The two final races of the 2018 Star Western Hemisphere Championship were held on Sunday in 15-18 knots of wind from the southeast.
Jorge Zarif of Brazil was on fire winning both races. It was very physical and the conditions suited the 25 year old Finn sailor perfectly.
Tutu and I had the second best scores with a 3, 2. Lars Grael had finishes of 2, 4 which was sufficient to protect his lead and win the Championship. At the last mark of the last race, Grael was 8th while we were second. Finishing in these positions would have given Tuto and I the Championship. But Lars and Samuel sailed very fast down the final run to pass 4 boats. I am happy with our performance considering it was our first time sailing together.
Jorge Zarif moved up to third for the series with his great finishes today and Augie Diaz with Bruno Prada crewing finished 4th. Tomas Hornos finished 5th.
The only sailor not from Brazil in the first three teams was myself. Brazil has always been a strong sailing country and they are producing more good young sailors like Tutu and Jorge Zarif.
This was the last event of the winter series here in Miami which started in November. The next Star Championship will be the Eastern Hemisphere Championship in two weeks time in Trieste, Italy. After that we will be racing on the west coast for several regattas including the North American Championship at Marina Del Rey in August.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Boat Name | Helm / Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BRA 8474 | Renata | Lars Grael / Samuel Goncalves | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 18 |
| 2 | USA 8466 | USA 8466 | Paul Cayard / Arthur Lopes | 9 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 21 |
| 3 | BRA 8210 | Tati Quebra Barraco | Jorge Zarif / Guilherme De almeida | 3 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 29 |
| 4 | USA 8509 | Danilu | Augie Diaz / Bruno Prada | 5 | 13 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 37 |
| 5 | USA 8481 | USA 8481 | Tomas Hornos / Phil Toth | 11 | 7 | 21 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 10 | RDG | 53.3 |
| 6 | USA 8464 | Pied Piper / National Marine | Jack Jennings / Frithjof Kleen | 2 | 15 | 13 | 27 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 55 |
| 7 | USA 8230 | Back from the Dead | John Dane III / Tim Ray | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 5 | RET | 60 |
| 8 | USA 8522 | USA 8459 | Peter Vessella / Phil Trinter | 7 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 19 | 19 | 7 | 11 | 60 |
| 9 | BRA 8510 | Vida Bandida | Luca Modena / MARCELLO SANSONE | 4 | OCS | 2 | 23 | 5 | 14 | 9 | 7 | 64 |
| 10 | DEN 8532 | African Queen | Jørgen Schönherr / Jan Eli Gravad | 16 | 21 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 66 |
| 11 | USA 8521 | Stella | John MacCausland / Roger Cheer | 10 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 21 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 75 |
| 12 | BRA 8393 | Capatosta | Marcelo Bellotti / Mauricio Bueno | 13 | 6 | 25 | RET | 13 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 78 |
| 13 | USA 8000 | USA 8000 | Aruthur Anosov / David Caesar | 18 | 5 | 14 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 19 | 9 | 87 |
| 14 | USA 8520 | Rachel | Andy Macdonald / Brad Nichol | 8 | 9 | 8 | 19 | 9 | 21 | RET | 13 | 87 |
| 15 | CAN 8445 | Remarc | Brian Cramer / Cam Lymburner | 6 | 16 | 7 | 22 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 17 | 93 |
| 16 | ARG 8498 | Juanita | Alberto Zanetti / Payson Infelise | DNC | 8 | 4 | 14 | 14 | 36 | 13 | 14 | 103 |
| 17 | USA 8502 | USA 8502 | Mike Hecky / Guy Avellon | 14 | 10 | 19 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 106 |
| 18 | ARG 8285 | Pichon Pichoni | Erich Mones / Diego Peisajovich | 23 | RET | 9 | 15 | 22 | 7 | 18 | 21 | 115 |
| 19 | USA 8504 | Picnic | William Swigart / Brian Fatih | 15 | 11 | 29 | 31 | 20 | 26 | 14 | 15 | 130 |
| 20 | USA 8484 | Barakablue | Larry Whipple / Antonio Tsotras | 17 | 23 | 17 | 7 | 18 | 17 | DNS | DNS | 137 |
| 21 | CAN 8272 | Southern Star | Jerry Wendt / Bryan Milne | 26 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 31 | 22 | 19 | 139 |
| 22 | USA 8440 | USA 8440 | Jim Buckingham / Rick Peters | 27 | RET | 30 | 21 | 11 | 28 | 17 | 10 | 144 |
| 23 | GER 8361 | Voodoo | Stefan Lehnert / Kilian Weise | OCS | 18 | 16 | 17 | 6 | 12 | RET | DNS | 145 |
| 24 | USA 8059 | Re‑Pear | Robert Lippincott / Arnis Baltins | 24 | 24 | 32 | 20 | 27 | 27 | 16 | 16 | 154 |
| 25 | USA 8246 | 8246 | Shane Zwingelberg / Charlie Koules | 22 | 17 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 18 | 23 | 23 | 159 |
| 26 | ARG 8008 | Sarexpress | Fabian Mac Gowan / Ariel Simonet | 20 | 22 | 26 | 8 | 25 | 22 | RET | DNS | 161 |
| 27 | SUI 8499 | Fram | Christoph Gautschi / Tina Gautschi | 25 | 19 | 31 | 34 | 26 | 32 | 15 | 20 | 168 |
| 28 | USA 8153 | USA 8153 | Nicolaus Pro / Chad Easley | 34 | RET | 24 | 16 | RET | 11 | 24 | 27 | 174 |
| 29 | SWE 7978 | Fridolin | Ingvar Krook / Christoffer Lundgren | 28 | 28 | 20 | 25 | 31 | 23 | 28 | 25 | 177 |
| 30 | SWE 8358 | Lobster | Lars Ahlström / Bo Selko | 30 | 30 | 27 | 30 | 24 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 185 |
| 31 | CAN 8271 | USA 8271 | Al Cullen / Dave Martin | 31 | OCS | 22 | 35 | 29 | 25 | 25 | 22 | 189 |
| 32 | USA 6320 | Bingo X | Dwight Escalera / Elizabeth Escalera | 19 | 31 | 33 | 24 | 33 | 33 | 30 | 28 | 198 |
| 33 | USA 8439 | USA 8439 | Bob Teitge / Thad Brej | 21 | 26 | 34 | 33 | 30 | 29 | 27 | DNF | 200 |
| 34 | USA 8410 | T2 | Mike Phinney / Alex Baker | 29 | 25 | 23 | 26 | 35 | 30 | RET | DNS | 206 |
| 35 | CAN 7887 | USA 7887 | John Hokanson / Marcel Beltz | 32 | OCS | 35 | 36 | 34 | 34 | 29 | 26 | 226 |
| 36 | USA 8507 | USA 8507 | James Revkin / Richard Burgess | 35 | 27 | 36 | 29 | 32 | 35 | DNS | DNS | 232 |
| 37 | USA 8215 | Sonya | John Chiarella / Bob Carlson | 33 | 29 | 37 | 32 | 36 | 37 | DNS | DNS | 242 |
by Paul Cayard
