A Pressure Cooker for Sailors and Committee Alike

A Pressure Cooker for Sailors and Committee Alike

By Lynn Fitzpatrick of World Regattas

Varberg, Sweden (August 6, 2009) - H.P. Hylander was under more pressure today than each of the six teams that have a shot at winning the 2009 Star World Championship.  There were zephyrs on the water in the morning when the Star fleet left the harbor and they danced around for hours.  

Hylander, the PRO and Regatta Chairman, stood on the Race Committee boat with a Bluetooth phone in his ear, a radio in his hand, binoculars and a hockey puck draped around his neck.  He had lots of helpers aboard the RC boat and wind scouts two miles to the south and to the west; the logical directions from which the wind would fill.

Sailors began to shed their neoprene as they baked in the hot Swedish sun.

Occasionally, Hylander's dialogue with his local weather scouts was broken up by calls to meteorologists.

Powerboats cut their engines and drifted.

Sailors took turns snoozing.  No cloud formations took shape on any horizon.

When there was wind enough in the starting areas for the Stars to move, Hylander would hail the weather mark boat.  Nothing.

Sailors started to hedge their bets and drift toward the Varberg shoreline.

Nothing.

One by one sails were taken down and rolled on decks.

Nothing.

Finally at 1600 the sailors were sent home for the day.

Said Exalted Grand Master, Pelle Petterson, when the racing was cancelled for the day, "This is wonderful.  I get to sail a Star for another day."

A prize giving dinner is scheduled for 18:30 this evening and the final race of the 2009 Star World Championship will be sailed on Saturday or Sunday, whenever Hylander is satisfied that the 86-boat fleet can sail a fair race.

Stanjek & Koy Win Race 5, Kiwis Lead Regatta

By Lynn Fitzpatrick of World Regattas

Varberg, Sweden (August 6, 2009) - 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.

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