Photos: Marc Rouiller / Star Worlds 2013

Lars Grael claims opening race

Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship sets sail in San Diego

Sunday September 1st 2013, Author: James Boyd, Location: United States

Sailors faced tough conditions and high competition at Day 1 of the Star Worlds. Star sailors Lars Grael, John MacCausland, and Andrew Campbell battle to win the first race of the Qualcomm 2013 Star World Championship today.

The race course offered conditions typical of San Diego with the wind at 8-10 knots from the WNW and 3ft waves. The Race Committee set a Course 3 with 2.1 mile long legs and fired the first signal on time at 1230 local.

With five seconds left to the start, the Race Committee postponed the race to avoid a general recall as well as make some course and starting line adjustments. Shortly thereafter, the windward mark bearing was changed to 285° the second starting sequence began.

Second start had an individual recall and four boats were called OCS: USA 7294 Charles and Chas Beek, USA 8260 Bill Buchan and Erik Bentzen, USA 8306 Thomas Springer and Dave Wood, and USA 8361 Tom Londrigan Jr. and Rick Peters.

USA 8361 Tom Londrigan Jr. and Rick Peters filed for and were denied a redress by the Race Committee to have their OCS score changed.

Although the start was the key factor in sailing a successful race, competitors had to fight for a good position on the first upwind leg. The majority of the fleet sailed to the right side of the course and reached the windward mark without much separation.

Americans Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel were the first to round the first mark, followed closely by Andrew Campbell and John von Schwarz. The fleet saw several position changes throughout the first downwind leg, then the top boats began to sail away from the rest of the fleet. Brazilians Lars Grael and Samuel F. Goncalves were able to take the lead from Andrew Campbell in the second downwind leg after Campbell was penalized by the judges for violating Rule 42, and maintain their position all the way to the finish.

Winner Lars Grael commented: “We started in the middle of the starting line and we were looking to cross the fleet as soon as we had the chance. We were in a good position, but teams in the corner on the right came off a bit better. We rounded the first mark in 4th place, managed to finish the first downwind leg in 2nd. Then we were in a good fight with Andrew Campbell, but it was a pity he was penalized (rule 42) and we got the lead.

"In the last upwind leg we protected the right, so we decided not to cover him just do our best and it was good enough.

"Our plan is to be top ten. We know it is very difficult to be top five in each race. The fleet is very even, we have a lot of gold star winners. The level is very high. We have to make a good average and not make too many mistakes to be in the top 10. That is our goal.”

 

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Results

 

Pos Nat Sail# / Skipper Crew R1 Total
1 BRA 8474 Lars Schmidt Grael Samuel F. Goncalves 1 1
2 USA 8490 John MacCausland Phil Trinter 2 2
3 USA 8209 Andrew Campbell John von Schwarz 3 3
4 USA 8362 Vincent Brun Brian Terhaar 4 4
5 USA 8440 Jim Buckingham Austin Sperry 5 5
6 FRA 8237 Xavier Rohart Serge Pulfer 6 6
7 USA 8320 George Szabo Craig Moss 7 7
8 USA 8129 Mark Reynolds Hal Haenel 8 8
9 USA 8203 Brian Ledbetter Gregg Morton 9 9
10 USA 8323 Eric Doyle Payson Infelise 10 10
11 USA 8023 Mike Dorgan Matt Dorgan 11 11
12 USA 8448 Carl Buchan Jamie Buchan 12 12
13 USA 8465 Augie Diaz Arnis Baltins 13 13
14 USA 8072 Doug Smith Myles H. A. Prichard 14 14
15 CAN 8028 Steven Fleckenstein Rob Mulder 15 15
16 BRA 8390 Alessandro Pascolato Henry Raul Boening 16 16
17 ARG 8268 Alejandro Bugacov Eugenio Cingolani 17 17
18 SUI 8479 Jean-Pascal Chatagny Patrick Ducommun 18 18
19 USA 8082 Ben Mitchell Julian Busch 19 19
20 GER 8331 Hubert Merkelbach Gerrit Bartel 20 20
21 CAN 8271 Allan Cullen Dave Martin 21 21
22 CAN 8143 Brian Cramer Cam Lymburner 22 22
23 USA 8015 Donny Massey Isao Toyama 23 23
24 USA 8291 William Swigart Brian Fatih 24 24
25 USA 7209 Mark Butler John Rudderham 25 25
26 USA 8484 Larry Whipple Mark Strube 26 26
27 USA 7620 Derek De Couteau Jamie Stewart 27 27
28 SUI 7929 Michel Niklaus Tyler Bjorn 28 28
29 USA 8229 Tomas Hornos Josh Revkin 29 29
30 USA 8000 Arthur Anosov David Caesar 30 30
31 CAN 8235 Mark Passmore Chris Rogers 31 31
32 CAN 8466 Stuart Hebb Mike Wolfs 32 32
33 CAN 8389 Jerry Wendt Bryan Milne 33 33
34 USA 7741 Benjamin Sternberg Valentin Veytsman 34 34
35 BRA 8459 Admar Gonzaga Neto Andre Serpa 35 35
36 UKR 8247 Vasyl Gureyev Vitalii Kushnir 36 36
37 USA 7985 Steve Brown Erick Lange 37 37
38 SWE 7978 Ingvar J-son Krook Benjamin Pettersen 38 38
39 USA 6840 Chris Wright Kyle Henehan 39 39
40 SUI 8409 Christoph Gautschi Dominik Schenk 40 40
41 USA 8088 Stephen Gould Greg Sieck 41 41
42 USA 7621 Peter Costa Jessica Costa 42 42
43 FRA 7663 Guillaume Rasse Nina Aviles 43 43
44 USA 8379 Bill Allen Eric Beckwith 44 44
45 USA 8189 Robbie Haines Chris Barnard 45 45
46 CAN 8017 Bruce Long Paul Cobban 46 46
47 USA 8215 John Chiarella Bob Carlson 47 47
48 USA 7425 Laura Beigel Read Beigel 48 48
49 USA 8410 Mike Phinney Rick Burgess 49 49
50 USA 8163 Jon Pelliconi Henry Brawner 50 50
51 USA 8065 Doug Steele Andy Dippel 51 51
52 BRA 8403 Frederico H. V. de Lima Renato Moura 52 52
53 USA 8087 Keith Donald Kevin Elterman 53 53
54 USA 7844 Foss Miller Malcolm Macneil 54 54
55 USA 8187 Robert A Teitge Sam Eadie 55 55
56 VIE 8176 Huy Nguyen Andro Korlaet 56 56
57 USA 8269 Jock Kohlhas John Wulff 57 57
58 USA 7531 William Gerard Bill Gerard 58 58
59 USA 8267 Stephen Gunther Chris Wurtz 59 59
60 USA 8162 Chuck Driscoll Jim Oberg 60 60
61 GER 8416 Hubert Rauch Kilian Weise 61 61
62 USA 7977 Paul Kresge Jon Kidder 62 62
63 USA 7294 Charles Beek Chas Beek 67 ocs 67
64 USA 8260 Bill Buchan Erik Bentzen 67 ocs 67
65 USA 8306 Thomas Springer David Wood 67 ocs 67
66 USA 8361 Tom Londrigan, Jr. Rick Peters 67 ocs 67
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