2019 Star Class World Championship

Porto Cervo, June 17th, 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, is organized by the YCCS in collaboration with the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association (ISCRYA) and the support of Main Partner Audi and Technical Partners Quantum Sails and Garmin Marine.
 
This morning at 12.00 sharp the 63 competing teams from 20 different nations were at the start, ready to race in the waters off Porto Cervo. Just as the Starting Procedures were getting underway 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.

Porto Cervo, Italy. 16 June 2019. At the conclusion of a week of inspections and registrations, racing in the 97th edition of the Star World Championship will begin tomorrow, Monday 17 June. The event was last held in Porto Cervo exactly thirty years ago. Organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association (ISCRYA), the regatta is supported by Main Partner Audi and Technical Partners Quantum Sails and Garmin Marine.
 
Taking centre stage will be a fleet of 65 teams hailing from 20 nations, including healthy contingents from Italy, the USA, Switzerland and Germany. The double-handed crews will compete in fleet regattas on the race course off Porto Cervo aboard the timeless keelboats designed in 1911 by Francis Sweisguth, a popular Olympic class up until London 2012. In order for the World Championship to be valid at least six races will need to be complete, with a single round the buoys race scheduled each day, covering a total distance of approximately 10 nautical miles. Should weather conditions prevent the smooth running of all races, a maximum of two races can be held per day to recover any cancelled racing, and competition can also be extended to 24 and 25 June.

65 teams will be on the 2019 Star World Championship start line in just a couple of days, on Monday, June the 17^th. Six races will determine who will lift the almost 100 years old trophy next Saturday. Everything is ready in Porto Cervo at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, one of the most renowned club in the World, home of Azzurra, the first ever Italian America’s Cup syndicate back in 1983.

The beautiful rocky coast will offer a spectacular background to the fleet and the wind will provide challenging conditions for the 130 sailors coming from 20 countries. A rich social schedule will begin with a cocktail after the Opening Ceremony, a BBQ dinner by the club’s swimming pool on Thursday, a closing party on Saturday and after sail refreshments everyday.

The Star World Championship is always a time of great action, fatigue and adrenaline on the water and good times, friendship and memories ashore. The 2019 Star World Championship will return, after exactly 30 years, in Porto Cervo, in the North East Shores of Sardinia, a magical Italian island, in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its deep green water got it the name of Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast) and history says that when the Prince Aga Khan visited the area back in the sixties, he fell in love with it and saw the potential of such beautiful and wild region. The rose rocks, forest green bushes, the bright light and the long June days ending with endless sunsets; the scent of the Mediterranean scrub, so intense, fresh and so typical: it’s the smell of freedom as this is an untamable land, made of untamable people.