Olympic sailing for grown ups

We preview the Star class at the Beijing Olypmics

By rights, the Star should have been given the boot from the line-up of Olympic sailing events ages ago, on the basis that it is genuinely ‘classic’ due for its 100th birthday in two years time, following its origins as a design by New Yorker Francis Sweisguth. However while most of the Olympic classes are effectively boats for young men, alongside the Tornado the Star represents a boat that can be sailed by grown-ups, even the middle aged - witness US Star sailor John Dane who is competing at the Games having just had his 58th birthday.

The Star is not only the oldest design among the sail boat classes, it is far in away the oldest Olympic sailing discipline to have survived. Introduced to the Olympic Games in 1932 this venerable keelboat, with its characteristic chine and flat forefoot, has featured every year except 1976. As a result it has a highly influential following among the sailing elite and while Olympic sailors tend to graduate up to large keel boats and events such as the Audi MedCup, America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race, about the only class professional sailors can go if they wish to rediscover the purity of Olympic class competition is back to the Star. While in Athens we saw Torben Grael and Paul Cayard compete, this year Australian AC veteran Iain Murray is returning for a stab at Olympic glory.

In fact the Star has been shedding its reputation as being the ‘old man’s class’ over this decade. Among the line-up in Qingdao John Dane and Iain Murray are the exceptions with the majority comprising sailors who have graduated up to the class from the Laser (Diego Negri, Robert Scheidt, Hamish Pepper) and in particular the Finn (Xavier Rohart, Iain Percy, Mateusz Kusnierewicz and Freddie Loof).

Among the 16 boat line-up (one less than in Athens) we have five and a half past world championship winning teams: Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) in 2008), Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) in 2007, Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams (NZL) in 2006, Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA) in 2003 and 2005, Freddie Loof and Anders Ekstrom (SWE) in 2001 and 2004, Iain Percy (then with Steve Mitchell) in 2002.

Gear

While the class may be soon celebrating its centenary there remains no shortage of development. In Athens Torben Grael set a new trend in the class when he won Gold in a modified Lillia with a milled keel and a hull with less volume in its mid-sections. This style of boat with flatter rocker and a little less beam, but with the same righting moment (due to the milled keel having a lower centre of gravity) was tried by many of the top teams after the last Games, and generally proved fast in winds above 8 knots but stickier in the light due to having increased wetted surface area.

However Qingdao being traditionally a light wind venue has seen some teams reverting back to their original shapes pre-Athens.

There remain principally three Star builders of choice - Folli and Lillia, based close to one another on Lake Como, Italy and Mader in Germany. In the build-up to this Olympic cycle Folli are believed to have flattened out their mould in line with the latest trend and then reverted back to a boat with more rocker. The newest Lillias are believed to have had some developments to their rudder/skegs.

While Mader had no boats competing in Athens, this time they have been working with Juan Kouyoumdjian, himself a Star sailor, on a new design that Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson took to near victory in this year’s Bacardi Cup and have in Qingdao.

However a development we have seen for this games, possibly due to the ultra-light conditions competitors are expecting, is an arms race with some teams having one-off boats built. Long term German Star sailors Marc Pickel and Ingo Brokowski have one, which the US team of John Dane III and Austin Sperry have bought into, while Swiss sailor Flavio Marazzi and Enrico DeMaria also have their own unique boat, understood to have been built using some different techniques to the norm.

And as a result the costs of carrying out a Star campaign, and we should stress this is only in a few cases, have been going through the roof. To get as far as winning the US trials, Dane and Sperry are believed to have spent $1.3 million on a campaign that included six boats, paid hands and three coaches.

But will the big budget teams win in the potentially highly variable conditions of Qingdao? It is unlikely for example that Robert Scheidt has spent anything like these amounts, but conversely, as is normal for him, his training regime has been relentless, his Olympic record is formidable and he goes into the Games as one of the favourites for a podium place.

Conditions in Qingdao tend to be light ie less than 8 knots, but equally they can be more than 20, but statistically it is rare for them to be in between. Luckily Star sailors are in the unique position of being able to measure in two rigs and so it is likely most will make use of this to have the option of a strong wind set-up with a stiff straight mast and a second softer rig set -up for when it is light.

With a typically very small section, Star masts tend to be fragile and generally get broken through operator error, particularly downwind, when the spreaders are articulated forward and the windward running backstay is released and the mast precariously leans forward over the foredeck allowing the mainsail to set properly. The jib is raised up and a jib stick holds the clew to windward. This creates a problem downwind as the boat can become very unstable with a loose mainsail leech. When the boat rolls to windward the jib pole can dip in the water, causing the mast to beak or bend unless the crew is very quick to take the pole off the mast.

Of course much sail development has gone on in order to optimise configurations with deeper shapes for the light conditions. The majority of Star sails typically come from two San Diego lofts: Quantum thanks to the Mark Reynolds connection (serial Star World champion and medallist - see our interview with him here) and North with Vince Brun, although the likes of Iain Percy and Freddie Loof use their own local sailmakers (North UK in the case of Percy).

Likely medallists



Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA)

With two Golds and one silver medal in the Laser class behind him, Scheidt ranks alongside Ben Ainslie as the greatest Olympic sailor in this year’s Games. The World Champion last year when he also won the Pre-Olympic regatta in Qingdao, Scheidt and Prada impressively, over the last two years of sailing the two man keel boat, have only been off the podium on two occasions. We place them favourite.



Diego Negri and Luigi Viale (ITA)

If the Star regatta decides to be a light wind affair then Negro and Viale could prevail. Second at the Worlds this year, the duo are former European champions and as is often typical with Italian sailors seem able to sniff out the breeze when there apparently is none. However looking at the duo’s form generally over the last seasons it has been decidedly up and down with results from this year’s Delta Lloyd and Rolex Miami OCR in the teens.



Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Życki (POL)

The Atlanta Finn Gold medallist graduated up to the Star this cycle and like his colleagues from the singlehander has taken to it well. His results in the class are consistently good, but saying this after a disappointing 11th at Rolex Miami OCR this year he went on to win the World Championship. He is also the current No1 ranked Star sailor in the world.



Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR)

Having changed crew from Steve Mitchell to Andrew Simpson since his sixth place in Athens in 2004, Percy and Simpson’s recent record in Star has swung dramatically between success and failure. Coming equal first on points at the Bacardi Cup (but losing on countback) they followed with a dismal 52nd place at the subsequent World Championship. However if the breeze gets up, expect these two to shine.

In addition to this Loof, Rohart, Pepper and the Americans all have the potential for podium positions, if their stars come into alignment. Boom boom!

Complete line-up with ISAF ranking

Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Życki (POL – 1)
Flavio Marazzi and Enrico DeMaria (SUI – 2)
Frederik Loof and Anders Ekstrom (SWE – 3)
Diego Negri and Luigi Viale (ITA – 4)
Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams (NZL – 5)
Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA – 6)
Afonso Domingos and Bernardo Santos (POR – 7)
Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (FRA – 8)
Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey (AUS – 9)
Marc-Aurel Pickel and Ingo Borkowski (GER – 10)
Marin Jr Lovorovic and Sinisa Mikulicic (CRO – 11)
Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR – 12)
John Dane III and Austin Sperry (USA – 17)
Hans Spitzauer and Hans-Christian Nehammer (AUT – 20)
Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne (IRE) - 48
Li Hongquan and Wang He (PR China)

See Mark Mendleblatt and Mark Strube's video tour to their Star here