Italy leads as Star Worlds gets underway

Porto Cervo, Italy (June 17, 2019) – The Star Class World Championship is off to a good start with today’s race run as scheduled despite light breeze. The Championship, which has returned to Porto Cervo after thirty years, has 63 competing teams from 20 different nations.

Just as the Starting Procedures were getting underway as scheduled a wind shift forced the Race Committee to hoist the AP flag and wait for the breeze to settle. After about an hour a northerly breeze from 7 to 9 knots kicked in and the Star fleet could begin their World Championship. The course was changed along the final leg when the breeze shifted to the northeast and dropped to 4-5 knots.

At the end of the day there are two Italian teams in the lead followed by a Spanish team.

Enrico Chieffi, the Star Class World Champion in 1996, and his crew Manlio Corsi (above) captured the lead right from the start, rounding the first mark in first place and lengthening their lead right to the finish. The second placed team today is also Italian and sees Diego Negri – silver medallist at the 2016 Star European Championship – with Sergio Lambertenghi aboard.

Thanks to a recovery along the last leg of today’s race they finished ahead of the Spanish team with Roberto ‘Chuny’ Bermudez De Castro and Miguel Fernandez Castro aboard. Chuny is an oceanic sailor who has won the Volvo Ocean Race and sailed for Spain in the Star Class at the Athens 2004 Olympics.

“We couldn’t have gotten this World Championship off to a better start, maybe we should quit while we’re ahead and go home,” Chieffi joked. “It was a great race, very technical and hard, especially towards the end, but luckily the breeze held right to the finish. The last time I participated in a Star Class World Championship was in 1996 in Rio de Janeiro where I won it, I’m very happy to be here competing again. Who knows how the next few days will go.”

Tomorrow the first Warning Signal is scheduled for 12 noon with a forecast calling for westerly breeze at 7 to 10 knots. Six races are planned from June 17 to 22.

Day One Results (Top 10 of 63; 1 race)
1. ITA Enrico Chieffi/ Manlio Corsi
2. ITA Diego Negri/ Sergio Lambertenghi
3. ESP Roberto Bermudez De Castro/ Miguel Fernandez Vasco
4. NOR Elvind Melleby/ Joshua Revkin
5. NED Thomas Allart/ Kilian Weise
6. POL Mateusz Kuszinierewicz/ Bruno Prada
7. SWE Tom Loefstedt/ Anders Ekstrom
8. USA Doug Smith/ Brian O’Mahony
9. GER Hubert Merkelbach/ Maarkus Koy
10. USA Augie Diaz/ Henry Boenning

Event details – Results – Tracking – Facebook

Source: YCCS