1995 World Championship - Laredo, Spain
September 10-16, 1995
The following results are from the Star Logs. 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.
Results
Place No. Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 7879 Mark Reynolds Hal Haenel SDB 20 1 3 8 3 2 17 2 7760 Torben S. Grael Marcelo Ferreira Gua 4 26 9 5 1 1 20 3 7541 Chris Rasmusten Kasper Harsberg DF 7 6 2 7 9 5 27 4 7828 Colin Beashel David Giles SY 8 20 4 2 2 dnf 36 5 7827 Enrico Chieffi Roberto Sinibaldi PDV 16 19 10 4 13 7 50 6 7727 Hans Vogt Jr Joerg Fricke CBM 5 10 8 25 22 6 51 7 7647 Michael HestbackMartin Hejlsberg DF 42 2 pms 1 4 3 52 8 7780 Anast. BoudourisDimitris Boukis GR dnf 3 29 15 7 4 58 9 7835 Ross Macdonald Eric Jespersen EB 1 13 1 22 dnf 22 59 10 7834 Peter Bromby Lee White ISOL 6 5 14 13 21 dnf 59 11 7754 Mats Johansson Mattias Frode Vin 24 9 25 10 8 10 61 12 7836 Vincent Brun Mike Dorgan SDB 27 18 15 14 5 13 65 13 7488 Roberto BenamatiPaolo Busolo Gar 70 4 6 23 25 11 69 14 7795 Benny Andersen Karsten Svenningsen DF 53 15 5 11 31 8 70 15 7747 Frank Butzmann Michael Umlauft BF 10 12 34 9 6 dnf 71 16 7801 Hubert RaudaschlAndreas Hanakamp SMA 3 21 11 32 17 23 75 17 7759 Alexander Hagen Jens Peters Glu 48 11 12 20 28 9 80 18 7641 Stephan SchurichF. Xaver Gruber H 29 17 36 18 11 ymp 85 19 7698 Ian Murray Steve Jarvin SY 36 43 18 6 14 16 90 20 7797 Richard GronblomVille Kurki Dru 33 7 17 21 29 20 94 21 7794 Pietro D'Ali Ferdinando Colaninno IC 2 30 23 16 24 dnf 95 22 7346 Sergej KhoretskiVladimir Zuev ISOL 14 35 7 dnf 18 21 95 23 7581 Fernando Rita Javier Aguado MALN 31 36 13 17 20 18 99 24 7796 Paolo Semeraro Marco Marenco BAR 59 8 32 33 15 19 107 25 7787 Jose Doreste Javier Hermida Bar 58 16 16 3 19 dnf 112 26 7817 Rod Davis Don Cowie ISOL 21 29 21 27 16 dnf 114 27 7489 Anders Lundmark Fredrik Baeck Sand 12 dnf 22 30 33 17 114 28 7771 Lawrie Sminh C. Mason SO 41 41 dnf 12 10 12 116 29 7605 Mike Ilgenstein Kai Falkenthal HF 32 25 31 19 26 15 116 30 7494 Silvio Santoni Sergio Lambertenghi NG 25 28 28 24 23 dnf 128 31 7492 Philip Graves Barry Van Leeuwen EB 9 32 30 41 36 dnf 148 32 7735 Hubt Merkelbach Dirk Meissner UB 65 45 19 60 27 14 165 33 7563 Hans Wallen Bobby Lohse Kat 23 14 27 26 dnf dnc 167 34 7542 George Szabo IIIRick Peters SDB 43 27 42 35 34 dnf 181 35 7704 Andreas Dellwig Lutz Boguhn Moh 37 24 57 31 37 dnc 186 36 7793 Ric. Simoneschi Ermes Costa FdiG 13 47 44 42 43 dnf 189 37 7657 Eric Doyle Brian Terhaar SDB dnf 40 20 29 30 dnf 196 38 7713 Joe Londrigan Phil Trinter SDB 15 34 37 43 dnf dnc 206 39 7428 Antonio Turner Jaime Tuner P-San 22 33 47 28 dnc dnc 207 40 7663 Stuart Hudson Mark Downer SO 57 22 41 dnc 12 dnc 209 41 7617 Foss Miller Garth Olsen PS 28 46 46 tle 32 dnc 212 42 7560 Daniel StegmeierBeat Stegmeier LUV 55 51 39 34 38 dnf 217 43 7479 Vasco Serpa Mario De Sampaio FdeL 40 23 35 44 dnc dnc 219 44 7816 Rex Bienz Christian Rossing O 38 55 61 37 35 dnc 226 45 7635 Halvor Schoeyen Petter Fjeld