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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Torben Grael and Jorge Zarif will join Scheidt and Fuchs in the Star Sailors League Finals this December in Nassau, Bahamas
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Nassau (Bahamas) -
It is with
great pleasure that the Star Sailors League announces that two more top
Brazilian sailors will be joining the fleet of 20 super-champions
taking part in the SSL Finals 2014 being held for the second consecutive
year at Nassau Yacht Club in the Bahamas between
December 1st and 7th.
2013 winner Robert Scheidt and new entry Marcelo Fuchs, 12th in
the Skipper Ranking, will now be flanked by two highly prestigious
wildcards from the Brazilian and international sailing scene.
Torben Grael, of course, requires no introduction. Winner of 5
Olympic medals, including 4 in the Star class (Bronze at Seoul 1988,
gold at Atlanta in 1996, bronze at Sydney in 2000 and gold again at
Athens in 2004), 5 world titles in Olympic classes, victory in the Louis
Vuitton Cup 2000 with Luna Ross and first place in the Volvo Ocean Race
2008/2009 with Ericsson 4. Torben got back to Star racing last year and
is currently ranked #21 of the 1,001 skippers in the SSL’s official
ranking.
Making his international Star debut is 22 year old Jorge Zarif,
one of the strongest up-and-coming Brazilian sailors. His boat of
choice is usually the Finn – he was junior world champion in 2013
despite the difficult conditions in Tallinn in Estonia, repeating his
feat of 2009.
The two Brazilians will be flanked in their endeavours with the
strongest Star fleet of all time (the words of Jorge) by fellow
countrymen Guilherme De Almeida (SSL Crew #9, 2,882 points), who was
Torben’s bowman in 5 of the 6 regattas that counted towards the SSL
points (the South American Championship was the exception with Bruno
Prada on the bow) and Henry Boening (SSL Crew #16, 2,095 points) who
normally sails with Alessandro Pascolato (BRA).
Jorge Zarif:
"
The SSL format is the future of sailing and the Star class
is the most famous and important boat in our sport. This says a lot
about how I felt when I received the invitation. I immediately called
Dino Pascolato to ask him for his crew and North Sails for new sails. We
have already set some training dates and have started to lose a bit of
weight (we have to lose 10 kg each). Since I saw Robert and Torben, the
two greatest Brazilian Olympians, and Freddy Loof, one of the greatest
ever Finn and Star sailors, and all the others, I stopped feeling
nervous. The league will also attract more great sailors, so maybe we
are talking about the strongest fleet ever. I hope we survive with all
those guys around us.... 2014 was fine: good regattas in Miami, Hyeres
and the test event. The Worlds were horrible but that happens when you
are sailing at a high level. Let’s see if we can finish the year on a
high though.”
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