NAUTICA 2002 STAR CLASS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
California Yacht Club/Aug. 18-23
*** Results, photos, video and more at http://www.starworlds2002.com
***
Aug. 18, 2002 For Immediate Release
SZABO WINS NAIL-BITING OPENER AS CELEBRITIES SUFFER
Sunday's weather: Winds 4 knots building to 9, southwest
and shifty.
Monday's forecast: 10 knots, southwest.
 |
| The fleet of 105
boats starts the first race of the Nautica 2002 Star Worlds. |
MARINA DEL REY, Calif.---George Szabo
and crew Austin Sperry solved the weather riddles of Santa
Monica Bay and made all the right moves to build an unbeatable
lead in the first race of the Nautica 2002 Star Class World
Championship Sunday, but their final opponent was time.
With light, shifty winds forcing the
fleet of 105 boats to play beat the clock, the San Diego duo
sailed across the finish line 3 minutes 21 seconds ahead of
the 3 ½-hour deadline for the 10 ½- mile race,
while a bunch of big names behind them prayed they wouldn't.
Szabo's finish made it an official race,
leaving nine former world champions with finishes of 22nd
or worst. Runners-up Mark Mansfield and crew Killean Collins
of Ireland were 2 minutes 53 seconds behind, followed by 1990
winner Torben Grael of Brazil. San Francisco's Paul Cayard,
the '88 champion, was delighted with seventh place.
"This is my 11th Worlds,"
Szabo said. "The first one I was in at Cannes we won
a race but not since then. It'sbeen a long
time."
 |
| Opening race winners George Szabo
and crew Austin Sperry of San Diego lead Brazil's Torben
Grael/Marcelo Ferreira around windward mark. |
Szabo, 32, works for Mark Reynolds,
a double Worlds and Olympic Star champion, at Quantum Sails
in San Diego. He finished 77 places ahead of the boss.
"I didn't think he was going to
make it," Reynolds said, "but it was kind of hard
to hope that he wouldn't. Then the breeze came up."
Reynolds' 78th will probably be his
one allowable discard of the six races scheduled through Friday.
At least he hopes it will be.
Testimony to the inscrutable nature
of the venue were the performances of some other former champions:
Germany's Alexander Hagen, 23rd; Brazil's Alan Adler, 26th;
Springfield, Illinois' Joe Londrigan, 31st; Australia's Colin
Beashel, 41st; The Netherlands' defending champion Fredrik
Loof, 47th; Canada's Ross Macdonald, 54th; Seattle's Bill
Buchan, 60th, and San Diego's Eric Doyle, 64th.
Spain's Jose Maria Van Der Ploeg, the
top-ranked Star sailor in the world, was 91st.
 |
| Former world Star
champion Alexander Hagen of Germany, with crew Carsten
Witt, discuss Santa Monica Bay's confusing weather patterns
with their chase boat before the start. Hagen/Witt finished
23rd. |
Their main problem was that they went
left while Szabo went right. He said he started conservatively
just to leeward of the middle committee boat because "I
didn't have a real good feel for it."
But something told him to favor the
right side of the course and, he said, "This is the first
time the right paid. The left has been better [in tune-up
events and practice races] the last few weeks."
Reynolds said, "We were ahead of
him up the first beat, but then we went left and lost 50 boats."
Mansfield also avoided the left and
led Szabo by a few boat lengths at the first weather mark
two miles out to sea, but then he immediately jibed away to
back where he'd come from as Szabo continued right and found
a healthy lead when they converged at the leeward gate.
"We jibed because the breeze had
been on that side," Mansfield said. "It was a gutsy
move by him. He had a great race."
 |
| The race jury checks out the
action. There were only three protests in the 105-boat
fleet. |
Sperry, 24, said, "We were a little
worried about the time. That's cutting it a little too close
for me. George did an excellent job playing the shifts up
the beats."
Grael, on leave from Prada's America's
Cup campaign, said, "It's not that there are so many
big shifts but that the course is very long because there
are so many boats, so even a 10-degree shift does a lot of
damage."
Cayard found the day's forecast from
the US Sailing Team amusing, especially the part that read:
"A very patchy wind field is expected through the day
with glassy holes interspersed with occasional stronger, streaky
puffs. Late afternoon shows the best potential for more consistent
flow, but this will be far from solid."
Cayard said, "That's the best definition
of this place I've seen."
As it was, the race committee decided
late Saturday night to move the starts from 1 to 2 p.m. because
of a recent pattern of late-filling breeze.
Szabo is aware that the venue could
turn around and bite him, too.
"Anything can happen," he
said. "We still have a regatta on our hands."
Nautica International, the Gold Star
Title Sponsor, is a leading global fashion and lifestyle company
with products ranging from men's, women's and children's sportswear
and accessories to a complete home collection.
Nautica is a subsidiary of Nautica Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:
NAUT) which, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources, markets
and distributes apparel under the following brands: Nautica,
Nautica Competition, Nautica Jeans Company, John Varvatos,
Earl Jean, E. Magrath and Byron Nelson.
Other sponsors of the Nautica 2002 Star
Class World Championship at various levels are: Silver Star---RB
Zack and Associates and California Yacht Club; Blue Star---Bang
and Olufsen; Green Star---Samuel Adams Beer, Sea Wynde Pot
Still Rum, Quantum One-Design Sails, North One-Design Sails,
Domaine Danica Winery, Brophy Clark Cellars, Presidio Winery,
Dry Creek Vineyard, Star Frozen Foods, pyacht.com.
The leaders (after 1 of 6 races):
1. George Szabo/Austin Sperry, San Diego,
1 point.
2. Mark Mansfield/Killean Collins, Ireland, 2.
3. Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, Brazil, 3.
4. Paul-Ambroise Sevestre/Vincent Berenguier, France, 4.
5. Reinhard Schmidt/Jochen Wolfram, Germany, 5.
6. Xavier Rohart/Yannick Adde, France.
7. Paul Cayard/Hal Haenel, San Francisco, 7.
8. Dave Watt/Alex Dunn, Seattle.
9. Philippe Presti/Jean Philippe Saliou, France.
10. Gonzalo Araujo/Marcos Iglesias, Spain.
NAUTICA STAR WORLDS GENERAL CHAIRMAN
Alex Benson
California Yacht Club (310) 823-4567
alexbenson@baywoodinn.com
PRESS RELATIONS
Frank Gleberman
(310) 823-0284
FGleberman@aol.com
PUBLICITY
Rich Roberts
(310) 835-2526
cell phone (310) 766-6547
richroberts@compuserve.com
NAUTICA PRESS CONTACT
Mary Ellen Barone
(212) 887-8114
maryellen.barone@nautica.com
