Stars and Knarrs Headline West Coast International One-Design Events
The St. Francis Yacht Club finished up hosting the International Knarr Championship (IKC) this past weekend on the Bay, while in Southern California, San Diego Yacht Club started hosting the Star Worlds. Both are fleets with great history, competition and camaraderie. Racing in these classic non-spinnaker keelboats is full of nail-biting competitive tension.
International Knarr Championship
The IKC was held August 31 to this past Saturday, September 7, with 25 teams competing from the US, Norway and Denmark. The championship rotates among these three countries each year.
The St. Francis YC and the Bay treated the fleet to some spectacular racing. When the spray settled it was the visiting Danes who came to town and took the trophy.
The Knarr was designed in Norway in 1943, with the first production boat launched in 1946. San Francisco is home to the only fleet outside Scandinavia.
Coming in first and taking the trophy home to Europe was Jens Christensen, sailing DEN 124 with crew Kim Andersen, Christian Buhl and Jens Buhl. In second was Randy Hecht, sailing USA 128 with Russ Silvestri, Spencer Cole and Dave Holscher, and in third, Don Jesberg sailing USA 133 with crew Ethan Doyle, Eric Baumhoff and John Bonds.
You can see full results here.
Star Worlds
In Southern California the Star World’s started yesterday with 64 boats competing for the world championship trophy.
The Star class is even older than the Knarr, having held its first world championship in 1923. San Diego Yacht Club has hosted the Star Worlds 15 times and is home to many past world champions along with other champions from Northern California.
Past West Coast World Champion skippers include Paul Cayard, Mark Reynolds, Malin Burnham (correction in comments below), Dennis Connor, Gerry Driscoll, Tom Blackaller, George Szabo, Bill Buchan, Vince Brun, Lowell North and Bill Ficker.
The Star Worlds are running at SDYC September 4–13. The first race that counted was yesterday, and won by Paul Cayard with crew Frithjof Kleen. John Kostecki with crew Austin Sperry took third. You can follow the results here. Winning the Star World Championship puts you in the rarified company of the world’s elite sailors.
Love the Star boat as an East coast sailor on Long Island Sound racing was spectacular!
You seem to have left Malim Burnham off your list of champions
Right you are…we’re always afraid of this type of error when making a list like this. Malin Burnham won in 1945 with Lowell North as crew. The year before, he won as crew for Gerry Driscoll. There are a lot of Star World champions from the San Diego Yacht Club!