Tight at top of Star Junior Worlds

Miami, FL (February 5, 2019) – After light winds limited racing on the opening day of the inaugural Star Junior World Championship, winds up to 10-12 knots today allowed for three races on Biscayne Bay. With the Championship back on schedule, Charlie Buckingham and Austin Sperry lead on countback after being tied with Tomas Hornos and Pedro Trouche (USA).

“The breeze was better today,” said Buckingham. “Our speed was good both up and downwind and we managed to be consistent. I’d love to race the Star more often, I tried to do that when I am not training or racing the Laser, any regatta that I can do, I do it. Now we’re focused on being consistent and fast again tomorrow for the last two races.”

Sperry has a duel role as he is not here as just a crew but also one of the organizers behind the event. “It’s nice to be the provisional leaders but the best is coming back ashore and seeing the Aussie guy Jake Lilley with a big smile saying he’s going to get himself a Star and he’s going to stay here and sail at the Mid-Winters this weekend. To me that’s the win!”

The day kicked off with a clean start at 11:20 with the wind blowing from East at about 7 knots. Hornos and Trouche were leading at the first windward mark through to the finish. A bit trickier was the start of race 3 – the second for today – as it took three general recalls before the Race Committee was able to see the fleet advance on the first of four legs.

Joshua Revkin / Arthur Anosov (USA) were able to get a good start and control their lead over the Mexican skipper Juan Ignacio Perez and his crew Mark Strube until the end. At the start of race four, the wind had picked up to 12 knots and the seas a bit choppy and American Olympic Laser sailor Charlie Buckingham with experienced crew Austin Sperry were able to be quite fast both upwind and downwind getting the victory over Australian newbie to the Star Jake Lilley and Lewis Brake, fifth overall.

“We caught a shift right after the start,” said Hornos, winner of race 2. “Our speed was really good, we just played out in front and we covered the fleet after that making it look easy, but it wasn’t easy. We are really happy, we needed that!”

“It took me a little while to get back into things, but it feels good,” said Revkin, winner of race 3 who normally crews for Eivind Melleby (NOR). “Our speed is up to pace, I had a bad start in the second race and it took a lot of effort to get back into it, but the third race we got off the line and cruised to a pretty easy first place. We had a great time, it’s the perfect conditions you can have in Miami and hopefully tomorrow there’s more of the same.”

The conditions tomorrow for the final day look to be the same as today with the first start confirmed at 12pm, two races scheduled with no warning sequence starting after 2pm.

Day Two Results (Top 10 of 36; 4 races)
1. Charlie Buckingham / Austin Sperry , USA – 8 -5 -6 -1 ; 20
2. Tomas Hornos / Pedro Trouche , USA – 7 -1 -7 -5 ; 20
3. Luke Lawrence / Alexey Selivanov , USA – 1 -2 -12 -8 ; 23
4. Juan Ignacio Perez / Mark Strube , MEX – 6 -13 -2 -10 ; 31
5. Jake Lilley / Lewis Brake , AUS – 11 -8 -14 -2 ; 35
6. Robert O’Leary / Peter O’Leary , IRL – 3 -4 -16 -12 ; 35
7. Nick Pellicano Grael / Samuel Goncalves , BRA – 5 -24 -4 -6 ; 39
8. Facundo Olezza / Frederico Melo , BAH – 4 -16 -5 -16 ; 41
9. Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini / Brian Fatih , GBR – 17 -9 -3 -15 ; 44
10. Leandro Altolaguirre / Lucas Altolaguirre , ARG – 16 -3 -17 -11 ; 47

Rules limit skipper’s age to 30 and under but do not limit the crew’s age. Racing is planned for February 4 to 6.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Rachele Vitello