Star : Eastern Hemisphere Championship begins Sat May 14th 2005 through Sun May 22nd

May 13th : 62 teams from 16 nations are on the entry list closed by May 3rd. A specially watched participant will be Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierwicz in his first appearance at an ISCYRA championship event. With the Finn gold medal 1996 and silver medal 2004, he is another Finn champion who will without doubt make his way in the Star class as have done the Lööf’s, Percy’s and Rohart’s in the past 5 years. The 2005 Eastern Hemisphere Championship, a Silver Star event, formerly known as Spring European Championship, will be organised by the 80-years-old Thunersee Yacht Club (TYC), one of the most active sailing clubs in Switzerland with a strong boat policy direction on olympic and international classes.

Surrounded by alpine mountains, the Lake of Thoune offers stable, mostly thermics-driven winds of 3 – 4 Bft, and is considered one of the best sailing venues in this country. After having organised a considerable number of World, European and Swiss Championships of many international and national classes, this is the TYC’s first Continental event to be run for an Olympic class. A team of over 100 experienced volunteers, working within a proven club infrastructure will do everything to make this event a success. Star sailing has a long tradition in Switzerland. The Swiss Star Class, the forth-largest grouping of fleets world-wide, is by far the most active keel-boat class in this country. The total number of ranked boats in the 2004 Swiss Grand Prix events is 86 ; at the largest event, the Swiss Championship, 55 boats were on the starting line. This proofs that Olympic sailing at local level is not dead, as long as an initiative class association and a number of regatta-oriented clubs promote competitive sailing on all levels. Many internationally successful Swiss Star sailors have their roots within the organising Thunersee Yacht Club. The most successful one is without doubt Flavio Marazzi, 25-years old, Vice-World Champion 2004 and forth at the Athens Olympic Regatta 2004. His crew from last year, Enrico de Maria, has rejoined the Alinghi Team, but at this Championship, he has more than a substitute with Magnus Liljedahl, Olympic Gold and Gold Star 2000 on Mark Reynold’s Star, crewing for him on the Lake of Thoune. No doubt that Flavio will do his utmost to reach for the Silver Star at this event.

In addition to Mateusz Kusznierwicz from Poland, Hans Spitzauer from Austria, he too a former Finn World Champion, will definitely also be one of the favorites at this event. As usual in a past-olympic year, some olympic campaigners from the past olympiad are capitalising on their skills, sailing as professionals mostly on big boats, or are engaged in America’s cup activities or have reduced their competitive activities. On the other hand, many new teams will show up with the intent to run a campaign for 2008. Especially to mention here is the complete new generation German team, the young Danes Monberg/Leifelt, the Irish O’Connell/Peel, the French Sevestre/Berengier to name but a few.

Measurement will take place from Friday, May 13th till Sunday, May 15th. The practice race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Championship races will start on Monday, May 16th. Six races are on the program ; latest start possibility is on Saturday, May 21st.