Watch here live from Nassau, Bahamas, the Star Sailors League Final – Day 1 (18 UTC)

An unprecedented fleet of olympic stars and world champions will sail the SSL main event (200.000 Us$ prize money) untill next Saturday in Nassau.

Olympic medallist

GER Jochen Schümann (3x Gold + 1x Silver)
BRA Torben Grael (2x Gold + 1 Silver + 2 Bronze + 1 VOR + 1 LVC)
BRA Robert Scheidt (2x Gold + 2x Silver + 1 Bronze)
POL Mateusz Kusznierewicz (1x Gold + 1x Bronze)
CRO Sime Fantela (1x Gold)
AUS Tom Burton (1x Gold)
SLO Vasilij Zbogar (2x Silver + 1x Bronze)
FRA Xavier Rohart (1x Bronze)
DEN Jonas Høgh-Christensen (1x Silver)
BRA Bruno Prada (1x Silver + 1x Bronze)
FRA Pascal Rambeau (1 x Bronze)
GER Ingo Borkowski (1 X Silver)
CRO Tonci Stipanovic (1x Silver)
USA Caleb Paine (1x Bronze)
NZL Sam Meech (1x Bronze)
NZL Craig Monk (1x Bronze + 2X America’s Cup)

 

Star World Champion

USA Paul Cayard (World Champion in Star + 1x Louis Vuitton Cup + 1x Volvo)
GER Robert Stanjek
USA George Szabo
USA Augie Diaz

 

European or North American Star Champion

GBR Johannes Polgar
ITA Diego Negri
USA Mark Mendelblatt
GER Hubert Merkelbach

Invited rookie The 22 years old argentinian Facundo Olezza, winner of two races at his first Olympics, Finn Class, Rio 2016. Facundo Olezza (Dinghy Academy sailor) will sail with portuguese Frederico Melo.

SSL has developed a new racing format, in collaboration with some of the most experienced and skilled sailors of the world. The main goal of this format is to build tension and excitement for the public watching on the internet. The athletes truly believe that the SSL Racing Format completely fulfills this objective without spoiling the nature of sailing as a sport. The introduction of a knockout system inspired by the “play-offs” helps increasing the pressure and ends in the ultimate climax with a ”winner-takes-all” final.

The top 10 teams of the qualifying series access to the Final Day on Saturday December 3rd, which will be raced in a knockout format. The first and second qualified go straight respectively to final and semifinal, so that quarterfinal will be a single race for team ranked third to tenth. Top five teams will access to semifinal to meet the second best of the qualification round in a single race that will decide the three of them that will go to the final to compete for the title with the number one team of the qualification round. (See the diagram below). The winner will be crowned as winner of the 2016 SSL Finals, together with the biggest share of the prize fund.

891eca5b-0bd7-451a-b9d3-2bb91053bb0d
Entry list:

Bow # Sail # Skipper Crew
1 FRA 8237 Xavier Rohart FRA Pierre-Alexis Ponsot FRA
2 USA 8320 George Szabo USA Edoardo Natucci ITA
3 ITA 8497 Diego Negri ITA Sergio Lambertenghi ITA
4 USA 8509 Augie Diaz USA Arnis Baltins USA
5 GER 8442 Johannes Polgar GER Markus Koy GER
6 POL 8404 Mateusz Kusznierewicz POL Dominik Zycki POL
9 BRA 8510 Torben Grael BRA Guilherme de Almeida BRA
10 GER 8340 Robert Stanjek GER Frithjof Kleen GER
11 USA 8506 Paul Cayard USA Josh Revkin USA
15 GER 8446 Hubert Merkelbach GER Claus Olesen DEN
17 USA 8481 Mark Mendelblatt USA Brian Fatih USA
19 CRO Tonci Stipanovic CRO Ante Sitic CRO
21 BRA Jorge Zarif BRA Bruno Prada BRA
88 ISV Taylor Canfield ISV Mark Strube USA
89 GBR Nick Thompson GBR Steve Mitchell GBR
90 ARG Facundo Olezza ARG Frederico Melo POR
91 SUI Eric Monnin SUI Pascal Rambeau FRA
92 USA Caleb Paine USA Ian Coleman USA
93 NZL Sam Meech NZL Craig Monk NZL
94 DEN Jonas Hogh-Christensen DEN Steve Milne GBR
95 SLO Vasilij Zbogar SLO Zsombor Berecz HUN
96 CRO Sime Fantela CRO Antonio Arapovic CRO
97 AUS Tom Burton AUS Andrew Palfrey AUS
98 BRA Robert Scheidt BRA Henry Boening BRA
99 GER Jochen Schümann GER Ingo Borkowski GER
1455