John Kostecki and Austin Sperry are the 2024 Star World Champions

The 2024 Star World Championship was one of the tightest of the last editions, with the title open until the very last leg of the very last race. The 2-mile downwind stretch of Race Six was the longest in the life of many of the teams fighting for the 2024 World Title, certainly it must have felt that way for John Kostecki and Austin Sperry (USA) who rounded first at the second top mark but saw the Argentinian brothers Leandro and Lucas Altolaguirre chasing them with great pace and eventually taking them over to finish first in the last race. But the one boat in between them, John Dane III with Peter Sangmeister (USA), was not enough for the Altolaguirres to claim the overall regatta: John Kostecki and Austin Sperry are the 2024 Star World Champions, after a tight race with lead changes.

“We won this with a lot of thirds.. still hard to process, I have to thank JK and the team for making me achieve this life dream, it’s been 30 years in the making, it just feels so special. This is for all the guys I sailed with growing up and helped me becoming the sailor and the man I am”, commented right after crossing the finish line a very emotional Austin Sperry, a 2008 Star Olympian with John Dane III.
“We sailed a great race today, we needed to, we had a great start, went fast, we had some luck with the wind shifts and it all just came together, which is what you need to win a World Championship”, added America’s Cup legend, Silver medalist at the 1988 Olympics in the competitive Soling Class, Volvo Ocean Race winner in 2001/02 with Illbruck Challenge and who has won 16 World Championship titles, now 17 with his first one in the Star Class.

It all started on time, but with a General Recall and the following start with Black Flag, with 3 boats over early and had to retire, Erik Lidecis with Gregory Smith – who missed by one position the top 10 – Piet Eckert and Frederico Melo (SUI/POR), Tomas Hornos with Mauricio Bueno (USA/BRA) and local U30 team Carter Cameron with Jack Kingston (USA). 8/10 knots were blowing from Southwest so the race course could be set closer to the shore and away from the coastal current, it was another race with constant bearing adjustments due to clouds passing over the racecourse, difficult for both the 64-boat fleet and the Race Committee.

“It has been a challenge all week between the different wind directions, the current and the eagerness of the fleet at the starts. We had to stay south of Point Loma to have steadier breeze and not too far out to avoid the strong coastal current, but we are happy of the outcome”, commented PRO and Star Class Regatta Director Tom Duggan. “We had San Diego classic conditions on the last four days, the first two were affected by a heatwave, but all in all we had six challenging and fair races for everybody, mission accomplished”, added Deputy PRO and SDYC Waterfront Director Jeff Johnson.

At the first top mark Eric Doyle with Payson Infelise (USA) were leading followed by Jack Jennings and Pedro Trouche (USA/BRA), the first ones of the six engaged in the quest for the title were John Kostecki with Austin Sperry, with the Argentinians in eight. The Altolaguirre brothers rounded first at the gate with three boats between them and Kostecki/Sperry, they were winning the Championship in that very moment, but it didn’t last for long. At the second top mark the Americans were first, Dane / Sangmeister second and Altolaguirres third, with Kostecki /Sperry now first in the overall regatta. The second downwind was not for the fainted hearted, and a finish this close hadn’t happened in the Star Class for 23 years, the last time two teams ended one point apart was in 2001.

“It was a long week of challenging conditions and it came down to the last race between six boats, it was and a great way to end his championship really, open until the last leg”, said Danny Cayard, third generation Star sailor.
“It was close down until the end but we were just a little short today.. Congrats to the winners they did a great job and sailed the better race, so hats off to them. We are happy with our result, Danny and I have only sailed together for a short amount of time and so it was good for us personally and I am looking forward to the next one together”, added Will Stout from San Diego Yacht Club.

Leandro and Lucas Altolaguirre, great Argentinian sailors under 40 years old, proved incredible skills, especially downwind, and were backed up by all of the very active Argentinian Star Class, and of course Newport Harbor Star sailor Jim Buckingham who loaned them one of his boats for the Championship.

“We had a tough finish to the Championship and this race, we started well, stayed in the shifts in the first upwind and then had an excellent downwind conquering the first position, in the second upwind we lost two boats and in the last leg, we were fast and won the race, but not the Championship”, declared Lucas Altolaguirre. “We had a fantastic week here, we are very very happy, everything was just perfect”.

The pain is still stinging, and it will hurt for a while for Star Class President, Star World Champion, Louis Vuitton Cup winner and sailing international legend Paul Cayard with two time Star World Champion and Olympian Frithjof Kleen, who ended in fourth after winning three of the six races…

“It is disappointing to win three races and not the World Championship, in Race Two and Race Five I made some mistakes, just big mistakes and finishing more than tenth, you kind of need to stay in the top ten.. if you're not having a great race like today but still sail well and are able to get back to seventh it is ok, so anyway just had too many points and the other guys sailed very consistently and I'm super happy for my son Danny who finished second”, commented Cayard. “Obviously, like Frida said, we were so close to accomplishing the goal, after race four we were really in a strong spot and so it hurts, it's hard to think beyond that right now but we're a good team, we sailed well, we have a fast boat and I'm sure after a few weeks we'll digest this and we will look forward to another shot at this”.

The 2024 Star World Championship closed with the Prize Giving Ceremony at San Diego Yacht Club, with all of the 128 sailors gathered around the new Star World Champions, the ones that will get to engrave their names in the 100+ year old trophy and could lift it in front of the whole fleet tonight.