In later years sometimes fleet designations were omitted. In these cases, some of the more obvious fleet designations were supplied. Also, from time to time only last names were supplied. First names, where known, were added.

1963 WORLD'S CHAMPIONSHIP - CHICAGO

No.   Yacht		Skipper	         Crew		Fleet		Daily Places		Pts.

4615  Star of the Sea	Joseph Duplin	Francis Dolan	Boston Harbor	 8   2   9   3   5	313

4733  North Star		Lowell North	Thomas Skahill	San Diego Bay	 3  12  10   1   4	310

4636  Wayward Wind	Blair Fletcher	Asa L. Colson	Barnegat Bay	 5  26   2   7   8	292

4241  Glider VI		R. I. Stearns	Lynn Williams	Wilmette Harbor	 6  28   1  11  13	281

4660  Frolic		Bill Buchan Jr	Douglas Knight	Puget Sound	30   5  20   5   2	278

4332  Gem VIII		Durward Knowles	S. Farrington	Nassau, Bahamas	55   4   3   8   3	267

4749  Chatterbox		Malin Burnham	James Reynolds	Fifth District	 1   3   8  wdr  1	259

3938  Good Grief		Tom Blackaller	Alan Mitchell	Richerson Bay	37   1  36   2  10	254

4731  Babs		Don Bever	William Beattie	S. Lake Erie	36  17   6  12  20	249

3594  Ariel		Alan Holt	Jay Winberg	Shilshole Bay	29  14  30  14  11	242

4734  Tranquillizer	J. Bennett	George Conrad	Mission Bay	 4   8  wdr  9  12	239

4626  Caprice II		Carlo Rolandi	Alfonso Marino	Capri, Italy	16  30  12  33  19	230

4588  Razor		R. Lippincott	Walter Flynn	West Jersey	35  20  14  19  22	230

4710  Gale		Harry G. Nye	John B. Lechner	Fourth District	20  31  13  24  25	227

4715  Illusion		Paul Fischer	Robert Witt	Hamburg		 7  11   4  dsa 26	224

4351  Gemini		Richard G. Hahn	Barton S. Beek	Los Angeles H.	10   7  40  52   9	222

4370  Tsunami		Anson Beard Jr	Owen Torrey Jr	Great South Bay	32  34  26  23   6	219

4627  Desiree		Angelo Marino	Arnaldo Panico	Formia		34  21  24  29  14	218

4541  Blitzkrieg		G. S. Fredirchs	Craig Nelson	Third District	33  37  19  17  18	216

4484  Umberta V		Luigi Croce	Luigi Saidelli	Genoa, Italy	12  23  38  31  21	215

3977  Heather		William Lynn	Joseph Burbeck	WLIS		22  24  32  16  33	213

4531  Magoo		William Parks	Robert Halperin	S. L. Michigan	 9  wdr 21  32   7	203

3802  Tornado		Timir Pinegin	Feodor Shutkov	Moscow, U.S.S.R.60  39   5   6  30	200

4738  Siren		Eugene Corley	Edward Schnabel	Chicago Harbor	19  47  16  41  17	200

4497  Shadow		R. M. Allan III	Bud Cassidy	Newport Harbor	11  dsq 18  15  29	199

4589  Cirrus		H. Lippincott	Robert Jenkins	Eastern Shore	31  16  22  40  32	199

3870  Faneca		Duarte Bello	Fernando Bello	Cascais		52  19  25  22  23	199

4610  Kutuka		Wolfgang Richer	Roberto da Rosa	Guarapiranga	61  35  15  20  16	193

4725  Shamus		E. W. Etchells	Thompson Adams	CLIS		46  18  dns  4  15	189

4100  Conflict		Daniel Hubers	Harvey Lekson	N. Chesapeake	25  41  17  25  43	189

4141  Magic		Guy W. Rodgers	Robert Rodgers	Green Lake	47   6  31  27  44	185

3867  Creepy II		Foster Clarke	Robert Sweeting	Coral Harbor	27  40  35  28  28	182

4754  Tackless		John Goddard	Paul Woodbury	Cape Ann	56  42   7  10  46	179

4713  Gam		P. Chancerel	Michel Parent	Siene		40   9  43  18  57	173

4540  Desiree		Herbert Hild	Edward Baumert	East River	53  38  11  13  54	171

4650  Baboon		John A. Keyser	S. Boudeman	Gull Lake	24  13  55  38  47	163

