the death of his Star crew and best friend Andrew Simpson. He is still a great fan of the boat – luckily, as he owns three… ‘I think the Star epitomises everything that is good in sailing. The fact that the Star Sailors League is in the Star is important because it is such a levelling boat.
does substantially more than having a large derriere and hiking. Newbie Star sailors must rely on their crews to make up for their knowledge deficit.
Goodison describes the value of his crew, Frithjof Kleen: ‘Star sailors for sure have a big advantage. They know the boat a lot better and are very hard to beat. I am very fortunate that I have a very good crew who has been to the Games and who knows the boat very well. Frida has a good feel for the numbers, which makes a big difference. Good helms do a lot from the back, but beginners like me have to rely on the crew: if I feel a bit helmed up he decides how much we drop the rake back. You give him input and then he makes the decisions about the rig.’ With the hiking and technical aspects of the former Olympic keelboat in the hands of the crew, Goodison says helming the Star is very much like other boats to which he’s more used. ‘Downwind it is very much like sailing a Laser was in the old days, just the rocking and steering. I am simply not quite as strong as some of the big guys like Xavier Rohart, who is 110kg and can pump harder than a 79kg little guy like me, who doesn’t have the training.’
In fact, Goodison’s victory in Nassau was the first occasion the finals were won by someone other than one of the class’s many
With each edition of the SLL the range of talent and background widens as a carefully developed plan to identify a true ‘Sailing Champion of the World’ evolves. Past Star World Champion Paul Cayard is seen (above)
competing in Nassau with Phil Trinter, while ocean racing ‘god’ Franck
Cammas (top) has been neatly paired up with the hugely
experienced Star frontman Mark Strube
Olympic legends. Torben Grael explained why: ‘Star sailors do have some advantage but it would be very different if the class was still Olympic, because then the level would be much higher. But as people are sailing at a different level now it is not so difficult to get up to speed and race well.’ Ben Saxton was new to the Star, having come from representing Britain at Rio 2016 in the Nacra 16 in which he is current world champion. He was sailing with experienced Star crew Steve Mitchell. Of the challenges sailing the Star the 27-year-old flying Nacra sailor explains: ‘Boat handling was hardest. The most surprising thing was how to get the mainsail in at the leeward mark, because there was so much mainsheet, and how to gybe – again manoeuvring the main because it was so loaded. Upwind the boat was fantastic, because it was so tweaky. It gave you so much feedback that after a day or so we were almost up to pace. We were excited to be up with absolute heroes of the sport.’
Yes, there are a number of more modern two-man keelboats. Some even have a spinnaker. But even though the Star is no longer Olympic it remains a prolific international class with a formidable fan base that includes a lot of the world’s yacht racing elite. Experienced crews can eliminate all-up weight differences plus any disparity in technical understanding of the set-up, the ultimate tweakable rig, the unique sailing techniques and handling quirks of a boat with such a dramatic chine – leaving the helm free to have all the right qualities tested. At the Bacardi Cup this spring Iain Percy stepped back into the Star for the first time since London 2012 and for the first time since
‘It tests you in so many different ways. It hits all of the aspects of the sport that I find interesting. It is a hard boat to sail – you have to be fit and strong and work hard. The technique of steering is huge and the tactics of the racing are so close because everyone can be fast. It is such a complex boat it engrosses your brain and really pulls you in to the extent that sometimes the new guy can come along and win first time – as we saw with Paul and Frithjof in the finals. It has really caught the imagination of the top sailors. It is the one boat that can bring “the stars of our sport” together, which is important. The Star Sailors League has been a breath of fresh air in sailing.’
Getting Paul Goodison up to speed – Frithjof Kleen
As a crew if you sail with a VIP you have to make sure that the boat is always set up very well and he just has to helm and trim the main. He has the feel and can communicate if there is too much load or not enough load and then you can power it up or depower it. If you sail with your normal helm as a crew you are more laidback with the trimming and tuning and normally that is the helmsman’s job. Here it is the other way around. On Lake Garda we prepared with the manoeuvres so we were sure they were OK. Then it was just coming here and getting the boat set up.
Big shock to the system… Nacra 17 to ‘ancient’ Star boat? – Ben Saxton
The Star was completely different from my Nacra 17… pretty obvious really! But I loved it and I thrive on the challenge of sailing something new because I had never set foot on a Star until I was in the Bahamas. After the last race, when we were sailing in Steve [Mitchell] was saying, ‘This is your one-week anniversary in a Star.’ That made me smile because it felt like we had come a long way. I tried to approach it as learning fast. I definitely had a good coach and crew in Steve. It was just amazing. I approached it with the belief that we could do well but the awareness that we could be lacking in certain areas.
www.starsailors.com
q SEAHORSE 71
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