Tight at the top

As Pepper and Monk hang on to the lead at the Star Worlds by a point

It was Robert Stanjek's and Markus Koy's (GER) turn to lead the 86-boat 2009 Star World Championship fleet around the race course. The fleet started under a black flag, lots of sunshine, flat water and wind that clocked right, right, right throughout the afternoon. Stanjek and Koy were on pins and needles trying to protect their position against fellow German teammates Jojo Plogar and Tim Kroeger; two-time Star World Champion, Alexander Hagen and Kai Falkentahl. Americans George Szabo and Rick Peters and Kiwis Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk were also a threat throughout the race.

The rest of the fleet was well behind the leading cluster of five, but some of the boats that took a couple of hitches to the left up the final beat threatened to scramble the standings. Big gains and big loses were the story of the day. The most significant come-backs on the day were made by the teams with gold stars who had placed extra emphasis on light air training last year in preparation for the Olympics in Qingdao, China. Swedish favorites, Freddy Lööf and Johan Tillander recovered from a low teens first mark rounding to seventh place. Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL) were barely in the top quarter of the fleet and recovered to sixth, and Xavier Rohart and Pierre Alexis Ponsot (FRA), who could easily count the boats behind them during the first weather mark rounding, pulled out a 14th.

"We are so happy," said Robert Stanjek following the race. "We didn't have any extra special speed. It was a very tactical race and we were fortunate that there was only one way to go on each upwind and downwind." Stanjek was also very happy for Jojo Polgar who finished second in the race and is in sixth overall going into the final race. "It was just like ideal Tornado sailing conditions," said Stanjek. "You hit the corner and do one tack. You can't afford to make unnecessary tacks in conditions like these."

The 2009 Star World Championship will be decided in the last race. The 2006 Star World Champion, Hamish Pepper and his crew, Craig Monk have a single point advantage over Americans George Szabo and Rick Peters and Swiss sailors, Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria. Three points behind the Kiwis are the Swedes, Lööf/ Tillander. Andrew Campbell and Magnus Liljedahl (USA) and Polgar/Kroeger are less than 10 points behind the leaders. Pepper/Monk go into the final race with the most consistent scores and the lowest discard (11 points) and are assured of a finish of seventh or better overall.

Throughout the regatta, the Americans have shown strength as a team. They will line up for the deciding race in the series in third, fifth and eighth place overall. Andy Macdonald and Brian Fatih (USA) will have to have an exceptional race to make it into the top 10, but are in a close race against Mats Johansson and Leif Möller (SWE) to win the Masters Trophy.

More photos on the following pages...