4579  Swingin' Star	Donald J. Trask	Donald Coleman	WSFB		28  56  28  26  41	161

4605  Mistral		S. Provensal	Jay Egan	New Orleans	21  27  33  48  52	159

4522  Ninotchka		Peter D. SiemsenJohn Erickson	Guanabara Bay	15  48  42  35  45	155

3858  Ingenue		George Thomas	Charles Simpson	C. Lake Erie	59  25  41  39  31	154

4736  Glisten		David Miller	Kenneth Baxter	English Bay	 2  15  34  dsa dns	153

3100  Jade  		John Sherwood	David Gaillard	Chesapeake Bay	50  22  58  42  24	144

4548  Chuckle		Harold Halsted	Lawence Cox	Bellport Bay	39  58  27  46  27	143

4680  Caprice		Owen Merrill	Charles Barnes	Atlantic H.	51  32  37  37  40	143

4300  Hawkeye		Sampson Smith	Arthur Laidlaw	Otsego Lake	26  50  52  36  48	128

4438  Calzoni		Jon Metzger  	John S. Stewart	Ithaca		23  45  dnf 39  38	127

4774  Pasodoble		Enrique Urrutia	Juan Urrutia	San Sebastian	13  55  wdr 49  37	118

3081  Mate	    	Willard Hodges	James Black	Twelfth District14  49  57  dnf 36	116

3453  Widow		Alfred Greening	David Pelham	L. Springfield	17  52  48  dsa 39	116

3971  Bonnie Lassie	John McKeague	Gordon McKeague	Paw Paw Lake	63  51  23  21  wdr	114

4633  Espuma del Mar	Daniel Camejo		       	Caracas		48   6  51  51  42	112

4582  Rampage		R. Sieburger	Hector Schenone	S. Olivos	18  29  46  dsa dns	111

4144  Finale		Richard Miller	Gordon Hale  	Cleveland Hbr	45  10  44  dnf dsq	105

4640  Siren III		Emil Widmer		       Zuerichsee	58  61  39  43  35	104

4453  Arakoola		H. M. Visser	Russell Gilkes	Pittwater	44  64  47  34  58	 93

4477  Tim-Log		Barr S. Morris	John Mueller	S. Lake George	43  53  wdr 50  34	 92

4143  Gyoshu II		T. Takebe	Sadso Yoshida	Tokyo Bay	41  46  54  55  59	 85

3743  Patriot		J. H. Thompson	Roy Bowers	Galveston Bay	54  60  53  44  49	 80

3130  October		Eugene McCarthy	C. Vandermark	Jackson Park	wdr 44  29  dsa 51	 80

4602  Alvo    		Charles Dole	James Davis  	Waikiki		65  33  45  dsq 53	 76

4244  Neva III		B. Mirochin	A. Semanov	Leningrad	49  57  56  47  55	 76

3437  Sharen		A. Meray-HorvathThomas Fekete	Lake Ontario, C	38  43  dnf 54  dsq	 69

3042  Minha Preta	Antonio Menezes	Frank Lyon	Vila Franca	42  59  49  dnf 56	 66

4404  Cyclone III	Stewart Meding	Stephen Meding	Lake Sunapee	57  62  50  45  62	 64

4701  Tiki 		Harold Lankton	Donald McMullen	Illinois River	64  54  dsq 53  50	 51

4631  Mac  		Grahame Engert	Timothy Owens	L. Macquarie	62  63  dnf dnf 61	 18

2222  Deuces Wild	Frank Clements	Gordon Hughes	Carter Lake	66  65  dnf dns 60	 13

1963 World's Championship - Chicago
Regatta Report from the 1964 Star Class Log

Photo: 1964 Star Class Log
Winners Joe Duplin and Francis Dolan
waiting to haul out after the final race.

Joseph Duplin, of Winthrop, Massachusetts, "did the impossible" in 1963. He won both the North American Championship and the World's Championship within a single three week span, against starting line-ups totalling 129 of the world's finest skippers. The closest previous approach to such a feat was Duarte Bello's 1962 bid, when he won the European Championship in a field of 47 and then was runner-up in the World's among 73. Lowell North had won a Silver Star and a Gold Star in one year, 1957, but against fleets half this size.

