The 49th Star Class South American Championship 2018

The 49th Star Class South American Championship will be held at the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro – ICRJ from November 7th thru 11th.exactly one month after the Star World Championship that will start October 5th in Oxford, MD, USA, hosted by Tred Avon Yacht Club. 

The Star Class South American Championship was first held in 1952 when the Star Class became International in South America. The first event was organized by the ICRJ and was won by Roberto Bueno and his Star named “Xodo”.  The South American Championship is an agreement between the 7th District (first ever out of US) Brasil and 18th District of Argentina and Chile. Venezuela was disbanded after 1985.

In 2009, the South American Championship at ICRJ in Rio had a record of entries of 63 Stars from 14 nations. The event was won by Flavio Marazzi / E. de Maria (SUI).

Those champions winning the event multiple times include:

·         5 X: Ding Schoonmaker (USA); Torben Grael (BRA); Lars Grael (BRA)

·         3 X: Gastao Brun (BRA); Alberto Zanetti (ARG)

Some other great names of the Star Class who have won the Silver Star in the South Americans include:

·          World champions: Walter Von Hutschler (GER/BRA); Mark Reynolds (USA); Robert Scheidt (BRA).

·         Notable Star sailors: Harry Adler (BRA); Peter Siemsen (BRA); J. Lippincott (USA); Julio Labandeira; Rainer Roellenbleg (GER); Harry Walker (USA) and the ISCYRA president Hubert Merkelbach (GER) in 2015.

·         Famous sailors worldwide who have attended include: Erik Schmidt (BRA); Jorg Bruder (BRA); Guillermo Parada (ARG).

Defending their Silver Star title will be the young team of Marcelo Belloti and Mauricio Bueno (BRA) on the race course.

Iate Clube Rio de Janeiro has hosted the Star Worlds in 1960; 1980; 1996; 2010 and was selected to organize the 2020 Star World Championship in its centennial year. The ICRJ is a club with a complete nautical structure with all facilities including four cranes. www.icrj.com.br.