Star of the 1970’s through the present

 

Spars and Sails                     Tall Marconi

Mast, deck to sheave          31’9”

Boom                                      14’7”

Mainsail Luff                        30’6”

Mainsail Leech                     30’6”

Mainsail Foot                       14’7”

Jib Luff                                   20’6”

Jib Leech                               17’10”

Jib Foot                                  7’2”

 


 

DENNIS CONNER AND HIS FIRST MENACE

Dennis Conner came onto the Star Class sailing scene starting right at the top. The August, 1970, Starlights commented, “The most important member of the team, the Crew, showed the rest of a distinguished group of sailors that besides setting a backstay and trimming a jib, he had other nautical talents. Dennis Conner, borrowing his skipper’s boat, ran away with the 1970 sailing of the Rollins Bowl…” Later that year Dennis bought Star # 5291 from his skipper Alan Raffee and renamed it “Menace”. Here we see Dennis and his crew in a double mini-hike, probably sometime in 1971 after aluminum spars had been allowed by the Class. Hiking vests were still not allowed, and as a results, as pointed out by Paul Cayard in the Auagust, 2000, issue of Sea Horse, 205 lb. crews at the World’s were not too far below the average. Paul went on to note that it took a rather unusual crew who could both pack on a lot of weight and still hold the mini-hike throughout a race without the aid of a hiking vest.

Dennis went on to win two World’s Championships, in 1971 at Seattle, and in 1977 at Kiel where he racked up the best score possible, five daily firsts.

 

DENNIS CONNER AND JIM REYNOLDS AT SEATTLE, 1971

Dennis Conner won his first of two Gold Stars in 1971 at Seattle with Jim Reynolds crewing. Jim had been a regular crew of choice in the World’s since 1958 when he crewed for Walter von Hütschler at the San Diego World’s. His best previous showing was second as crew for Malin Burnham at the 1965 World’s at Newport Harbor. Jim last crewed in the 1975 World’s for his son Mark Reynolds on Lake Michigan. Note that while hiking straps had already been allowed since 1969 for some reason Jim wasn’t into that way of hiking yet.

THE 1972 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

Held on San Francisco Bay

A photographer’s dream but a sailor’s nightmare came true on San Francisco Bay in 1972 when the U.S. Olympic Trials were held. Only for the third race were there no DNF’s registered, although there was one DNS. The final race had the most DNF’s, 7 in all, but 11 boats out of the field of 27 which began the series also did not start.

Alan Holt and Richard Gates, sailing Spirit, #5703, finished the series first ahead of Bill Buchan and Doug Knight in Frolic, #5660. Lowell North with Pete Barrett, shown above screaming down onto the leeward mark in Something Else, #5662, came in third for the series. Tom Blackaller and Bill Munster, sailing Good Grief!, #5550, finished the series in 7th place.

Two photographers were on hand to take beautiful action photographs. Chris Caswell took the photo above which appeared in the 1973 Log as well as the middle photograph below which was the cover photo for the 1973 Log. Diane Beeston took the upper photo below.

The upper photo shows Thomas Oller and Alan Lechner in Sashay, #5429, Allen “Punky” Mitchell and Ron Anderson in Streaker, #5726, and Jay Winberg and Thomas Nyland in #5575 approaching the windward mark. The middle photo shows Don Trask and William Kreysler in Swingin’ Star, #5700, Barton Beek and Chuck Beek in Hannah, #5645, and Steve Haarstick and Chris Gould in Blue Peter, #5522.

 

 

OTHER WILD SCENES

On San Francisco Bay

Above: “Punky” Mitchell and Ron Anderson in Streaker, # 5726, must be wondering what might happen next.  Fortunately, nothing much, since they finished the race. Doubtful that Bill Gerard and Carl Schumacher in Liberty, # 5565, were even aware that there was some interesting action going on just behind them.

Below: Lowell North getting his crew Pete Barrett nice and wet. And the water in San Francisco, even in the summer, (or seemingly especially so) is quite refreshing to say the least.