Duplin and his crew Francis Dolan took the championship at Chicago under difficulties of unsteady breezes and all kinds of weather and sea conditions. While others broke down, touched marks, or simply went the wrong way in the shifting winds, Duplin never won a race but never fell below 9th. His Star of the Sea caught and passed the fastest of the fleet whenever the heat was on, and he was able to keep her up front once she got there.

Richard Stearns had brought the championship from Portugal to Chicago the year before. But his Glider sails from Wilmette Harbor, an anchorage too small to accommodate the vast fleet that was bound to assemble in 1963; so the Sheridan Shore Yacht Club accepted the offer of the Chicago Yacht Club to co-host the series under the joint sponsorship of the Wilmette Harbor and the Southern Lake Michigan Fleets at Belmont.

The days immediately preceding the series saw 67 boats, trailers, and cars bearing a kaleidoscopic array of license plates assembled in the space of less than half a city block. One had to step carefully to avoid knocking down old acquaintances from the far corners of the world, or treading on sails laid out for measuring, or being run into by a moving trailer or hit by the end of a swinging spar. Former Olympic champion Bert Williams was assigned to oversee all activities at the launching site. It required a man of his capabilities to keep things in motion and under control, and control them he did.

The flag raising ceremony, familiar to old hands at World's Championships but none the less impressive, was enhanced by the reputations and achievements of the distinguished persons who raised the flags of the 15 nations represented on Sunday afternoon, the day before the racing began.

First Race
Monday dawned bright and clear. No one could have asked for a finer day for a picnic nor a worse one for a race. It didn't look so bad before the start. A light lazy easterly worked up to 5 or maybe 6 knots at gun time. Executive President Paul Smart, Chairman of the International Race Committee, who had just completed a week in which he set five near perfect starting lines for the enormous fleet at the North American Championship, now started a second week of doing the same thing. But here it was harder, because the wind refused to stay put.

The race started on time, the boats strung out all along a good line with only two over and those two quickly recalled. The not yet dethroned champion Dick Stearns had a magnificent start in Glider at the flag end. Very soon a shift toward the north allowed the northerly boats to tack and cross the fleet. Some did, and regretted it. Those who carried on an additional hundred yards sailed into more air and were then able to tack and sail around the entire fleet in wind that never really reached the rest. One of these was Malin Burnham and nobody ever saw him again.

He won the race by a minute and a half in his Chatterbox one of the newest and lightest West Coast boats. Pete Bennett was out there with him, to take fourth in the race, in a sistership to Chatterbox (and North Star). Right here, at the very beginning of the series, Dame Fortune smiled on the champion-to-be. Duplin had made a conservative start, which in a fleet of this size and calibre means a poor one. In order to get free he was more or less forced to stay on starboard tack, and sailed across the transoms of half the fleet before he could find clear air in which to tack. He couldn't have planned it better had he tried.

North and Stearns tacked a little too soon after the start, but still almost laid the weather mark. Both sailed very fast, North passing several boats on the final run to bring North Star home third. Dave Miller, whose Glisten was fresh from a last-race win at the North Americans, sailed from 4th to 2nd on the second windward leg. Ex Gold Star holder Durward Knowles and current Olympic champion Timir Pinegin were among those who started at the committee boat and tacked to port at once into 55th and 60th places, respectively. It could have happened to anyone, Knowles made a magnificent comeback to take no place below 8th for the rest of the week and capture series 6th despite that first-race disaster.

Among all the unhappy groups which got together that night to bemoan their various fates, there was one that was neither unhappy nor moaning: the Californians. They had taken the first four places. Blair Fletcher, still at the top of the form that had brought him a daily first in the recent Silver Star event finished fifth, followed by the defender, Dick Stearns. Paul Fischer's seventh made him the first of the Europeans; and Joe Duplin was eighth. Some of the know-alls (and there are more of them around yacht races than most other places), vouchsafed the opinion that Joe's North American win must have been just a flash in the pan after all. On board Star of the Sea there was definite disagreement with this view.

Second Race
More of the same. The start was cancelled at the last minute when a windshift caused a bad jam to shape up at the flag end. After the line had been re-set square to the wind, a good start saw the fleet well spaced along it and away evenly in another light breeze. Tom Blackaller, from San Francisco, chose the committee end and tacked at once into free air. He rounded the windward mark well up near the front but not first. At this stage Burnham led again in the flying Chatterbox, with Knowles second in Gemdespite a recall for premature start.