OS 49 37 26 46 dnf dnc 235 46 7484 Vince Graciotti Corrado Cristaldini NG 30 31 38 tle dnc dnc 236 47 7802 Volker BernickenBernd Stoll UB 34 42 24 tle dnc dnc 237 48 7743 Al La Tegola Giovanni Di Cagno BAR 19 44 55 48 dnc dnc 243 49 7699 Rainer Wilhelm Wolfgang Krepcik SMA 45 60 54 49 42 dnc 250 50 7583 Jens Olbrysch Stefan Diestelmann IJs 11 50 dnf 39 dnf dnc 254 51 7548 Chuck Lewsadder Scott Zimmer NH 18 66 33 tle dnc dnc 254 52 7799 Tibor Tenke Zoltan Sass Ore 67 54 60 40 39 dnc 260 53 7573 Alberto Scapolo Sergio Mulazzi Seb 56 36 45 47 dnc dnc 261 54 7460 Glenn Read Mike Hughes PP 63 58 40 tle 41 dnc 262 55 6809 Philip Baker Philip R. Baker LMac 44 56 52 38 dnf dnc 267 56 7366 Regi Schubach John Schubach HF 66 64 62 36 40 dnc 268 57 7338 Ingvar Krook Thomas Jansson AR 17 53 dnf 45 dnc dnc 269 58 7752 Chris Gautchi Felix Meier Bod 46 52 43 53 dnc dnc 271 59 7714 Andrea Folli Massimo Canali Man 26 59 58 dnf dnc dnc 297 60 7336 Giampiero Poggi Andrea Klein Rom 47 61 56 56 dnc dnc 297 61 7604 Dewitt Morris Tom Olsen NB 73 39 48 dnf dnc dnc 314 62 7574 Numo Santo SilvaF.P. De Mello Vil 50 63 50 dnf dnc dnc 317 63 7717 Pelle Petterson Peter Erzberger Kat 64 pms 49 51 dnc dnc 318 64 7820 Josef Urban Martin Liebl TR 39 49 dnc dnf dnc dnc 319 65 7433 Fritz Girr Burghard Majewski And 72 65 53 52 dnc dnc 319 66 7420 J. Garcia-GermanDiego Lainz P-San 52 dnf 59 55 dnc dnc 320 67 7602 Tom Londrigan Eric Beckwith LS 60 62 dnc 50 dnc dnc 326 68 7426 Miguel Lopez Juan Seghers M 62 57 dnf 54 dnc dnc 327 69 7542 G. Biganishvili Vladimer Gruzdev BkS 54 48 dnf dnf dnc dnc 333 70 7165 Karl Schrader Ennio Montonati VE 69 68 51 dnf dnc dnc 342 71 7448 German Canosa Jose Dominguez Lar 35 dnf dnc dnc dnc dnc 343 72 7821 Harald Wirth Armin Wiedergut AU 68 67 63 dnf dnc dnc 352 73 7333 Milos Laznicka Martin Kvet CZ 51 dnf dnc dnf dnc dnc 359 74 7086 Jose M. Acebal Daniel Seghers Lar 61 dnc dnc dns dnc dnc 369 75 6870 Al De Bareno A. Lecumberri Lar 71 dnc dnc dns dnc dnc 379 76 7807 Mario Caprile Ramon Bernar Lar 74 dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 382
Regatta Reports
THE WORLD'S IN LAREDO
The On and Off the Water Story, by George T. Szabo, III
On September 1, 1995 a group of San Diego Star sailors (Vince Brun, Eric Doyle, Joe Londrigan, Mark Reynolds and I) packed up their gear and headed off to the Atlantic coast of Spain for the Star World Championship. Everyone expected to have a fair weather regatta on the sunny coast of Spain. Things turned out a bit differently. The best way to describe the sailing in Laredo is to tell you that every day was a four bailer day. What I mean is that every day as we sailed out to the race course we would open up more bailers to keep water out as time went on. Every day before the start of the race we would have four bailers open. To describe the conditions another way I realized something was wrong when I was analyzing the bottom hull shape of different Star boats between races.
