Back together

We talk to Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube about their rekindled Star campaign

Two strong contenders making their return to the Star class, in the absence of any multi-challenger America’s Cup action taking place, are American duo Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube. This duo were a formidable team back in 2006 when we encountered them in Neustadt as they were comfortably winning the Star European Championship. This followed their wins at Kiel Week and the 2005 Bacardi Cup.

Sadly, partly due to America’s Cup commitments - Mendelblatt was in the afterguard of Emirates Team New Zealand while his crew Mark Strube signed on with Victory Challenge - the duo canned their Olympic campaign the following year, with Strube going on to the US trials for Beijing as crew for Joe Londrigan, ultimately finishing ninth while John Dane and Austin Sperry got US Sailing ticket to Qingdao.

Now our dynamic duo are back on the Olympic circuit and are currently holding third place at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik astern of Robert Schiedt/Bruno Prada, who have moved into the lead today, but ahead of the likes of Freddie Loof, Flavio Marazzi, Hamish Pepper and Xavier Rohart.

“I’ve got most of my good results with Mark," says Mendelblatt of his burly partner and why they rekindled their partnership. They got back together prior to the Star Worlds last year when they came home a respectable seventh and came to Europe in April to compete at the Trofeo Princess Sofia in Palma where they also came seventh, one this occasion a more disappointing result given it was in a smaller less hotly contested fleet. However Mendelblatt says this was only their second regatta back in the class and they have the whole season to ramp up their game again.

To help the cause they have invested in a new boat - a Juan K-designed Mader believed to be similar to the one Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson took to gold in Qingdao last year.

Obviously the Marks have their aim as representing the US in the Star in Weymouth in 2012. To help get them there, they are planning on sailing the major regattas in the class in Europe this year including Delta Lloyd and the Europeans during Rolex Baltic Week in July and then the Worlds in Varberg, Sweden at the beginning of August, followed by the Worlds in Rio in 2010.

However the Star sailing has to fit in around Mendelblatt’s busy racing schedule around Europe, for not only is he once again sailing with fellow former Emirates Team New Zealander afterguarder Terry Hutchinson aboard last year’s Audi MedCup-winning TP52, Quantum Racing, but he is also part of the afterguard in the newly reformed Luna Rossa, racing on the STP65 with fellow Star sailors Andy Houghton and Robert Scheidt. And he of course raced with Luna Rossa at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Challenge in Auckland earlier in the year on the Version 5 boats where Peter Holmberg had the wheel.

Despite these commitments, the positive side of the America’s Cup being in turmoil is that it does allow them more time to go Star sailing. “It is up to them [Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison] when they have the next multi-challenge,” says Mendelblatt. “For us it allows us to concentrate more on the Star which is not necessarily such a bad thing. We are pretty easy about it. If they get something together it will be great.”

Mark Strube meanwhile holds down a ‘proper job’ working at Florida Rigging, back home in Riviera Beach, FL, where he is doing some Melges 24 racing aboard Peter Lane's Brickhouse with an eye on this year’s World Championship in Annapolis. He says that he may also get on a big boat there (are there any left?) but there is quite a lot of conflict between events in the US and Europe.

At present it is hard to tell who are the serious campaigners for the US Star slot for Weymouth. In addition to the Marks, doing the rounds in Europe this year are the equally potent duos of Andrew Campbell/Brad Nicol and Andrew MacDonald/Brian Faith, who after their fourth place at Hyeres, are currently having a shocker at Delta Lloyd following their mast breakage yesterday. Who will come to the Worlds remains to be seen (the entry list has yet to be finalised).

There was some talk in Star circles that John Dane, 58 at the time of the Olympics last year and who has a day job running superyacht manufacturer Trinity Yachts in Mississippi threw money at his Olympic berth with figures of US$ 1 million being mentioned as the price tag of his campaign. Mendelblatt refutes this: “Yes and no. He spent some money, but I attribute it to him being a really good sailor. I was there at the [selection] regatta and I watched what he did. He didn’t have any magic equipment, he just sailed better than the rest of us. So he deserved it. He’s been trying a long time and he got it done. He probably spent more money than most of us but he didn’t spend $1 million. He put some money into some developmental boats after the trials, but the boat he won in was a standard Foley and he used the same sort of sails as us.”

The problem for the Marks is likely to be finding time to put into their training regime with Mendelblatt mostly in Europe and Strube mostly in Florida. However both are seasoned campaigners, Strube into his 15th year as a Star crew and Mendelblatt growing in stature and experience as one of the racing world’s leading afterguards.

See the Marks video guided tour to their 2006 generation Star here