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.
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 |
