Irish pair crowned Eastern champs

25th May 2009

It came down to the final set of waves during the eighth race of the 2009 Star Eastern European Championship to determine that Irishmen Peter O'Leary and Tim Goodbody would be awarded their first Silver Star. No one could have predicted the interesting developments of the final day. The breeze filled in from 100 degrees on Saturday and the Star Eastern European Championship fleet set out for the windiest races of the regatta. In the podcast below O'Leary claims his new crew's presence is a big reason behind the win, a result that puts the Cork-Dun Laoghaire pairing as the form-horse in this week's Delta Lloyd regatta in Holland starting Wednesday.

{audio}http://www.afloat.ie/images/audio/oleary.mp3{/audio}

Going into the seventh race, O'Leary/Goodbody were winning the regatta. Their second place finish had launched them four points ahead of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, who had OCS'ed in the seventh race. Szabo/Peters had pulled ahead of Marazzi/DeMaria and Rohart/Ponsot had closed the gap, but were in a distant fifth place going into the final race.

The waves were steeper and there were more white caps for the final race in 15-18 knots. The same teams dominated the top of the fleet during the second race of the day and the deciding race of the regatta.

Racing stayed tight all the way through the end. Scheidt/Prada surged across the finish line in first. Rohart/Ponsot won the day with their second place finish in the race and O'Leary/Goodbody nipped out Szabo/Peters. Marazzi/DeMaria followed within seconds and then came Grael/Mouro.

Sorting through the points, O'Leary/Goodbody claimed the title and their first Silver Star.

Scheidt/Prada missed out on winning their fourth Silver Star by two points and George Szabo and Rick Peters took the final rung on the podium. - Lynn Fitzpatrick, WorldRegattas.com

Final top ten:

1. Peter O;Leary / Tim Goodbody, IRL, 24 points

2. Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada, BRA, 26

3. George Szabo / Rick Peters, USA, 30

4. Flavio Marazzi / Enrico De Maria, SUI, 34

5. Xavier Rohart / Pierre Alexis Ponsot, FRA, 41

6. Lars Grael / Renato Moura, BRA, 54

7. Jean Baptiste Bernaz / Vincent Berenguier, FRA, 54.0001

8. Aiullios Papathanasiou / Apolstolo Karnoutsos, GRE, 61

9. Andrew Macdonald / Brian Faith, USA, 68

10. Diego Negri / Luca Devoti, ITA, 78

{audio}http://www.afloat.ie/images/audio/oleary.mp3{/audio}

We looked for some video of Peter and Tim in action but found none. We did find an American crew in training though, it gives an idea of what's involved in Star sailing.

Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive

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