With racing taking place in a balmy, near perfect 15 knots on Nassau's
Montagu Bay, the 'take no prisoners' shoot out on the last day of the
Star Sailors League Finalsaw the fleet narrow to seven teams after the
Quarter Finals and to four after the Semis. Finally this left the finals being contested by France's Xavier
Rohart/Pierre-Alexis Ponsot, Britain's Paul Goodison sailing with German
Frithjof Kleen, Brazil's Robert Scheidt/Henry Boening and the USA's
Mark Mendelblatt/Brian Fatih, the latter crew having 'fast tracked'
straight through after decisively winning the qualifiers yesterday.
In the final race, Mendelblatt/Fatih led off the line and all the boats
heading out to the left. Goodison/Kleen benefitted on the right and
coming into the weather mark just squeaked in ahead of the Americans.
At the second top mark rounding the Anglo-German duo looked marginally
more secure but with veins of breeze coming down the course, the outcome
was still far from decided.
On the final approach to the finish line, Scheidt/Boening closed,
rolling in with more pressure and on some good waves as Goodison/Kleen
looked slow. However at the very last moment Goodison/Kleen picked up
speed to win by a metre.
It was a suitable ending to this ultimate 'champion of champions'
regatta, where the winners gets to walk away with US$ 40,000 of a US$
200,000 total prize purse.
Goodison described the final seconds: "I was desperate to soak low to
come into towards the pin end [of the finish line] and Frida [Frithjof
Kleen] was going 'YOU'RE GOING TOO SLOW, YOU'RE GOING TOO SLOW - COME
UP!'. So there was a little panic. It was a little too close for
comfort." Kleen added: "It is always super hard to protect yourself from
Robert Scheidt because he is the best downwind sailor in the world and
he caught us up quite well…"
In fact the two time Moth World Champion and his burly Star veteran
crewman had become experts at photo finishes having had a similar
experience in the Semi-Finals.
On that occasion they were in a must-win battle against Germans Philipp
Buhl and Markus Koy: The winner progressing to the final, the loser
eliminated. Winning that particular race within a race had been
especially important for Kleen. "I was working hard to catch the Germans
in the Semi-Final! You could see the difference between us - we were
rolling more and that helped us," he observed.
Despite losing the final, Robert Scheidt said it had been a great race.
"A lot happened - position changes, tacking on each other, penalties -
and then we had a photo finish. We managed to do a good gybe on the
inside and we got a little bit more pressure so that when we converged, I
thought at one stage that we had got those guys. But in the end I
couldn't go low because I was blocked by the race committee boat. They
deserved it and for us to be part of that was really exciting."
It was interesting to note that three of the four finalists were former Laser sailorswho competed at Athens Olympics in 2004.
On that occasion Scheidt claimed gold, Goodison was fourth and
Mendleblatt seventh. Throughout the Qualifiers this week, Mendelblatt
and Fatih had been the stand-out crew but perhaps suffered from coming
into the Finals cold whereas the other teams had already warmed up in
the quarter finals and semis.
Goodison was delighted by the outcome: "I am over the moon - I didn't
expect this at all." Given today's slightly breezier conditions, the
smart money had been on the Star veterans, rather than a newbie to the
class like him. "This morning we had a look at the trophy and I saw
Bart's name on it [the late Andrew Simpson, who won Star Gold in Beijing
2008 as part of the British Olympic team with Goodison] and Frida
mentioned that the top crew got the Andrew Simpson Trophy. Somewhere up
there I am sure Bart was smiling on us and making us hike a little bit
harder. It is a great honour to race against these guys and I feel so
happy to have won and I feel so grateful to have had Frida who has been
my mentor, my pain in the ass, my everything for the last 10 days."
And what will he do with his share of the prize money? "Well, I have a
new Moth being built, but I think my family might get some better
Christmas presents this year!" concluded the two time Moth World
Champion, Laser Olympic gold medallist and now Star Sailors League
champion.
Tonight's celebration will continue at the Nassau Yacht Club with a Gala
Dinner, where Dennis Conner will hand out the prizes to the athletes -
who will be wearing their Star Sailors League official blazers, kindly
supplied by Think Pink.
The 6th edition of the Star Sailors League Finals will take place once
again in Nassau, the Bahamas, from December 3rd to 8th 2018.
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