Brun Wins Star Championship, Moves Closer to World Finals

Skipper Vince Brun and crew Hugo Schreiner won the Star Spring Championship of the Western Hemisphere on Friday, sailing through a field of 50 of the top boats in the class to claim their fourth victory in the six-race regatta.

Brun and Schreiner, who won the Star world championship last year in Capri, Italy, took a major step toward qualifying for the 1987 world championship, to be held on Lake Michigan, near Chicago. This week’s regatta was one of six “silver-star” events held worldwide to determine eligibility for the world championship.

Brun and Schreiner accrued only 8.7 points over the course of the regatta. In each race, the winner receives zero points, the runner-up is assessed three points, the third place boat gets 5.7 points.

Ross and Bruce MacDonald of the English Bay Yacht Club in Canada placed second in the regatta with 32.7 points. Three-time Star world champion Bill Buchan and crew Steve Erickson, representing the Puget Sound Yacht Club in Seattle, finished third with 33.4 points. Buchan’s son, Carl, and crew Erick Kownacki were fourth with 38.4 points.

The other top boats in the regatta’s final standings were: Paul Cayard and Bob Billingham (West San Francisco Bay Yacht Club), 39.7; Gastao Brun and Marcello Bastos (Rio De Jainero Yacht Club), 52.4; Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel (San Diego Yacht Club), 53.7; Ed Adams and Tom Olsen (Narragansett Bay Yacht Club), 68; Steve Gould and Greg Sieck (West San Francisco Bay Yacht Club), 69.7; Larry Whipple and Kirk Utter (Puget Sound Yacht Club), 84.