Snap

Disaster for Skandia team in first race of the Star Worlds reports Steve Mitchell

The first race of the Star World Championship was eventful and lively as a 20-22 knot southeast breeze kicked the chop up on the River Plate. The fleet got away first time and a right hand side favoured beat saw the Irish team of Treacy/Shanks lead at the end of the first two mile windward leg. Hot on their heels were 2003 World Champions Loof/Ekstrom (SWE) and America's Cup legend Iain Murray/Andrew Palfrey (AUS).

We had overstood slightly and rounded fourth in ideal conditions. The first reach proved tricky as boats that went high gained initially and the leading boats going low looked vulnerable. We were stuck underneath the Australians and the Swedes were stuck under us, with the leader of the high group, Heiner/Breuseker (NED) getting to second, just behind the Irish.

At the gybe mark, Murray, Loof, us and Reynolds/Trinter (USA) and Grael/Ferreira (BRA) all rounded abreast, and during the gybe our mast collapsed spectacularly. Once the dust had settled closer inspection revealed a broken lower shroud (D1), one of the thickest rods in the rigging, and a very unusual thing to break. Iain Percy commented “these were ideal conditions for us, ones that we revel in and a top 3 result would have been easily within our reach. We are gutted that such a freak failure has taken away our only discard for this series”.

Meanwhile the Brazilians were continuing their ascent up the fleet and on the next beat had moved into second behind Heiner, with Loof close behind, the Irish falling back into fourth. Loof and Grael picked off the Dutch on the run, when the wind had peaked at 22 knots, and these positions were the same at the finish. Grael taking the gun from a charging Loof, with Heiner and Treacy behind.

We have spent the evening rigging and stepping our spare mast, and getting a replacement sail measured in ready for tomorrow’s race where similar conditions are predicted.

Race 1 results:

Pos	Sail no	Skipper	Crew	R1	Tot
1	BRA 8210	Torben Grael	Marcelo Ferreira	1	1
2	SWE 8191	Fredrik Loof	Anders Ekstrom	2	2
3	NED 8170	Roy Heiner	Alex Breuseker	3	3
4	IRL 8158	Max Treacy	Anthony Shanks	4	4
5	FRA 7879	Philippe Presti	Jean-Phillipe Saliou	5	5
6	FRA 8107	Xavier Rohart	Pascal Rambeau	6	6
7	USA 8129	Mark Reynolds	Phil Trinter	7	7
8	AUS 7836	Iain Murray	Andrew Palfrey	8	8
9	USA 7995	George Szabo	Brian Fatih	9	9
10	BRA 8127	Robert Scheidt	Bruno Prada	10	10
11	IRL 8028	Maurice O´Connell	Ed Peel	11	11
12	ITA 8180	Francesco Bruni	Guido Antar Vigna	12	12
13	USA 8163	Eric Doyle	Brian Sharp	13	13
14	POR 8145	Afonso Domingos	Bernardo Santos	14	14
15	BRA 8046	Lars Grael	Marco Lagoa	15	15
16	ESP 7581	Roberto Bermudez	Manrique Domingo	16	16
17	ARG 7213	Julio Labandeira	Valentín Thompson	17	17
18	ITA 8031	Luca Modena	S. Lambertenghi	18	18
19	USA 8215	Larry Whipple	Mark Strube	19	19
20	ARG 8169	Alberto Zanetti	Mariano Lucca	20	20
21	ESP 8098	Guillermo Altadill	David Vera	21	21
22	ARG 8070	Juan Kouyoumdjian	J. Pablo Engelhard	22	22
23	IND 7901	M. Ramchandran	Nitin Mongia	23	23
24	USA 7986	Bill Allen	Brad Lichter	24	24
25	BRA 8117	A. Pascolato	Ronald Seifert	25	25
26	CAN 8143	Brian Cramer	Iain Greensmith	26	26
27	BRA 7871	Marcelo Fuchs	Fabio Kraiczyk	27	27
28	BRA 8109	Peter Ficker	Marcelo Jordao	28	28
29	ITA 8183	Antonio Tamburini	Albino Fravezzi	29	29
30	CAN 7899	Mike Milner	Matthew Johnston	30	30
31	ARG 7316	Marcelo Fuchs	Fabio Kraiczyk	31	31
32	ARG 7700	Eduardo Farre	Santiago Sharpin	32	32
33	BRA 7774	Andre Mirsky	M. A. Sá Ribeiro	33	33
34	ARG 7909	Jorge Perez	Enrique de la Torre	34	34
35	GER 8016	Hubert Rauch	Sergey Horetski	35	35
36	ITA 7237	Lucio Boggi	Andrea Tarabella	36	36
37	ARG 8008	Luis Bustelo	J. Gazari Barroso	37	37
38	USA 8122	Claude Bonanni	Richard Burgess	38	38
39	ARG 7736	Eduardo Soraide	Corrado Cristaldini	39	39
40	GER 7946	Herman Weiler	Steffen Rutz	40	40
41	JPN 7517	Tomoya Hotta	Takashi Hotta	41	41
53	USA 7650	Tomas Hornos	Hector Longarella	53	53
53	GBR 8144	Iain Percy	Steve Mitchell	53	53
53	ARG 7534	Pablo Gianelli	Jorge Caviglia	53	53
53	ARG 6926	Martín Costa	Federico Mera	53	53
53	ARG 6924	Alejandro Cherro	Ariel Simonet	53	53
53	SUI 7717	Peter Erzberger	Hans-Jurg Saner	53	53
53	ARG 5235	G.J. Calegari	Patricio Homps	53	53
53	CHI 7106	Vicente Gimeno	Jorge Zuazola	53	53
53	ARG 7907	Fabian Mac Gowan	Federico Calegar	53	53
53	ARG 7226	Guillermo Calegari	Nicolás Rosas	53	53
53	ARG 8211	J. José Percossi	J. Pablo Percossi	53	53

Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell sponsors

Thanks to all of our current sponsors who are continuing to support us to 2008.

Skandia – www.skandia.co.uk
Volvo Cars – www.volvocars.co.uk/sailing
Musto – Performance clothing – www.musto.co.uk
Payne Hicks Beach -Law – www.paynehicksbeach.co.uk
Marlow Ropes – www.marlowropes.com
Kaenon - Polarized Eyewear – www.kaenon.com
Harken – Yacht Fittings –www.harken.com
Pigbags – Custom harnesses, covers and bags – www.pigbags.com
North Sails One Design UK – www.northsailsod.co.uk
Emworx – Website design – www.emworx.com
Sparkes Yacht Harbour – www.sparkes.co.uk
David Heritage Racing Yachts – david.heritage@btconnect.com
Nick Harrison & Family
And of course the support of the RYA and UK Sport through the Lottery Funding System – www.uksport.gov.uk, www.rya.org.uk