2021 Star North American Championship in Newport Beach, California - Preview
by Star Class 18 Aug 2021 16:06 BST
18-21 August 2021
Star North American Championship © ISCYRA
A successful season for the International Star Class in 2021 continues this week with the North American Championship in Newport Beach, California, after two strong championships in Split, Croatia, for the Europeans and in Miami for the Western Hemisphere in the spring.
30 teams, 100% made in USA will be on the starting line tomorrow at 12:30pm local time for the first two races of the event. The level of competition is sky high with six Star world champions in the fleet, four at the helm and two as crew.
One of the crew is world renowned skipper Paul Cayard acting as crew in California to sail with his son Daniel, a third generation Star sailor as his grandfather is 1969 Star World Champion and 1964 Olympic Bronze Medalist Pelle Petterson (SWE).
The other crew is none other than Bruno Prada (BRA), winner of five Star World Championships, three with stellar skipper Robert Scheidt, one at the last sailed event in Porto Cervo in 2019 with Mateusz Kusznierewicz (POL) and one with Augie Diaz (USA), his skipper this week and defender of the North American title.
The other world champions are Eric Doyle, John McCausland and George Szabo, sailing in Newport Beach respectively with Payson Infelise, Brian Terhaar and Guy Avellon.
Bruno Prada is also a double Olympic medalist, and he is not the only one in the fleet. Finn Bronze medalist in Rio 2016, Caleb Paine (USA), will crew for Doug Smith.
The winners of the Baxter Bowl Reggata, warm-up event organized by Newport Harbour Yacht Club, Carl and Jamie Buchan will race as favorite this week. 24 of the 30 teams competing at the North Americans raced in the Baxter Bowl last weekend. Augie Diaz and Bruno Prada finished second and San Diego skipper George Szabo with Guy Avellon, were third.
Racing starts tomorrow, August 18th with a 12,30 warning. Two races per day are scheduled every day until Saturday, when the winners of the 2021 North American Championship will succeed to Augie Diaz and Henry Boening (BRA), title holders since the last edition in 2019.
Event website: 2021na.starchampionships.org
Entries: 2021na.starchampionships.org/entry/entry-list
Results: yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=14337