Starboat World Championship: With legend Cayard to World Championship gold - third title for Kleen
Tatjana Pokorny
· 13.09.2025
The list of Starboat world champions is one of the most colourful in international sailing. Especially in the Olympic era of the two-person keelboat, world stars romped about in this class. Whether Willy Kuhweide, Dennis Conner, Robert Scheidt, Torben Grael, Iain Percy or German world champions such as Alexander Hagen - they all share gold medals at Starboat World Championships.
Cayard has been a star boat ace since the 1980s
Paul Cayard had already joined the prominent "club" as world champion in 1988 with his title alongside Steve Erickson in Buenos Aires. The American went on to hoard six more bronze medals at Starboat World Championships. He achieved his most recent third place at the World Championships in 2022 with Berlin-born Firthjof Kleen, who lives on Lake Garda.
The San Francisco-born Cayard competed with the German three years ago to win another World Championship title in the Star boat almost four decades after his first triumph. Cayard and Kleen had the chance to do so twice, but twice it wasn't quite enough. Now the joint coup has been achieved. Paul Cayard had to wait 37 years for this.
After six hard-fought races on the Split Canal, Paul Cayard (USA) and Frithjof Kleen (GER) were crowned the 2025 Starboat World Champions in Croatia. They only secured the title in the last race of the championship in one of the most exciting finals in recent years. The fact that Frithjof Kleen even went overboard in the process is an extremely rare occurrence in the Starboat class and not really something that should have happened to him. However, the unusual faux pas did not stop the determined American-German duo.
Kleen goes overboard in the World Cup final
"I threw myself out with all my athleticism on the last section 100 metres before the last windward mark - and missed the outhaul. I felt like I was hanging on the backstay for five minutes. Paul later said it was 15 seconds. Getting back into the star boat with the lean to windward... We didn't make it easy for ourselves," reported Kleen.
The involuntary and brief refreshment was unable to shake the World Championship foundations that had been laid beforehand with two consecutive victories in the huge field. Cayard and Kleen came out on top with 28 points on their World Championship account and a three-point lead over Olympic champion Mateusz Kusznierewicz with Bruno Prada. Diego Negri, with whom Frithjof Kleen won his second World Championship title in the Star boat off Kiel in 2021, sailed to third place.
The young German U30 sailors Nick Heuwinkel and Jesper Spehr caused quite a stir in Split. At times with a chance of a podium finish, they sailed to an outstanding sixth place, beating Robert Stanjek, the man who sailed to World Championship gold with Frithjof Kleen in 2014. Sailing greats such as Enrico Chieffi (8th with Fernando Colaninno) and defending champion John Kostecki (13th with Austin Sperry) also had to admit defeat in Split. Hubert Merkelbach and Markus Koy finished in 12th place.
Great emotions, strong cohesion
In the thrilling final World Championship race, Paul Cayard and Frithjof Kleen knew exactly what they had to do. They knew that they had to limit the number of boats between themselves and their most dangerous rivals. They were not allowed to finish more than eleven places behind Negri, four behind Doyle and seven behind Kusznierewicz. Negri and Lambertenghi won the race, followed by Stipanovic/Bilic, Kusznierewicz/Prada and Chieffi/Colaninno.
By then, all eyes in the fleet had turned to the battle behind them. Cayard and Kleen kept their cool, crossed the finish line in seventh place and secured the title by a narrow margin of three points. "These are really big emotions," said a visibly moved Paul Cayard shortly afterwards on the jetty. He continued: "We made it very difficult for ourselves. But we also stuck together in difficult times."
It's surreal to win here 37 years after my first title." Paul Cayard
In his long career in sailing, the helmsman said that alongside the America's Cups and round-the-world races, the Star class has always been the constant for him. Cayard said: "It is something very special to win again." Frithjof Kleen added: "It's very special to win this with Paul. This whole journey has meant so much to me. I want to thank our great team, our training partners, our coach and especially our families. I am very happy and think we are ready to celebrate tonight!"
With perseverance to Starboot gold
On Saturday evening, Paul Cayard and Frithjof Kleen were honoured in Split with the more than 100-year-old Starboat trophy, on which so many famous names are engraved. With the dedicated American class president and the most successful Starboat skipper from Germany, a more persistent team could hardly have won after several joint attempts.
"It was difficult to win this title in a fleet of more than 100 boats," said Frithjof Kleen in an interview with YACHT online on Saturday evening. As with Diego Negri, Kleen had also made several attempts with Cayard before the gold coup succeeded. No German sailor had ever won three world championship gold medals before Kleen. And not many international star boat sailors either.
Paul Cayard, "Frida" Kleen recounts with emotion, had tears in his eyes after the decision. Cayard had already told him after the two daily victories that this was almost an even greater experience than his many other successes in the Louis Vuitton Cup or in round-the-world races.
The Starboot is simply the Starboot." Frithjof Kleen
Kleen said: "Paul Cayard is a great sailor with a great history. It was an honour to be on board with him. If there's no wind for two hours, he'll tell you the most incredible stories about all the people he's sailed with. He talks about people like Dennis Conner or Tom Blackaller and other luminaries. And he also has an enormous multiple burden to bear. He is class president. And the class is so important to him. What's more, everyone wants something from him: a speech, an interview, a good word..."
Mission possible: World Championship victory for Cayard/Kleen
Cayard himself told YACHT that the second World Championship gold had become "a mission" for him in recent years. The 66-year-old sailing star from San Francisco said: "I'm getting older. I've worked hard this year to stay fit. We had a chance to win in Marblehead in 2022 but didn't win. Last year we had another good chance, but we didn't make it. Now we've done it."
Cayard said of his collaboration with Frithjof Kleen: "We've known each other for ten or twelve years. He has always worked with good people like Scheidt and others. It was great, really good." Smiling, Cayard added: "He gave the 66-year-old a good run round the course. This is the crowning moment." Click here for the results.
In assessing his many successes, Cayard said: "Sometimes I can't decide between the Louis Vuitton Cup and the Whitbread Round the World Race. But I always end up saying that the Starboat success is the biggest, the most valuable. And in some ways, this one is perhaps even more valuable than the first."
The age of 66 is far from over
Cayard also explained why he sees it that way: "I was 28 years old when I won my first World Championship. I had previously finished third three times in a row. It was my turn. But 37 years later, 66 years old, with completely different people in the class, I managed to win again. I could say that this victory here is even more extraordinary."
It was also important for Cayard to take a bow in the direction of Nils Heuwinkel and Jesper Spehr. The crew, supported by the German Starboat Class, the Heinz Nixdorf Academy and Arnd Glunde in particular, impressed the champion. Cayard also referred once again to the World Championship victory of Max Kohlhoff and Ole Burzinski two years ago. Cayard said: "There are great new young people in the class. It's wonderful to see and great for the Starboat class that they are coming and carrying the torch into the next 30 years."