My crew, Rick Peters, flew into Portugal at the end of the European's where he picked up our charter boat. To our surprise the boat came complete with a 560 Mercedes. We arrived in Laredo five days early so that we could practice and tune our charter boat. Unfortunately for each of the five days we were unable to practice because of too much wind. At the end of every day we would look at the forecast for the next day and it would predict increased winds for the following day.
To explain how windy it was, I should mention that their weather maps had flags all over them which would show wind direction and strength. To show the strength, each flag had cross hairs, triangles or a combination of both. We began to worry when they added multiple triangles to the cross hairs. By the end of the third or fourth day the tent set up for the regatta functions was beginning to look a bit unstable.
Eventually even the tent gave way and took out several Star masts, one of which was Mark Reynolds'. So what do seventy star boat teams do when they can't go sailing? Other than getting their boats measured, people went to the go cart track and polished their boats. This was the cleanest fleet of star boats that I have ever seen.
Eventually the wind subsided, and we got off a practice race and all went well. On the morning of race one, I spoke with the ferry boat captain who was taking us to our moored Star boat. His comment was that if the wind came from the mountains that day then we would have our seven Beaufort winds (22-27, strong breeze, large waves begin to form, white foam crests are beginning to form; white foam crests are more extensive everywhere; there may be some spray, probable wave height 10 feet). I don't know how much that is exactly but it was a lot.
With two legs to go in the race that day a GIANT black cloud descended over the cliffs and onto the racing area. Chuck Lewsadder and his crew Scott Zimmer said that they were knocked down so hard that their spreaders were in the water for some time. On our boat we had a very exciting reach. While going upwind we had to ease the jib to be able to turn the boat into a tack. At the peak of the wind, the boats that had taken down their mains were going faster upwind than those with mains. Eventually the race was cancelled because the committee couldn't hold a finish line.
The next day all was calm on the water except for on Eric Doyle's boat. Eric had just taken delivery on a brand new Lillia and had spent the last three days re-rigging it. Unfortunately not long after the start of the first race, Eric broke his tiller extension universal. According to an eyewitness Eric pro- ceeded to take out his frustration by beating his main sail with the now detached tiller extension. Ouch! The next few days went off fairly well in the big seas and wind. Only one other race was canceled, this time because the weather mark would not hold.
Before race five, Joe Londrigan broke his outhaul and (according to Joe) he ended up swimming behind his boat in order to fix it. Also in race five, World Champion Ross Macdonald had to retire after the first reach because his boat was so full of water that he was afraid he would sink.
Race six was the most exciting. Not only was the championship on the line for several competitors but the conditions were the most trying. Only 26 boats remained to start this race and only 17 finished. In thirty knots of wind and the race committee reporting puffs of forty, the last race was held with twenty foot seas. We made it for the start but unfortunately our mast broke as we tacked around the first weather mark.
A filling on the spreader tip had failed. The funny part though was that after we had tacked and the rig had fall en over, Rick asked me why I wasn't bearing off around the mark to go onto the reach. He hadn't seen or heard the mast go over and there was so much wind that the boat was making the same amount of noise and was heeling just as much as if it had been up.
