FEATURED REGATTAS: June 8, 2008
Everything went as scheduled on the final day of the 2008 Star Eastern European Championships.  The Dalmatian sun shone during the morning and heated up the land enough so that the Bora, the sea breeze, started to fill.  The winds reached 8 knots and brought a gentle chop and white caps.  Clouds built over the shore and once again the ridge behind Split disappeared. 

With the wind at 250 degrees, the weather mark was positioned between the northeast tip of Solta and the island of Drevenik.  Further to the right, the coastal community of Mavaricica was stacked up on the sloping shore of Clovo.

This was an important day for the Croatians.  Many of them came dressed in their red and white checkered jerseys and caps, showing their allegiance to their country and to their national football team, which was scheduled to play Austria in the European Championships later in the afternoon.   The committee rolled into sequence shortly after 13:00.

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) boxed Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) out at the start leaving Prada to fend off of the RC boat and giving the fleet a jumps start.  Scheidt/Prada’s only option was to do their circle and tack onto port immediately.  They banged the right corner while Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria (SUI), Alex Schlonski and Frithjof Kleen (GER), Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen (NOR) and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) played the shifts up the middle and mid-left side of the course.  Percy/Simpson rounded with a handful of boats ahead of them and Scheidt/Prada hand even fewer behind them.   

Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (POL), who were tied with Percy/Simpson going into the day, were one of the boats ahead of Percy/Simpson.  Kusznierewicz/Zycki went low down the run and Percy/Simpson went high.  Percy/Simpson gained a little ground and rounded the right leeward gate as Kusznierewicz/Zycki were finishing their turn around the left gate.   

Marazzi/DeMaria sailed conservatively and loosely covered the largest group behind them as the fleet tacked upwind to a new weather mark set further to the right.  Marazzi/DeMaria rounded first and gybe set with Melleby/Pedersen, Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams (NZL), Kusznierewicz/Zycki and Percy/Simpson following.  Percy/Simpson were the first to bear away and passed Kusznierewicz/Zycki.  Kusznierewicz/Zycki spent the rest of the race trying to pass Percy/Simpson and let Pepper/Williams get between them.  In the meantime, Scheidt/Prada were busy picking off boat after boat.

Marazzi/DeMaria won the final race and Percy/Simpson sailed a tactically brilliant race, but were unable to control Scheidt/Prada’s appetite for passing boats and winning the 2008 Eastern European Championship.  Scheidt/Prada finished eighth in the race and held on to the series, finishing just one point ahead of Percy/Simpson and three points ahead of Kusznierewicz/Zycki.  Croatian sailors, Marin Lovrovic Jr. and Sinisa Mikulicic, who are also on their way to the Olympics in the Star, demonstrated their skill in predominately light air conditions on their Dalmatian seas.  All in all, the regatta was a productive final battle of the Titans before they meet again in Qingdao, China for the Olympics in August.

J. K. Labud did an excellent job of hosting the regatta and making the most out of the unusual wind conditions for this time of the year.  The Club had the support of Joker, a developer and operator of Croatian supermarkets, shopping malls and hotels and the City of Split.

Results following three races of the 2008 Star Eastern European Championship

 1. Scheidt/Prada (BRA) – 2,4,4,8 - 18

2. Percy/Simpson (GBR) – 12,3,1, 3 – 19

3. Kusznierewicz/Zycki (POL) – 4,1,11,5 -21

4. Lovrovic/Mikulicic (CRO) – 1,7,6, 9 – 23

5. Negri/Vale (ITA) – 10,2,5,6 - 23

Photo of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada on run in Split, Croatia taken by Lynn Fitzpatrick