San Diego delivered yet another beautiful day on the water, with winds up to 12 knots, sunshine and cooler air. The 64-boat fleet was towed out on time and by 13.00 Race Four of the 2024 Star World Championship was underway with a clear start on the first attempt – first time in this Championship for the joy of PRO Tom Duggan and the Race Committee team.

The top teams thought pin end was favoured, but we are all becoming accustomed to the shifty race course off Silver Strand in South San Diego. It was another day of guessing and keeping your head out of the boat for the best shift, another snake and ladders day out on the water at the end of which some are really happy and others, very disappointed. Local George Szabo with Guy Avellon did not have the best first beat but were able to make up for it and went from twenty+ to finish 11th holding on to a four spot in the provisional overall ranking.

“After the start we found ourselves in the second row and there's nowhere to tack out, so we just stayed in a picket fence for a while and reached behind some boats; we just kept going and kept going and tacked out of the left and the people in the right progressed, so it made for a long day. Later we noticed all our San Diego friends were out there trying to make the left work and it wasn't working so we went down the run and we were near friends we hadn't seen on the race course before, but in the next beat we pretty much just went south towards Mexico and played every single shift we could, and somehow we battled back.”

It is all smiles in the Cayard – Kleen team (USA/GER), after they secured their third win out of three races. A win different from the others, one they didn’t just lead from the start.

“Sometimes things just go your way, and today was a very, very tricky day. The wind was all over the place, and we just tried to keep our heads out of the boat, looking at all kinds of indications and trying to stay on the favourite tack to the mark, never afraid to change. We're going fast all the time, so that helps, and like I said, we got lucky on the second beat, the wind went to our side instead of Jack Jennings’s side so we were first instead of third or fourth”, commented Paul Cayard, here also as Star Class President, and concluded “We just want to be close at the top and have a chance to win this.”

Two more races to go with the top four teams within 9 points, the throw out comes in after tomorrow’s race and things might change. In the meantime, all of the 64 teams went through the second general weigh-in of the Championship.