(Above photo: 1973 Log, credit Caswell)

(Photo below: 1974 Log, credit Caswell)

 

 

 

BUDDY MELGES &

ANDREAS JOSENHANS

World’s Champions, 1978 & 1979

Before 1978 Buddy Melges was no stranger to Star boats, but he was not a regular player either. However, in 1977 he crewed for Ding Schoonmaker at the North American’s at San Diego. A better tutor about the finer points of Star sailing probably could not be found, and obviously Buddy learned his lessons well. He showed up at the 1978 World’s in San Francisco well prepared. He bought a Gerard hull which he finished off at his boatworks in Wisconsin. The Widgeon, # 6346, had many innovations, not the least of which was the elimination of backstay tracks in favor of an under-deck wire backstay system. Travelers were still in use with the traveler track just aft of the rudder post, but Widgeon had the track recessed at the center line and then bowed up to about 2” above the deck at the rails. These items, combined with a computer-designed keel, extra stiffening provided by bulkheads, and buoyancy tanks on the floor to make the boat self-bailing made the boat radical for its time.

Aside from these features, Buddy had built fairly flat sails made of a special yarn-tempered Dacron. He gave out three suits of these sails to other participants: Ding Schoonmaker, Bill Gerard and Paul Henderson. These sails showed superior performance in the windy San Francisco conditions and won every race: Melges the first three races, Schoonmaker the next two, and Henderson the last one.

Todd Cozzens, in his write-up of the 1978 World’s in the 1979 Log, wrote: “I turned to see Buddy Melges standing there with eyes afire behind aviator sunglasses and an ear-to-ear grin. I had a strange feeling in me that he would win the 1978 Gold Star as I saw that half-crazed expression gazing out into the fog. Melges was later to tell me that it was indeed at that same moment that he felt that he was really prepared to win the series.”

 

 

 

 

MORE FUN AT SAN FRANCISCO

Photographers know a good thing when they see it. Diane Beeston and John Hutton were on hand at the 1978 World’s with the hope of getting some more action shots like those from the 1972 Olympic Trials. As an indication of the fun and games, four boats sank in the first race. Pretty good start!

Recognizable above: Ricardo Didier and Manfred Kaufmann in #6350, John “Little Mac” MacCausland and George Szabo in #6283, and Mario Innecco in #6362. Below: Allan Leibel and David Shaw blasting off just in front of Don Trask and Bill Kreysler in # 6310. 2nd below: Ben Staarges and Ko van den Berg in #6243, Ian Elloit and Mark Brink in #5761, and Kirk Reynolds and Michael Huber in 6210.

 

ALEXANDER HAGEN &

VINCENT HÖSCH

Winners of the 1981World’s

Alexander Hagen and Vincent Hösch won the 1981 World’s at Marblehead. There must be something about Marblehead for Alexander, because when the World’s returned to Marblehead in 1997 he won again, this time with Marcelo Farreira as crew.

Alex and Vincent sailed their first World’s in 1979 in which they finished with a series 13th. Next year at the 1980 World’s they moved up to a series 6th. Alex, with various crews since 1985, sailed practically every World’s up through 1999. Vincent Hösch meanwhile has become a top skipper in his own right.

On Alex’s boat Bucephalus, # 6498, the traveler was placed on the transom. His was one of the early boats to do so. It wouldn’t be another 10 years until people started to eliminate the traveler altogether.

Below are Alex (left) and Vincent (center) receiving the World’s Trophy at Marblehead.

(Both photos: Ogilvy Collection)

 

 


 

BILL BUCHAN & STEVE ERICKSON WIN THE 1984 OLYMPICS

In 1984, Bill and Steve won the Olympics in Frolic, # 6960. Here they are leading Colin Beashel and Richard Coxon in 7014. (Photo: January, 1986, Starlights)

 

 

BILL BUCHAN

WINS THIRD GOLD STAR IN 1985

Every win of a World’s Championship has a special story which goes along with it, but Bill Buchan’s win of the 1985 World’s at Nassau is probably the most spectacular. With a score of 2-6-2 going into the fourth race Bill was leading in the series, but then disaster struck. On the final upwind leg of the fourth race a shroud let go and over went the mast. This was the first race of a double-header. Fortunately for Bill, Basil Kelly came along side with his powerboat and picked up Bill’s crew Steve Erickson. While Bill cleared away the rigging in rolling seas Kelly and Erickson went full throttle to the hoist area to pick up a spare mast. Bill and Steve had the new mast up with just 20 minutes to go for the start of the fifth race. With a 5th in the fifth race and a 2nd in the final race Bill had the competition under control.

(Photo: Ogilvy Collection.)