Final race decides Star World Title
Published on September 13th, 2024
John Kostecki and Austin Sperry (USA) won the 2024 Star World Championship, topping the 64-boat field on September 8-13 in San Diego, CA. Hosted by San Diego Yacht Club, the pair recently returned to the Class to claim their first Star World title.
The event format has a very deliberate pace toward the finale, with one lengthy race each day which allows the cream to rise in the weather conditions for that day. It would be that march which had six teams within reach of the title, separated by five points with one race remaining.
In a case of “it’s never like this,” the fleet endured the first two days as a heatwave prompted competing winds with significant velocity variations, but a cooling trend for the last four days provided classic San Diego conditions of steady moderate weather.
“It was a challenge all week between the different wind directions, the current, and the eagerness of the fleet at the starts,” noted PRO Tom Duggan. “We had to stay south of Point Loma to have steadier breeze and not too far out to avoid the strong coastal current.”
The title was open until the end of the final 2-mile downwind stretch. With Kostecki/ Sperry leading at the final upwind mark, title contenders Leandro and Lucas Altolaguirre (ARG) – known for the offwind speed – moved from third to first at the finish, with Kostecki/ Sperry dropping to third but winning by one point.
“We sailed a great race today, we needed to,” shared Kostecki. “We had a great start, went fast, we had some luck with the wind shifts, and it all just came together, which is what you need to win a World Championship.”
Up until the final race, each race had been won by the Cayard family, with Paul Cayard and Frithjof Kleen winning three and Will Stout and Paul’s son Danny winning two. But only Stout/ Cayard could get closest in the finale, finishing fourth to claim second overall.
“It was a great way to end this championship really, open until the last leg,” said Danny Cayard, third generation Star sailor after his dad and grandfather Pelle Petterson.
“It was close down until the end but we were just a little short,” added Stout. “We are happy with our result, Danny and I have only sailed together for a short amount of time and so it was good for us personally and I am looking forward to the next one together.”
For Paul Cayard, the overall leader through the first four days, a final day seventh dropped him to fourth overall.
“It is disappointing to win three races and not the World Championship, in Race Two and Race Five I made some mistakes, just big mistakes and finishing more than tenth, you kind of need to stay in the top ten,” he observed.
“We were so close to accomplishing the goal, after race four we were really in a strong spot and so it hurts, it’s hard to think beyond that right now but we’re a good team, we sailed well, we have a fast boat and I’m sure after a few weeks we’ll digest this and we will look forward to another shot at this.”
Event information – Results – Facebook
Final Results (Top 10 of 64; 6 races, 1 discard)
1. USA John Kostecki/ Austin Sperry, 3-(11)-3-6-3-3, 18
2. USA Will Stout/ Daniel Cayard, 7-1-6-(19)-1-4, 19
3. ARG Leandro Altolaguirre/ Lucas Altolaguirre, 2-(21)-11-3-2-1, 19
4. USA Paul Cayard/ Frithjof Kleen, 1-15-1-(17)-7, 25
5. USA George Szabo/ Guy Avellon, 5-6-5-(11)-4-8, 28
6. DEN Jørgen Schönherr/ Jan Eli Gravad, 12-5-2-7-5-(16), 31
7. USA Augie Diaz/ Bruno Prada, 16-4-7-(21)-6-9, 42
8, USA Brian Ledbetter/ Brian Terhaar, 11-7-4-(16)-8-14, 44
9. USA Eric Doyle/ Payson Infelise, 4-2-(65 dnf )-26-11-5, 48
10. USA Ben Mitchell/ Rob Scrivenor, (22)-9-16-2-22-10, 59
Source: SDYC, Scuttlebutt