What’s the most prestigious regatta to place in? The trophy top flight sailors around the world, professional or amateur, would actually put on their mantel? America’s Cup – no, no, no. Olympics – yeah. Volvo Ocean Race, that’s a pretty safe bet. Star Worlds? Yep, that’s the one.
Designed in 1911 but with one of the tweakiest rigs around, the Star demands technical knowledge/precision, tactical sophistication, strength, fitness, and some financial resources. And that’s just to sail it at a high level locally. The Worlds are a few turns of the turnbuckle up from there. Just to get one of these around the course is a challenge, and to compete at Worlds is a sailing milestone.
In finishing a strong third at the Star Worlds in Miami last week, Brian Ledbetter has joined an exclusive list of sailors to do that. He did it with East Coast crew Josh Revkin, with whom he’s been sailing in the rarified Star Sailors League pro series in Europe.
Ledbetter’s finishes of 5-20-2-2-7-9 were remarkably consistent given the depth of talent in the 72-boat fleet. Other Northwesterners racing included Derek DeCouteau (56th) and Larry Whipple (69th, having finished only one race) and Dave Branch and Kate Schalk (71st)
As great a finish as this is, Ledbetter (Sailing Director at Seattle Yacht Club and double Olympic Silver Medalist in the Finn) still has to win one of these to keep up with his father-in-law Bill and brother-in-law Carl, each of whom have a Star Worlds win to their credit. Hold that, Bill has three of those, plus three seconds and a four thirds.
Maybe there’s something in the air around here that creates great Star sailors?
If you’d like to see Stars in action, they race on Thursday night at Shilshole. An extremely active Budd Inlet group wet sails classic Stars in Olympia, and is very welcoming to folk who want to try one out.
If anyone has a correction, addition or comment for this post, please do so in the space below!!
Here’s the wrapup from the Worlds site:
The 2016 World Championship Victory was claimed by the US Team, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada. Silver for Diego Negri & Sergio Lambertenghi and Bronze for Brian Ledbetter & Joshua Revkin.
The final race of the Star Worlds 2016 was crucial as there were five contenders in the running and only one point between the first place, Diego Negri & Sergio Lambertenghi and second place, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada.
Light winds on Biscayne Bay delayed the start of the last day of races, but at 12.30pm, the wind climbed to 7 knots and the Race Committee completed the sixth race, as scheduled.
After four attempts the Race Officer ordered a black flag and the start was good except for ten star sailors that were over.
The battle began at the starting sequence when Augie Diaz and Diego Negro chased each other fighting for the control of the start line.
A pack of boats arrived at the windward mark with Paul Cayard leading. Brian Ledbetter was winning the regatta with a mid-fleet position because Augie and Diego where far behind in the sixties.
The day was a shifty one so concentration and patience were required for the entire race. The Race Committee had to call for a change course for several of the legs during the afternoon as the wind oscillated first to right and then to left in this position changing game.
On the third leg, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada did a great job reading the shifts recovering from a 60th to a 7th by the second windward mark.
From there, it was all about tactic as Diego was close behind them. The US Team pushed Diego and Sergio to the wrong side resulting in Diego finishing 7th and Augie finishing 5th.
The points were just enough for Augie and Bruno to be crowned Star World Champions.
Luke Lawrence & Ian Coleman won the last race of the Worlds with Paul Cayard close behind them.
Augie summed up the last race: “An incredible feeling!!! Not sure if I deserve it, but I take it. We did a great job the last race. Bruno did an outstanding job of coming back, time after time, after we have gain big advantages. In fact, in the middle of the last windward leg I thought that Diego was winning the worlds, because we had a big right shift and we went a very far right and he was right behind us and we won, he got second, so he would win the worlds. I just feel very fortunate, it’s a group of elite sailors that I really don’t know if I belong to but I am very very happy and I have to thank God, I have to thank Bruno Prada, my father for helping me so much for my sailing career and it’s a great feeling to be a World Champion.” And he affirms that Bruno Prada is a Gold Medal Maker.
For Bruno Prada this is the fourth World Championship Title after sailing with the Olympic Medallist, Robert Scheidt. He has been sailing with Augie for seven years and he feels that a dream came true: “One of my big achievements was winning a Worlds with Augie Diaz. To win a Star World Championship you have to be in a special week and definitely we were in this special week. We started doing good races, getting confident and for a reason that I cannot explain, some energy, everything that we do worked well. It’s a little bit of plan it but sometimes you plan it and it doesn’t work.”
Bringing together the world’s best athletes competing in the 2016 Star Class World Championship in Biscayne Bay showcased high-performance sailing at its best.
The 6 races staged over 6 days delivered a sensational World Championship. Event Chairman summed up, “We are 72 tries from 13 different countries, we had a wonderful opening ceremonies, with the flags being carry by Coral Reef youth sailors by the national anthem, 6 wonderful weather condition with one race each condition. I feel very proud of what we did, we did a true world championship and we had a very dedicated crew, a 42 people on the race committee every day, and it is a very sacrifice when you consider that it was so many consecutive days. We couldn’t have done it with the wonderful sponsors we had and the Race Committee that has worked for six month to prepare for this week.”
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.