Star worlds!

I know its not laser sailing, but still.

SO! Its been a crazy week for the stars. Capsized boats, broken rigs, broken poles, etc. After 5 races, the Polish guys are back in first, with john mac in 13th. With 8 points separating first and second, anything can really happen. I am not sure if they have had their throwout yet, but it would help the pols alot to throw out the 44th.

Star website
http://starclass.org/
 
I still find it interesting that Mendelblatt is beating our Olympic reps John Dane III and Austin Sperry, AGAIN! These guys are our Olympic reps, their supposed to be the best we have, and other US sailors that didn't win at trials are consistently beat them!!! It's stuff like this that make me wish for Selections instead of Trials, but then I realize the less politics, the better.
 
Yeah, but that place is d-e-a-d dead
Dear "sk8ingsailor".

No - You are not correct, "sk8ingsailor". Bradley/Merrily please put this thread to the open discussion section, please. This is the Laserforum.org, not a general sailing forum. Thank you.

regards
LooserLu
 
I still find it interesting that Mendelblatt is beating our Olympic reps John Dane III and Austin Sperry, AGAIN! These guys are our Olympic reps, their supposed to be the best we have, and other US sailors that didn't win at trials are consistently beat them!!! It's stuff like this that make me wish for Selections instead of Trials, but then I realize the less politics, the better.

I agree w/you. Our selection process stinks. But what are you gonna do?

If it were me I'd run it like a NASCAR or Laser district points event with several NA's and World events where participation was required and the team with the best totals over the 3 events, (or whatever) would be selected to participate as our olympic representatives.

Of course this is expensive for the sailors and US sailing or the US Olympic committee would have to pick up some expenxes for these folks to make it feasible.
 
I don't really see that one selection method has a lot of advantages over another. The US method of a trials closely mimics the buildup (with the corrosponding increase in mental pressure) that occurs with the actual Olympic event. It's setup so that you need to peak for one event. In the past, in some classes (Star for example) the Gold medal winner of the games said winning their trials was harder, which to me says the trial format does help them prepare mentally and physically.

As far as Dane/Sperry not the top US boat, first off, it ain't over till it's over - they didn't lead the trials from start to finish either.. Second, we have no idea what their goals and objectives for the Worlds are - they could be trying a different hull/rig/sails etc, only they know. I haven't been following the event that closely, but based on the report above, there have been some races in hvy air - they could be already starting to diet down in prep for China, while other US boats could be showing up at max weight.

Bottom line is the US is fortunate to have a lot of good Star sailors that are capable of doing well at any particular event. For Dane/Sperry, I'm reasonably sure that event they are looking at is a few months down the road..
 
Now that Stars are being openly discussed on TLF - can we have Ross's input on how he would improve them - here's a few starters: -

Half the min hull weight
Assymetric
Twin Trapezes
Do away with the max beam measurement
Hydrofoils
 

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