After the regatta was over we weren't the only people to walk over to the trash can with our week-old sails. Some were joking that they were going to send their new sails back to the sail maker since they didn't even last six days. At the end of it all the best team won. While accepting his trophy, Mark Reynolds was overcome with emotion as he recalled that his father had won this regatta many years before crewing for Dennis Conner, and that he, Mark, had been trying for quite some time to win this regatta. Hal Haenel mentioned that Spain had been very good to them. They won the Gold Medal in Barcelona and now the World's in Laredo and they looked forward to coming back. There was a big celebration that night and the Star World Championship Cup was repeatedly refilled with Cutty Sark, but that is another story.
THE WORLD'S IN LAREDO
The Winner's Perspective, by Mark Reynolds
Hal and I were fortunate enough to win the Star Worlds this year. It's something that I have wanted for a long time, first trying for it in 1975 and 12 other times in-between. My first Star World's though was in 1958 when Lowell North brought the World's to the San Diego Bay fleet. I was two years old and had my picture taken for a Buick ad for the regatta program.
I remember many other World's in San Diego as well as a few in Newport Beach, then Marstrand and finally Seattle when my father won as Dennis Conner's crew. Hal and I had finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, but the Gold Star had eluded us. I would just like to say that it's a great honor to now be a Star World Champion -- a very select group of sailors.
The Star World's were held in Laredo, Spain, site of the 1974 World's won by Tom Blackaller and Ron Anderson. We had 76 boats this time and you could say it was a heavy air regatta. The first attempt at the first race was cancelled on the last beat when the moderate winds were interrupted by a squall that whipped the winds up to the mid 30's. We were disappointed as we were up near the front, especially due to the fact that we had to sail upwind anyway to sail in.
The next day the first race was held in the only light winds of the regatta. There were some very major shifts stirring up the fleet a few times but last year's champs Ross Macdonald and Eric Jesperson were able to stay ahead of Pietro D'Ali to win. We were a bit too conservative on the first beat (the leader came from the left corner and the 2nd place boat from the right corner) but were not totally upset with a 20th. Our 20th was a lot better than Hestbaek's 42nd, Hagen's 48th. Andersen's 53rd or Doreste's 58th. It looked like this could be tough sailing!
The next day two races were held in strong winds of around 20 knots, but still fairly shifty and pully as it was an offshore wind. The swell was large and about 45 degrees to the wind so it made sailing upwind quite different on each tack. We were fortunate to have a first and a third this day, making up for our opening 20th.
The rest of the races were in very similar conditions. It was usually favored to go left so boat speed was important off the line to keep clear air. In the fourth race where we placed 8th we made the mistake of not going left enough and getting passed on the first beal and then we missed the right coming in a bit on the second beat.
Despite this, our confidence was growing. We knew we had the speed so we didn't need to be overly aggressive on the starts anymore. The next race started with live general recalls with the black flag eliminating over 20 boats. The race was abandoned on the second beat supposedly because of problems setting the next mark. We were in second place at the time so again it was a bit of a disappointment. It was even more of a disappointment when all of the boats that were black flagged were put back into the race by the RC and Jury because the line ends were determined to be drifting.
The last day two races were held with winds at their strongest. The first race was between Colin Beashel/David Giles and us until Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira got to the right of both of us and stayed ahead to win the race. Going into the last race we had a one point lead on Colin and 4 points on Torben. Soon after the start it was us and Colin that moved out in the lead going left with Torben clearing out to the right after a bad start. The right paid and Torben took the lead soon after the windward mark. We rounded fifth with Colin right behind. The reaches were wild as the wind was very strong at this point. We rounded up a few times, but so did Colin.
About halfway down the reach when the wind was probably getting close to 40 knots, Colin's mast came down. We still needed to pass at least one boat to beat Torben. About halfway up the next beat we moved into second place. The last windward leg seemed like it took forever. We had two big fears on this leg.
One was that something would break as we got launched off the huge waves on port tack (the windward shrouds would go slack as we leaped off the waves and came crashing down). The other fear was that the RC would again abandon. There was a bit of attrition as the day went on, with only 23 boats finishing this race. We finally made it across the line in second position to win the Championship. After crossing the line a rainbow formed over the fleet, a fitting finish for a Gold Star event.