The second time upwind Blackaller took off on the starboard tack and played the "left" side of the course all the way up, to pass everybody and win the race by more than two minutes. Those who favored the other tack during that last windward leg were left in the lurch. Duplin, around the home mark at the end of the first round in 10th place, did whatever was the right thing to do and did it very fast the second time up. He rounded the top mark 5th and knocked off three more boats on the final run to drift home in second place in a dying breeze. Conditions on the second windward leg and indeed in all the light weather races were made more difficult by the incredible slop stirred up by the huge spectator fleet, a hazard for which there is probably no remedy in present-day events of major international importance.

Third Race
At last a better breeze, but still it was not without its holes and shifts. Starting moderate, it built up to nearly 20 knots and then faded again toward the end of the race.

The only poor starting line of the week saw a big jam at the weather (committee) end. As the wind continued to swing clockwise, it became almost a fetch to the first mark on starboard tack. Not a few overstock by tacking to port among them the defender, Glider. But Stearns and Williams found the mark in time, drove off, and rounded close behind Blair Fletcher. By the end of one round Glider had worked past Wayward Wind; and they finished in that order, Stearns taking the gun by 48 seconds. Knowles was third, and Paul Fischer, from Hamburg, Germany, by finishing fourth moved up to third in the overall standings, only three points behind Duplin.

Burnham was 8th, which, together with his first and third, gave him an easy series lead and the coveted Vanderveer Trophy. He had already won the Elder Memorial Trophy for the first race, and was to take home the Parkman Bowl for the final race also. Never in history has anyone won so much of the subsidiary hardware without capturing the big cup itself. Pinegin's 5th was his best showing of the week, his Olympic Gold Medal winner Tornado coming to life especially in the middle portion of the race when the wind was strongest. Another best of the week was Don Bever's sixth. One has only to look down the list of summaries, observing what a struggle this series was for holders of former Gold and Silver Stars, and Blue Stars almost by the dozen, to appreciate the calibre of the competition.

Wednesday's third race was followed by rest day, and never was a rest day more aptly timed. Between midnight Wednesday and 3 a.m. a stalwart group headed by Buck Halperin and the Bello brothers hauled all the remaining boats not already out, on to the safety of their trailers and dry land. We are sorry not to know the names of the other heroes who assisted in this operation. A gale from the north, up to 50 knots at times, screamed all day Thursday through the rigging of the boats packed close together on the dock. Each whistling surge followed by a long-drawn whine from the taut stays, and the slapping of halyards, provided a symphony of 60 violins, mostly out of tune, and a few scattered snare-drums.

Friday there was less wind down to the 20-30 range with a steep nasty chop. Could boats be launched? No one was anxious to try it. Timir Pinegin ventured out first, successfully, and it was announced that the race would be scheduled one hour later than usual to allow all boats to be launched without undue haste.

Fourth Race
The seas were high and very confused. Duplin called them mountainous. He and Fran Dolan never wear lifejackets at home, where they sail on the Atlantic Ocean. They wore them today, as did many other contestants. No spars were lost downwind; the difficulty was on the wind, bucking those vicious seas, and most of the troubles occurred beating out to the race, before the start. Paul Fischer's broken spreader was one of these, a cruel end to his high score. Glisten never made the line, and Magoo almost didn't make it. Parks, starting nine minutes late after repairing a broken backstay fitting, passed half the fleet to finish 32nd.

The fleet was again evenly spread across a good line, but after the start Glider immediately surged into the lead as she stood off on starboard tack. Then occurred one of those incidents that can happen to anyone, even the defending champion sailing in familiar waters. Spying the blue power boat that had, up to now, always set the weather mark, Stearns assumed that he had overstood, and eased sheets to bear off towards the mark plainly in sight alongside the power boat. How was he to know that today it was this boat's duty to stand by the second mark? The error discovered at last, Glider put about and trudged off toward the real first mark, accomplishing wonders to recover to 11th at the finish.

All eyes were on the light and allegedly flimsy West Coast contingent. There had been sceptical predictions about their ability to hold together in anything more than a drifter. This was very much more than a drifter, and the detractors of the light hulls and rigs said, "Now we'll see". They saw. Not only did the Californians stay in one piece, they continued to lead the fleet. Tom Blackaller's performance was particularly noteworthy: without a heavy crew, without even a very flat sail, he won the race, beating all the heavy weather experts and all the elephant-boys.

