100th Anniversary Star World Championship kicks off in one month

It's shaping up to be an event to remember, the 2022 Star World Championship not only will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary Championship but will register a record number of participants after the Olympic years. There will be over 15 past Star World Champions and a good representation of the new generation with 15 U30 teams.

100 years ago, the first ever Star World Championship took place in Long Island, NY, USA, the boat was about 10 years old and its popularity was expanding from the American borders to the rest of the Globe. This year we celebrate one the most endured sailing classes, the International Star Class, with the 100th Anniversary Star World Championship, in Marblehead, MA, USA, not so distant from the venue of the first edition of the event. 90 entries 10 years after being cut from the Olympic Games, it is a testimony of the longstanding appeal of the boat designed in 1910 by Francis Sweisguth and as an Olympic sailing class for 80 years, from 1932 to 2012, more than any other class.

All of the sailing legends have won a title in the Star Class, from Lowell North, founder of North Sails, to Dennis Conner, Mister America's Cup, from the all-time hero Paul Elvstrom to three-time Olympic Star medalist Mark Reynolds, from Valentin Mankin, to Torben Grael, Paul Cayard, Robert Scheidt and Iain Percy. These are the sailors who have written the history of our sport and to them and all of the Star World Champions is dedicated '100 Years of Gold Stars', the book written by Carol Newman Cronin in which she interviews most of the living Champions and she captures the best memories of a century of global events.

To celebrate the Star World Champions, each team will have a sail number representing a year of their choice. Past World Champions will have the year in which they won, and other competitors have picked a memorable one for them. Bobby Lippincott chose 1950, when his grandfather Robert won the title in Chicago, and so did Danny Cayard by picking 1960, year in which his grandfather Pelle Petterson won in San Diego, and Larry Whipple 1922, the year of the first World Championship.

The 2022 Star World Championship will begin on September 10th with the official practice race, and will end on Saturday 17th, after seven days in which the traditional two-hour long six races will be finished. After that, a pair of new names – but not necessarily 'new' – will be written on the prestigious 100-year-old trophy, and the history of the International Star Class and its renowned World Championship will enter a new century.