Three O'Leary Family Crews Fly Irish Flag at Star Worlds

9th November 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Triple Challenge: Cork's O'Leary sailing family has three crews competing among 95 teams from 17 nations at the 2026 Star World Championship in Miami Credit: Matias Capizzano

Three members of Cork's O'Leary sailing family – Anthony and his sons Peter and Robert – are flying the Irish flag at the Star class World Championship in Miami, where 95 teams from 17 nations have gathered for six days of racing on Biscayne Bay.

The official entry list confirms Robert O'Leary sailing with Steyn van Driessel, Anthony O'Leary with Phil Toth, and Peter O'Leary with Joost Houweling. The three Irish-flagged entries underline the family's continuing involvement in one of international sailing's most demanding two-person keelboat classes.

Star attraction: The 95-boat fleet assembles on Biscayne Bay for the 2026 Star World Championship, where three Irish entries featuring members of Cork's O'Leary sailing family will compete for the coveted Gold Star. Photo: Matias Capizzano

The Cork trio also featured among Ireland's entries at the Bacardi Cup in Miami earlier this year, as Afloat reported ahead of the March regatta.

World Championship Opens in Miami

The 2026 Star World Championship Presented by Schoonmaker officially opened on Sunday, 8 November, with a practice race on Biscayne Bay followed by an opening ceremony at Coral Reef Yacht Club.

Among the international contenders are defending world champions Paul Cayard of the United States and Frithjof Kleen of Germany, who also won the 99th Bacardi Cup earlier this year. They face a strong fleet including Brazil's Robert Scheidt, Poland's Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Italy's Diego Negri. Organisers say 23 former Star world champions are competing, alongside Olympic medallists and America's Cup veterans.

Cayard, president of the International Star Class, welcomed the championship and thanked the host club, race officials, volunteers and Schoonmaker Foundation for their support.

Opening honours: Officials gather around the Star World Championship trophy at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami as the 2026 championship gets underway, with Cork's Anthony, Peter and Robert O'Leary among the 95 competing teams. Photo: Matias Capizzano

First introduced in 1911, the Star remains a highly competitive international one-design keelboat class, combining close tactical racing with exacting boat-handling and tuning demands.

Championship racing is scheduled to begin on Monday, 9 November, with the first warning signal at 11.55 am local time, according to the published race programme. One race per day is planned until Saturday, 14 November, when the world title will be decided.

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The Star keelboat is a 6.9 metres (23 ft) one-design racing keelboat for two people designed by Francis Sweisguth in 1910.

The Star was an Olympic keelboat class from 1932 through to 2012, the last year keelboats appeared at the Summer Olympics at which Ireland's representatives were Peter O'Leary and David Burrows.

Ireland has performed well in the class internationally thanks to some Olympic campaigns including a bronze medal at the Star World Championships in 2000, won by Mark Mansfield and David O'Brien.

The boat is sloop-rigged, with a mainsail larger in proportional size than any other boat of its length. Unlike most modern racing boats, it does not use a spinnaker when sailing downwind. Instead, when running downwind a whisker pole is used to hold the jib out to windward for correct wind flow.

Early Stars were built from wood, but modern boats are of fibreglass and carbon construction.

The boat must weigh at least 671 kg (1,479 lb) with a maximum total sail area of 26.5 m2 (285 sq ft).

The Star class pioneered an unusual circular boom vang track, which allows the vang to effectively hold the boom down even when the boom is turned far outboard on a downwind run.

Another notable aspect of Star sailing is the extreme hiking position adopted by the crew and at times the helmsman, who normally use a harness to help hang low off the windward side of the boat with only their lower legs inside.