Joe Duplin arrived at the first mark first, followed by Malin Burnham. Here occurred, among all the week's disasters that dashed so many hopes, the one that most heavily affected the series outcome. Chatterbox approached the mark on port tack and went about with plenty of room, not crowded by anyone. But she "stalled out" tacking, losing more headway than Burnham had anticipated. Then as she rounded her crew came inside to release the backstay at the same instant that a mammoth sea and a puff of extra wind threw the boat to leeward. The combined effect of all this was that the leach of her mainsail brushed the bobbing mast of the mark and the boat that almost surely would have won the World's Championship dropped out of the race.

North Star came around next. This boat is said to have so many gadgets on deck that when you look forward from the transom you can't see the bow. "And the first time a puff of wind hits them they'll all blow away," said the doubting Thomases. They did not blow away. They worked beautifully under stress, and North eventually passed Blackaller to win the race. It was an Easterner who broke something: Joe Duplin. His gooseneck disintegrated, and he sailed the entire second round without it. By the end of the first round Star of the Sea had dropped from first to third. Despite her handicap (photographs show how badly the sail was wrinkled), she again passed both North Star and Good Grief the second time upwind, to round the top mark in the lead.

Offwind, the lack of a vang was too much to contend with; but even so, Duplin maintained third position at the finish, a truly remarkable feat. It has been said that Duplin "won the championship" on the last leg of the last race. It doesn't take much thought to realise how shallow that judgment was. He won it during every minute of every race and for that matter, during all the months and years in which he was preparing for this series. But most especially and specifically he won it in the fourth race, by being able to sail a broken down boat to windward, through the roughest seas many of those present had ever seen, faster than any other Star in the world.

Fifth Race
The wind had gone down to 8-12 knots, there was still plenty of lumpy sea left for the finale. The usual good line was set, this time from a smaller committee boat in the absence of the enormous Coast Guard buoy-tender that had up to now served as Race Committee boat.

This big boat, used in all but the fifth race, created an interesting starting situation. In such a huge fleet the advantages of getting away in clear air are magnified, tempting the contestants to make hair-raising attempts at first starts. Anson Beard, for one, used the daring "dip start" around the anchor chain of the committee boat. There was a large unused area on the line side of the boat because of its great length; and Beard's start was so successful that the next day some others tried it too, thus congesting the area and making the whole project more difficult. North Star was one that almost didn't get away with it, nearly colliding with another boat because of a tangled mainsheet while North desperately plucked at a big ball of spaghetti with no place to go.

The leaders moved out fast in the last race. It was Knowles at the first mark followed by Burnham and Buchan, three Gold Stars in a row. North was up there too and Duplin was not. North needed four boats between himself and Duplin to win the series, and at this point he had them, Star of the Sea rounding 13th. But the race was a long way from finished, as everyone knew. On the second reach Duplin passed one boat, and on the last windward leg he very quickly and at one stroke passed six more that were bunched just ahead of him. Moving well, as always, Star of the Sea rounded the last top mark 5th with North Star 4th; and that was how they finished, to give Duplin the World's Championship by three points.

The incredible Burnham had passed Knowles, to win his second race of the series. Buchan also passed Gem for second, to sew up his series 5th. Beard was 6th in this race, his only good one: Bill Parks was 7th, and by finishing 8th Blair Fletcher quietly consolidated series 3rd with his Wayward Wind from Barnegat Bay, where conditions as are about as different as conceivably possible from those on Lake Michigan.

The new champion had only the highest praise for his crew, Fran Dolan, who, he said, "gave everything possible and more than was possible" whenever asked to do so. Duplin had had a past reputation of being a flashy sailor, winning Blue Stars (twice), and even a series third in the 1957 World's at Havana, but never quite pulling off a Gold or a Silver Star. The astonishingly steady record of ten flawless races that earned him in quick succession the two top honors the Class has to offer indicated a change of approach. And when questioned about this he replied, "It was the first year that I really began to sail with my brain instead of only my brawn in important races".

The chairman of the 1963 I.R.C. said, "No more co-operative, competent and competitive group of skippers and crews have ever been assembled anywhere in the world; and harder working, more efficient and more hospitable hosts than the members of the Chicago and Sheridan Shore Yacht Clubs could not be imagined."

joseph duplin world championship