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot	Net
1	Hamish Pepper	Craig Monk	NZL	-11	9	1	11	5	37	26
2	George Szabo	Rick Peters	USA	-54	1	3	20	3	81	27
3	Flavio Marazzi	Enrico De Maria	SUI	3	3	-35	1	20	62	27
4	Fredrik Lööf	Johan Tillander	SWE	2	5	15	-23	7	52	29
5	Andrew Campbell	Magnus Liljedahl	USA	-14	14	4	8	8	48	34
6	Johannes Polgar	Tim Kroeger	GER	-31	22	7	4	2	66	35
7	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Dominik Zycki	POL	1	12	-50	18	6	87	37
8	Mark Mendelblatt	Mark Strube	USA	8	4	2	26	-35	75	40
9	Alexander Schlonski	Frithjof Kleen	GER	9	17	11	5	-32	74	42
10	Lars Schmidt Grael	Ronald Seifert	BRA	-30	6	14	14	12	76	46
11	Mats Johansson	Leif Möller	SWE	10	20	-44	2	21	97	53
12	Robert Scheidt	Bruno Prada	BRA	26	2	-33	13	15	89	56
13	Andrew Macdonald	Brian Fatih	USA	17	13	-64	17	10	121	57
14	Marin Lovrovic Jr	Sinisa Mikulicic	CRO	18	26	-27	6	11	88	61
15	Nicola Celon	Edoardo Natucci	ITA	7	21	8	25	-27	88	61
16	Diego Negri	Valerio Chinca	ITA	-22	11	19	22	9	83	61
17	Max Treacy	Anthony Shanks	IRL	12	-32	24	12	13	93	61
18	Alejo Rigoni	Juan Pablo Percossi	ARG	16	16	-38	15	16	101	63
19	Afonso Domingos	Frederico Melo	POR	38	7	10	10	-50	115	65
20	Matthias Miller	Benedikt Wenk	GER	5	24	31	7	-45	112	67
21	Robert Stanjek	Markus Koy	GER	35	19	13	-39	1	107	68
22	Peter O'Leary	Tim Goodbody	IRL	15	10	22	-53	22	122	69
23	Xavier Rohart	Pierre Alexis Ponsot	FRA	43	15	-46	3	14	121	75
24	John Gimson	Ed Greig	GBR	19	27	12	21	-70	149	79
25	Johannes Babandererde	Timo Jacobs	GER	4	34	34	9	(87 BFD)	168	81
26	Benny Andersen	Mogens Just	DEN	32	25	6	28	-74	165	91
27	Horacio Carabelli	Ubiratan Matos	BRA	20	30	9	37	-76	172	96
28	Silvio Santoni	Fabio Toccoli	ITA	6	-54	26	27	42	155	101
29	Dan Lovrovic	Antonio Arapovic	CRO	-59	8	45	30	23	165	106
30	Manuel Voigt	Paul Sradnick	GER	24	39	16	-46	36	161	115
31	Erik Dahlén	Krister Carlsson	SWE	13	46	25	33	(87 DNF)	204	117
32	Alexander Hagen	Kai Falkentahl	GER	-47	31	40	44	4	166	119
33	Kunio Suzuki	Daichi Wada	JPN	41	-59	21	24	33	178	119
34	Alberto Barovier	Nando Colaninno	ITA	21	42	20	40	-62	185	123
35	Ante Razmilovic	Brian Hammersley	GBR	28	38	23	41	-72	202	130
36	Juan Kouyoumdjian	Steven Erickson	ARG	29	43	29	29	-47	177	130
37	Flemming Sorensen	Niels Trysoe-Hansen	DEN	23	-82	58	19	31	213	131
38	Tibor Tenke	Miklos Berezeti	HUN	25	37	18	52	-53	185	132
39	Andrew Landenberger	Beat Stegmeier	AUS	33	(87 DSQ)	5	47	58	230	143
40	Lars Edwall	Henrik Ljungdahl	SWE	48	-52	36	36	30	202	150
41	Fredrik Ljungkvist	Daniel Alm	SWE	40	-79	37	58	18	232	153
42	Andre Mirsky	Marcelo Jordao	BRA	60	23	51	-63	19	216	153
43	Mate Arapov	Ivan Misura	CRO	37	-72	59	31	26	225	153
44	Paul Mckenzie	Philip Toth	AUS	45	18	32	60	-77	232	155
45	Brian Cramer	Matt Johnston	CAN	51	28	-63	62	17	221	158
46	Calle Schröder	Stefan Hemlin	SWE	27	(87 DNF)	42	35	54	245	158
47	Herluf Joergensen	Lars Wegener	DEN	39	49	30	51	(87 BFD)	256	169
48	Konstantin Datsenko	Bazurin Ilya	UKR	36	57	-80	43	34	250	170
49	Sander Jorissen	Erik Veldhuizen	NED	56	36	-82	16	63	253	171
50	Philip Carlson	Benjamin Peterson	SWE	-70	63	17	70	29	249	179
51	Henrik Dannesboe	Vincent Hagin	SUI	34	65	43	38	-80	260	180
52	Hans Oskarsson	Håkan Lundgren	SWE	-69	67	39	48	28	251	182
53	Kurt Scheidegger	Markus Scheidegger	SUI	46	-66	54	45	40	251	185
54	Tomas Franzen	Pontus Gabel	SWE	-78	45	41	64	38	266	188
55	Henrik Jörhov	Karl Kristensen	SWE	44	35	-61	50	60	250	189
56	Roman Juchli	Philipp Juchli	SUI	-77	51	52	66	25	271	194
57	Andrea Fornaro	Riccardo Capociuchi	ITA	-65	60	65	34	37	261	196
58	Ingvar Krook	Henrik Hasselgren	SWE	62	47	-72	57	41	279	207
59	Johnny Jensen	Claus Lauritsen	DEN	55	55	-78	55	43	286	208
60	Sune Carlsson	Dan Anders Carlsson	SWE	74	44	28	-76	65	287	211
61	Jan Strömbeck	Stefan Jacobsson	SWE	-75	61	69	32	51	288	213
62	Vasyl Gureyev	Volodymyr Korotkov	UKR	53	-74	70	42	49	288	214
63	Christian Paucksch	Christian Knoll	GER	63	-73	60	68	24	288	215
64	Pelle Petterson	Anders Ekström	SWE	50	29	75	-78	67	299	221
65	Olle Johansson	Dag Hansson	SWE	-73	33	71	67	55	299	226
66	Joni Leeve	Asko Salminen	FIN	58	64	55	49	-68	294	226
67	Gerhard Weinreich	Alexander Kagl	AUT	-82	40	53	56	79	310	228
68	Claude Bonanni	Richard Burgess	USA	52	-62	62	59	61	296	234
69	Fredrik Fransson	Tomas Åkerman	SWE	-81	77	56	71	39	324	243
70	Arkadiusz Wierzbicki	Krzysztof Pawlowski	POL	61	80	-84	61	44	330	246
71	Peter Van Veen	Paul Goeist	NED	57	68	48	-74	73	320	246
72	Roberto Tomasini Grinover	Gunnar Bahr	AUT	-71	69	67	54	57	318	247
73	Juerg Wittich	Christian Trachsel	SUI	-72	50	68	72	59	321	249
74	Regis Berenguier	Laurent Bernaz	FRA	-76	53	57	73	66	325	249
75	Hubert Rauch	Chris Conrads	GER	49	(87 BFD)	49	77	75	337	250
76	David Tabb	Tom Peyton	GBR	66	70	-73	69	46	324	251
77	Benny Nilsson	Stefan Fagerlund Nilsson	SWE	-83	78	47	80	56	344	261
78	Anders Hoagland	Gunnar Faernert	SWE	79	41	-81	75	71	347	266
79	Andrey Berezhnoy	Sergey Masalov	RUS	67	71	-85	82	48	353	268
80	Daniel Wyss	Urs Joss	SUI	68	58	74	(87 DSQ)	69	356	269
81	Florian von Linde	Tobias Steffens	GER	42	76	76	79	(87 DNF)	360	273
82	Jochen Diercks	Herbert Braasch	GER	64	-81	66	65	78	354	273
83	Gösta Eriksson	Björn Beskow	SWE	84	56	77	(87 DNF)	64	368	281
84	Börje Larsson	Carl-Fredrik Larsson	SWE	-85	48	79	81	81	374	289
85	Dierk Thomsen	Philip Behn	GER	80	75	-83	83	52	373	290
86	Mariusz Modrzynski	Sebastian Moras	POL	(87 DNF)	83	86	84	82	422	335