Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Chas Beek at the 2021 Star World Championship

Results

I want to start out by saying how thankful I am for the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation. I felt a great deal of support and encouragement with everyone I spoke with. With the tremendous support of the NHSF, I was able to tackle one of my biggest dreams. Competing as one out of the 82 teams racing in the Star World Championships in Kiel, Germany.

The trip started out with a flight to Zurich, Switzerland where I was acquainted with my old time friend and crew, Uli Seeberger. From there we drove through Munich, Germany to the Herrsching Yacht Club to acquire the boat we would be using later that week in Kiel. After a few sail exchanges and dealing with a broken surge break, we geared up and drove all night. Twelve hours to Kiel and occasionally grinning, we were on our way to the Star Worlds.

We arrived three days early to go over the rig tuning and to set up the boat to our likes and needs. We had a couple really nice tuning days on the water in 12kts of breeze but the weather forecast for the first few days of the regatta was looking grim, warm weather with little to no breeze. Even with this under-whelming news adrift in the boat yard, we all threw on our blazers and had a great time at the opening ceremony. 

As expected, we were postponed four hours on-shore before the race was eventually abandoned for day one. Day two didn’t have much to offer either, after an on-shore postponement of four hours again the day was finally abandoned. Using much of this down time to fix things on the boat, it might have benefited us in the long haul. After another race-less cocktail party, we were eagerly waiting for a race. Day three of the regatta had light to moderate wind and we were able to get the first race off. With a U-Flag start and a turn off the caps, we rounded the first mark in 13th. Struggling on the light air runs, we managed to fall back throughout the race and ended up 21st. The wind shut off and that was that for day three. With three days remaining in the regatta, we would have to have two double-headers to get enough races in for it to count as a world championship. And that’s just what we got, day four of the series we had two races in about 7-9kts. It was a day full of shifts and three black flag starts. We managed to put a 22nd and a 37th on the score sheet and moved up to 17th over-all and the top American at the mid-way point of the regatta. Which was followed with a formal dinner at the MAGA and mid-week awards. The next day was another double-header. Cold and blowing 15kts, we got off the fourth race off in no time at all. The wind then abruptly quieted down and we slowly finished race five with a course three.

We sailed the last race of the regatta with a spectacular breeze blowing in from the south. With another course three posted we began the starting sequence. After having about four black flag starts and general recalls, there were 19 boats that got thrown out. Lucky we didn’t get called over, we had another great start but tacked off early and committed to the wrong side. Hiking hard to the up-wind finish, we were keeping our pace with the boats around us sailing higher but slower. The second half of the regatta didn’t pan out the way we envisioned but we still had the most memorable of times! Congratulations to Diego Negri and Frithjof Kleen on an outstanding victory in which they claimed the title with a race to spare.

I can’t put into words how thankful I am for the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation for giving me this opportunity to achieve one of my goals, and for giving me a memory of a lifetime. The amount of knowledge I obtained from this trip with stick with me forever.  It was an incredible experience and I’m looking forward to getting back on the water. A huge thanks to everyone involved in the NHSF.