2015 World Championship - Buenos Aires, Argentina
November 1 - 10, 2015
Regatta Report
Report taken from the Club Nautico San Isidro newsletter, December 2015 #299
During the month prior to the championship, the containers that brought the foreign vessels began to arrive at the Club. November 8 and 9 had been set as a reservation date in case any of the six regattas scheduled for the World Cup could not be carried out.
The Star is a monohull sailboat manned by two people, it was designed in 1910 by Francis Sweisguth, and from 1932 until this year it was one of the Olympic classes, except for the 1976 games in which it was displaced by the Tempest class. The Star class has been characterized by summoning the best sailors in the world.
This championship brought together many of the best sailors in the world, with the presence of Torben Schmidt Grael (twice world champion of Snipe, once world champion of the Star class, two gold medals, one silver and two bronze) in Olympic games, tactician in the America's Cup, skipper of the winning team of the 2008 Volvo regatta), Lars Schmidt Grael (international president of the Star class and Olympic medalist), Eric Doyle, Diego Negri, Hubert Merkelbach, etc.
Many internationally recognized sailors competed for Argentina, such as Gustavo Warburg, Torkel Borgstrom, Juan Pablo Engelhard, Julio Labandeira, Hugo and Hector Longarela, the Della Torre brothers, etc.
On Sunday afternoon the opening ceremony was held, with Andres Galindez as president of the Club Nautico San Isidro, Lars Schmidt Grael, as president at the international level of the Star Class, Torkel Borgstrom as Vice President of the class in South America, Enrique Busch as Commodore of the Club and Chairman of the Championship, and finally Pablo Masseroni as president of the Argentine Yachting Federation.
Most of the Star fleet had just competed with a lot of wind in the South American of the class organized by Club Nautico Olivos on October 28, 29, 30 and 31.
Measurements began on Sunday, November 1st. All hulls, masts, and crews had to be weighed, sails measured, and safety elements inspected. Manolo Bunge was the measurer designated by the class, who was assisted by collaborators to facilitate and accelerate the times.
The Debian measurements ended at the latest on Monday, November 02, starting at 5:00 p.m. The park closed and all boats must be in the water without exceptions. As it was a fleet of 40 sailboats, the Club rented a crane to divide the descent of the boats, also using the boom from the Yachting beach.
Once on the water, all the boats had to be located in the marinas of the Yachting area where the Club, the Avanes, Rio de la Plata and Mystics boats are usually found, They also had to settle in the Grumetera that had been cleared for that end, and also to complete another marina was added in the place of the Nautico II.
The World Cup has some peculiarities, unlike a normal Star regatta day, in the World Cup there is only one regatta per day, in addition to the number of regattas, the times are longer, each race should last more than two hours. After the end of each day of regatta, an after race was held at the Club with traditional Argentine food accompanied by beer, on Thursday the formal meal of the participants was held.
From Tuesday, and until Sunday, November 08, the regattas were held, beginning with three days of strong winds and ending with three days of calm winds. The winners definitely had to make every effort to stay in the top positions. a discard
The podium was made up in the first place by Lars Schmidt Grael and Samuel Goncalves from Brazil, in second place the duo made up of Marcelo Fuchs and Ronald Weifert from Brazil, and in third place the Italians Diego Negri together with Sergio Lambertenghi. Following the awards ceremony, the celebration continued with a meal for the competitors at the Club's Sollado Bar.
Julio Labandeira tells us about the Championship: “This was one of the most varied championships among the world championships that I have run, since we started with days of strong wind, around 20 knots with a special course of strong wind, even regattas with strong winds. 4/5 knots that the endless regatta made, and the rest in the middle of this. Six excellent days of regattas, with much longer routes than we are used to running in Argentina, to which we had a hard time getting used to at first because the last round was endless and we lost several ports there, surely our concentration decreased at that time.
But then with Javier we managed to get hooked on the size and crown the championship in an almost ideal way. 2nd in the fifth regatta losing by only 20 meters, and winning the last one. Something historic since an Argentine boat could never win a World Cup regatta in the 80 years that the class has. Also the 6th place is the best classification in the General and win the World Senior and Grand Master. All in one championship
The organization of the CNSA was correct, at the level that the Championship and the club deserved. Now just keep sailing and hope that the class in the Argentiana continues to grow as it is doing at the moment, with very good crews and much younger ones with a great future.
Torkel Borgstrom (vice president of the Star class in South America), who competed alongside Juan Pablo Engelhard (National Secretary and local authority of the class), had just finished second in the South American Class Championship. With an excellent performance, they are one of the best references in Argentina for the Star class. This was not commented on about the World Championship.
“Having failed to organize the Star Class World Championship again in Aguas de Rio de la Plata has been an important achievement for the development of the Star Class at a national and regional level. The San Isidro Nautical Club has done a very good job organizing this championship with six disputed regattas in varied wind conditions that were very competitive and with great snow. During the week that this event lasted, the participants were able to enjoy good regattas, excellent camaraderie and the comforts of the Club.
With an impeccable organization and the dedication of the responsible partners, this event hosted the best international sailors of the Class and finally had as its winner the outstanding Brazilian crew of Lars Grael and Samuel Goncalves, who finally prevailed in a very disputed championship. My congratulations to both and to Julio Labadeira & Javier Bok, who in an excellent final comeback finished in 6th place, being the best placed Argentine representation.”
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