Who will access the SSL Finals? How will they be chosen and when will you know the definite list?

The SSL Ranking is updated every Tuesday with the results of the previous weekend. Star Sailors League ranks more than 200 ISCYRA events per year and – at the moment – one or two SSL events, they will be four plus the Finals in 2020. To access to the SSL Finals you need to be in the top 10 of the Skippers’ ranking, and in order to do so you can either attend as many regattas as possible and do the best you can, or select the ones that give out more points – and still do very well!!

Since last Finals, in 2016, SSL was happy to give a recognition to the number one crew, who now has the right to race at the event with a skipper of his choice – last year it was Bruno Prada (BRA) and he called young Brazilian Finn sailor Jorge Zarif).

The SSL Finals itself gives out points, and quite many too… So Mark Mendelblatt winning last December, with crew Brian Fatih, obtained 4,000 points, summed up to the 3,000 he got at Bacardi Cup in March, can now comfortably sit on fifth position with only two regattas on his shoulders. We could say the same for Polish sailing hero, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, in seventh position by only attending SSL events – and always finishing in the top 5. This trick won’t last forever though, as the points decrease in value 12 months after the event is sailed, and cancel 24 months after; things will also be very different when four SSL Grand Slams will be raced every year with 3,000 points each. We can’t wait for that!

If you are not Kusznierewicz, Mendelblatt or Rohart, you can attend as many ISCYRA events as possible, improve your skills and give your best to be in the top 10, like it happened last year to German doctor Hubert Merkelbach, joining the 25 best Star sailors in the world for his great results throughout a whole year of Star racing. He is one of the most experienced amateur Star sailors, to the extend that we can barely call him ‘amateur’, but unlike many other SSL Finalists, his job is not related to sailing at all – he’s an orthopedic – and still earned his way to the SSL Finals and even he finished last, he was glad to be there among some incredibly talented sailors.

There are still plenty of regattas to be sailed in 2017 both in Europe, North and South America, and the SSL Finals 2017 entry list has yet to be completed, who will join us in Nassau, Bahamas?

The answer will be definite on September the 12^th, when the top 10 skippers and the #1 crew of the SSL Ranking will qualify for the SSL Finals, to be sailed from the 4^th to the 9^th of December 2017.