Sixth and final day at Viareggio June 12th
At the end of a very light wind regatta that included lengthy starting delays, start postponements and general recalls, the Irish teams have finished in the top third of the fleet. Peter O’Leary and David Burrows finished in 35th place today with Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks finishing in 44th place. This gave Treacy and Shanks an overall placing at the end of six races including one discard of 31st placing with O’Leary and Burrows placing 33rd overall.
Fulll Results HERE
Day Five: (June 11th). Is there no end to the frustrations of the wind at this location? There was a three hour delay at the start of Race Five waiting for wind and finally a wind of 5/6 knots appeared. Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks were the best of the Irish today posting a 15th leaving them in 26th position overall after a discard of 95. Peter O’Leary and David Burrows had their worst day to date finishing 89th which when discarded brought them to 32nd position overall.
For the final race tomorrow (12th) the organizers have announced they are prepared to postpone the official start time of the race until such time as they have sufficient wind for racing.
Star Europeans Website HERE
Day Four (June 10th)
Peter O’Leary and David Burrows moved up the leaderboard at the Star Class Europeans at Viareggio to day when they finished 12th in the 132 boat fleet. The other Irish team Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks finished in 32nd position. Overall at this stage O’Leary and Burrows are now lying 22nd overall with Treacy and Shanks 37th overall. One can see from the results that some of the top names are still finishing down the fleet in the light conditions and in what is the largest number of boats to have ever participated in the Star Europeans.
Provisional Results HERE
Day Three (June 9th)
Conditions remained pretty much the same today(Wed.) at Viareggio for Race Three of the six race series at the Star Class European Championship. Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks had a good day placing fourth leaving them on 157 points and in 44th position overall. The Cork/Dublin duo Peter O’Leary and David Burrows have also fared much better today with an eighteenth placing leaving them on 115 points and in 28th position overall.
At the halfway stage it is perhaps too early to be talking about discards. However, should a discard be applied now both teams would have 62 points each and leaves us with the mouth watering prospect of following their progress for the remainder of the event.
Another interesting snippet is that James Hynes, a name very well known in Irish sailing circles is crewing with Oskar Johansson sailing for Canada. They are currently lying in 49th position on 165 points.
Racing continues tomorrow.
Provisional Results HERE
Day Two (June 8th). After finish of racing today O’Leary and Burrows are lying in 43rd position overall with Treacy and Shanks 77th. Only five places separated the two Irish teams today with O’Leary and Burrows 52nd and Treacy and Shanks 57th. To illustrate the frustrations of this event with top names appearing well down and in some cases almost at the bottom of the list, I can do no better than to quote from Andrew Campbell a well known US competitor on the Star scene:
“After a great start on what turned out to be the wrong side of the course, we ended up fighting for 20th around the first top mark. We broke into the teens only to be swallowed up by a group of boats as we drifted through the finish line 2 and 1/2 hours after we started at 2pm. Light seabreeze was again the name of the game. We waited for about an hour to start the race and even after the wait stumbled through two general recalls. Rumours were floating that a large number of boats were OCS in addition to the handful given the label. We’ll take a 20 and move along happy, considering that some very top guys sailed the same 2.5 hours as us but instead have a 145th to show for it. Tomorrow (Wed) has a better forecast, but we’ll believe it when we see it.”
Day One Race One: After Race One of the Star Europeans at Viareggio yesterday (7th) and competing in a huge fleet of 132 boats, Peter O’Leary sailing with his crew fellow Olympian David Burrows, finished in 46th position. This is their first competitive outing together. The other Irish team of Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks finished in 97th position.
Conditions for the event are reported to be the same as those that pertained at the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro with light winds and short waves and this may account for the fact that some of the usual world leaders in the Class are showing a finish well down the fleet. Fredrik Loof of Sweden managed 11th position with former Olympic Gold Medallist and Star Class World Champion Robert Scheidt finishing in 19th place.
Top three finishers in Race One were:
1. Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy of Germany
2. Maciej Grabowski and Lukasz Lesinski of Poland
3. Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil.
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