Negri takes an early lead

Four races held on the opening day of the Star Sailors League Finals in Nassau

Sunshine, 12-15 knots of perfect breeze allowed four race to be put on on the opening day of the Star Sailors League Finals in Nassau, Bahama. 

Italy's Diego Negri with Sergio Lambertenghi were the undisputed leaders of the first two races, while Brazilian Olympic medallists, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, claimed a great win in race three. The Swiss Marazzi brothers tasted the success in the day's nail-biting, fourth race that was marked by a five boat photo finish.

In the opening race Scheidt and Prada went into a great start battle with Paul Cayard and Austin Sperry, but the Italians took a clear lead just some minutes later. At the first top mark there were not many surprises in the rounding order: Negri, Mendelblatt, Scheidt, Kusznierewicz, Melleby, Rohart, Cayard, Marazzi, Polgar, Szabo. But the last upwind mark highlighted the debut of Tomas Hornos and Joshua Revkin, rookie of the year in the Star Sailors League Ranking, in the top ten of the fleet. The victory in race 1 was taken by Diego Negri, followed by Scheidt and Melleby.

Negri had another great start in race 2 and the majority of the fleet headed to the left of the race course, the favoured side throughout the entire day. But the first leg will be mostly remembered for American Hornos leading the fleet followed by his compatriot Mendelblatt while fighting with Polgar, Rohart. The first mark was very crowded as the top 12 rounded within a few seconds. At that point Rohart and Stanjek where in front, but before the second mark they were passed again by Negri. At the third mark Rohart and Stajek handed the lead to Negri and Mendeblatt came second.

The Swiss Marazzi brothers won the start of race 3, but Stanjek showed his strength again when rounding the weather mark in the dominating position. Leg 2 and 3 appeared to be following a similar pattern until Scheidt changed his pace and pulled into a comfortable lead.

Competitors were very surprised to see such an exciting and aggressive fourth race of the day. Dutch Finn medallist Pieter-Jan Postma surprised the Star veterans, but holding the lead of the fleet - a fine performance for this Star sailing newcomer. But the highlight of the last race was the thrilling finish when five boats approached the line overlapped, crossing it within two seconds each other.

This is only the beginning of the Star Sailors League Finals, but is already a proof of the high level of competition that comes from merging Star legends with the champions from the Finn and Laser.

Robert Scheidt: "We are happy with how things went today. I made some mistakes after the start in the second and fourth race but we managed to climb back. We had a good downwind speed that gave us the chance to come back to the race. I'm pretty happy with that: four races in the top five. We're very tired but I'm so happy. We're improving hour by hour. "

Mark Mendelblatt: "Nice to be in the front. The goal is to make the top ten after nine races. We feel good out there: good speed upwind, downwind was a little though getting used to the new rules, where you can do whatever you want. We improved on the day, I think. We are pretty happy. My key for the performance today was probably the upwind speed. We are going well upwind. In the time we had a bad start I was able to get out and we had a couple of good shifts. So we were able to get right back in the race. So the upwind was our strength today. In our very bad start we couldn't make the pins so I had to bear away, we basically dipped all the fleet. Luckily it was during a left shift when we did that. When we came out we sailed for a while and then we got the right shift and when we tacked we were in the front. So we got lucky. That was the trick."

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