2022 Star Class World Championship

View the recap of the 2022 Star World Championships with photos from event photographer, Matias Capizzano.

A solid third place in the final race from Italy’s Diego Negri/Sergio Lambertenghi was more than enough to reward them with gold at the 2022 Star Worlds.
 
For Negri, winning the 100^th Anniversary Championship marks a successful defense of his 2021 Worlds title, while Lambertenghi debuts his hands on the trophy. A return to light shifty conditions for the final day was the perfect conclusion for Negri/Lambertenghi.
 
“It was really a tough Championship,” said Negri, “and today, these tricky conditions for the last race. It was not easy, waking up at 0600 to be ready for the regatta. I knew that in these conditions we are the best in the world,” continued Negri on this morning’s race expectation.

Patience aplenty has been the pattern at the 100^th Anniversary Star Worlds, as every day has featured postponements, general recalls and unpredictable conditions. Friday’s race 5 was no different, with a postponement and general recall, followed by a black flag start to put the eighty-four boat fleet in restrained mode for the start of the 10.3 nm race.
 
Race 5, the penultimate battle of the 2022 Star Worlds, saw the 12 knot breeze easing and scoreboard pressure rising, as teams eyed each other at the start, hoping they had each chosen the optimum end. The left side of the course seemed clearly favoured, but the wind turned what seemed an unequivocal advantage on its head, as it shifted to the right.

Strong winds kept the Star fleet postponed ashore, before easing enough to get race 4 underway at 1509 hours in 18 knots with some gusts up to 25 knots.
 
Hiking hard and sailing fast gave Luke Lawrence/Andrew Macrae (USA) race glory, with Paul Cayard (USA)/Frithjof Kleen (GER) coming in behind and third to Eric Doyle/Payson Infelise (USA). A 4^th place was enough to maintain the overall lead for Diego Negri/Sergio Lambertenghi (ITA).

Wednesday day dawned sunny and breezy at the 100^th Anniversary Star Worlds, in a perfect change of fortunes after Tuesday’s fog, rain and lack of wind forced racing to be cancelled.
 
Italy’s Diego Negri/Sergio Lambertenghi retain pole position after a solid 5^th place score, whilst the race win to George Szabo/Guy Avellon (USA) rockets them eight places up the leader board to 7^th overall in the eighty-four boat fleet.
 
Watched by a flotilla of spectator boats, the racetrack served up classic Star Class conditions, with a 12-knot offshore breeze and chop greeting teams as they took on the 2.2nm windward leg on the first of 5 laps of the 10.8nm windward/leeward upwind finish course format. After two general recalls, not the best of starts for the five teams who struggled with the shifts off the start to earn a BFD penalty.

An impressive run of form gave the race 2 win to Jørgen Schönherr (DEN) and Markus Koy (GER) who controlled the fleet from start to finish and end the day in 4^th overall.
 
Headlining the leader board though are Italy’s Diego Negri/Sergio Lambertenghi, who now count two second places, to lead over Paul Cayard (USA)/Frithjof Kleen (GER), with Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic/Tudor Bilic in third.
 
A postponed start, followed by a general recall saw racing get underway at 1409 hours. The 6-knot breeze remained steady with a short chop, significant current, super close racing and some supreme performances throughout the 8 nm race. A frustrating day though for the five teams who gave themselves a points mountain to climb after adding a UFD penalty to their scorecards.