Ireland’s Robert O’Leary crewing with Australian Torvar Mirsky appeared to have lost their stride yesterday (Friday 6 December) and were the only team to drop out of the top 10 in the Star Sailors League Finals in the Bahamas.

This came after after an outstanding day three on Nassau’s Montagu Bay, when they were first to the windward mark in all three races, putting them in ninth to start the last day of qualifiers.

Highlights of day four can be watched below:

Star of day three in the Star Sailors League was Australian Torvar Mirsky sailing with Ireland’s Robert O’Leary, as the pair cruised into the top 10 on a day where young talent shone through amid lighter 6-12 knot conditions on Nassau’s Montagu Bay.

With the wind due north, 2017 Match Racing World Champion Mirsky was unbeatable upwind, leading at the top mark in all three of today’s races.

However, it was only in the second when he and O’Leary converted this to their first bullet, which helped lift them up to ninth overall.

“It was a splendid day – I’m really stoked,” said Mirsky once ashore at Nassau Yacht Club. “We were struggling a little downwind, but we were at the front of the fleet, which was really cool.

“In the lighter conditions we could look around a bit so we were able to tack, play the fleet and the shifts a little bit. We held on to most of it.”

Generally the lighter conditions favoured the youngsters in the 23-team fleet.

While Mirsky and O’Leary were the class act, scoring just one point more today were Scottish Laser European Champion Lorenzo Chiavarini and his German crew Kilian Weise, whose 3-3-6 left them in seventh (following yesterday’s two DNFs). Also going well today were Brazilians Henrique Haddad and Henry Boening who posted a 2-7-7, leaving them 10th.

Another three races are scheduled for today (Friday 6 December) starting at 11am local time to complete the qualification round. After this the top 10 alone will be heading on to the finals round tomorrow.

#Star -  The Star Sailors League (SSL) has announced its first ever event in the 2013 SSL Final, an invitational event from 3-8 December at the Nassau Yacht Club in the Bahamas with the best Star sailors from 11 countries competing for US$200,000 in prize money.

The provisional entry list - which includes three Olympic gold medallists, 11 Olympic class world champions and a Louis Vuitton Cup winner - represents the first and the only time, after the Star Worlds and 2012 Olympic Games, that so many international Star champions will race together.

Most of the leaders in the SSL Ranking list have already confirmed their participation, and include Robert Scheidt (BRA), Xavier Rohart (FRA), Freddy Loof (SWE), Eivind Melleby (NOR), Michael Hestbaek (DEN), Flavio Marazzi (SUI), Johannes Polgar (GER), Robert Stanjek (GER), Mateusz Kusznierewicz (POL), George Szabo (USA) and Diego Negri (ITA).

Also confirmed is US sailor Paul Cayard, long time Star sailor and 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup Winner, who will compete as a welcome guest. Further participants will be confirmed.     

This event will also be the first Star Class event with the new race format - for all 18 boats, regatta style racing for three days, with no more than four races per day and a maximum of nine races in all - followed by an innovative fourth day whereby the top ten from the previous days will compete in the three final races with a progressive drop-out of three boats per session.

The last day of racing will begin with 10 boats in the quarter final, seven in the semi-final and only four in the final. The overall winner of the event will be the team that first crosses the line in the final race, and will receive 4,000 SSL points.

Prizes include the Best Skipper of the Year award, while the Best Crew of the Year will receive the first Simpson Memorial Trophy in memory of British Star sailor Andrew 'Bart' Simpson who tragically lost his life in training for the America's Cup this summer.

All races will be broadcast live on the official website www.starsailors.com with Virtual Eye technology, the same tracking that was used during the America’s Cup.

And virtual engaging doesn't stop here, as sailors from all over the world will be invited to 'play' the Star Sailors League with Virtual Regatta INSHORE.

The SSL has partnered with online gaming company Many Players to develop this unique event. As Many Players CEO Philippe Guigné explains: "We're happy to work with the Star Sailors League and offer the opportunity to play before, during (live) and after this event to all our one million players.

"Here we are making a new step, for the first time on the INSHORE game offering the magnificent Star boats and the unique SSL ranking system."   

The inaugural Grand Final will officially launch the SSL's activities, and with five days of competition will put the emphasis on men rather than machines.

The Star Sailors League was established last January, the birth of a dream of Olympic and amateur sailors to build an international regatta circuit to promote athletes and their skills.

Under the SSL name the organisation brings together all the Star Class regattas and defines a new world ranking, based on the model of the ATP World Tour created by tennis players in 1972, with more than 2,400 skippers and crew already ranked in the SSL Ranking.

Drawing its inspiration from tennis and its annual Masters, the SSL Board is launching the Star Sailors League Final which will be sailed at the end of each year.