With the 2025 Star Class season on the horizon, Quantum Sails' George Szabo sat down with 2024 Worlds Champions, John Kostecki and Austin Sperry, to discuss their winning combination of dynamic sails, expert training, and talent.
Photo: Matias Capizzano
Key Takeaways
Building the Program:
Austin Sperry and John Kostecki's Star program evolved with the involvement of top talent like Marc Pickel, and Rodney Hagebols and Quantum's George Szabo. Their training sessions and regatta participation built a solid foundation despite limited time.
Team Dynamics and Coaching:
The team benefited from experienced coaches whose low-key, practical feedback was instrumental. Open communication and consistent tuning debriefs helped refine their approach at each event.
Strategic Tuning Adjustments:
The team's tuning evolved through consistent data tracking and fine-tuning. Small, incremental changes significantly impacted their speed, especially upwind.
Open Communication as a Differentiator:
Transparent dialogue within the team and with trusted partners like Szabo created an environment where no topic was off-limits. This openness, particularly around sail setup and performance feedback, was key to their success.
Stock Boat Success: Winning with a stock Folli boat and standard sails underscored the importance of skill, preparation, and tuning over extensive modifications.
The Background
George Szabo: This was such an amazing feat. Take us from the beginning.
Austin Sperry: A few years ago, when the Worlds were down in Miami, my father-in-law, John Dane, was trying to convince me to buy an Etchells. Marc Pickel and Rodney Hagebols were also in Miami for that event, so I gave them a buzz and said, "Why don't you guys go check out this Etchells that's sitting in the parking lot." So, they crawled through the whole thing, and they said it looked good, so I bought it.
Fast forward to this past year in Miami. I've built a program for the Etchells with John Kostecki in the middle, leading the show there, and we've got Max Salminen and Noel Drennan. I'm driving, which is a different perspective for me because I've really been a crew my whole life. There was some unbelievable experience and talent in that group that I felt I needed. I'm not an expert in Etchells and on top of that, a spinnaker is an entirely new dynamic for me because, as you know, George, and sorry, we don't have that funny-looking sail up on the front in the Star Class. Thank God.
I spent last winter sailing the Star with Anders Ekstrom, and the original plan was to sail the Worlds together in 2024. Long story short, we are two big guys, and we couldn't weigh in. Anders gave me a call in April telling me to go in another direction. That's when I brought the idea to Kostecki.
The Program
Szabo: How did you put the program together for Worlds?
John Kostecki: [laughing] I personally didn't have much time to think about it because we didn't really join up together until April of 2024.
Fortunately, Austin already had the C-Star, and we had a list of four events before the Worlds. So, we sailed the C-Star at the Rollins Bowl in San Diego in May. We did okay in that first regatta, had a lot of fun and decided to keep going with it. In the meantime, Austin had previously ordered a Folli that was already in the process of being built and delivered.
Sperry: Yeah. I had a new boat on order from Folli over in Italy. The C-Star I bought has a great pedigree and race record. For the first time back in the boat for JK and me, we finished 3rd with the C-star, I was pleased. Third wasn't bad.
Szabo: The boat you had, the C-Star, I had nicknamed that boat No Excuses, because it had won the Europeans and was second in the Worlds.
Kostecki: That's exactly what Austin said. He just goes, "Man, this boat's a rocket ship." Austin had a lot of confidence in the build and the process of the Folli. We were looking at training a little bit before each regatta and then competing in the regattas and learning as much as we could to evolve from there.
We did a week-long training session in San Diego with you [Szabo], Will, and Parker. So, all that combined that was kind of our plan going into it. We just tried to learn as much as we could at each event, debriefing at the end to step up the game next time. Parallel to that, we were getting the new boat going. We had some minor issues here and there with the mast and with the setup, where to put the mast in the boat, and little things like that. But, thanks to you and the coaching staff, we got it all set up how we wanted it.
Team Dynamics
Szabo: Day in, day out, month after month, what's the team dynamic like?
Kostecki: We were fortunate to have a great coaching staff with Marc Pickel and Rodney Hagebols. Marc's a two-time Olympian in the Star for Germany. Rodney is one of the best coaches, very experienced in the Star Class as a skipper and a crew. We were lucky to have them alongside us, as well as having you as a tuning partner to help us progress.
Sperry: Rodney would fill in crewing, in the handful of days that I was unable to be there just to get JK extra tiller time, extra comfort with the setup, the mast, the sails, the whole thing.
Szabo: What surprised me was how few things were said. The coaching style wasn't over the top. It was maybe every half hour you get a comment or a debrief from a coach. It wasn't overly technical.
Kostecki: Yeah. And I think that's part of Rodney's strength is that he takes more of a relaxed approach to things which can be helpful, especially for people like you and me, as we can get excited sometimes. Marc was instrumental in helping me get up to speed as a helmsman. A lot of the little comments here and there that he would say would really make a huge difference for me.
Szabo: What kind of things is Pickel teaching you there?
Kostecki: Anything. Before we even started sailing, he would send me a list of clothing that I needed. And for me to come back into the class, I had to learn all these little things that just come naturally to somebody who sails the Star all the time. How to tack, where to put your body, how to jibe, etc. Basic stuff. It made it a lot easier for me to have those comments from Pickel and it gave me some confidence.
Szabo: What's the daily routine like at the Worlds?
Sperry: Everybody is very regimented in the morning. We had our physio, Chris Herrera, there. The first thing for me and JK was just to get a workout in, just get the bodies going.
Kostecki: Marc was really into the current and would study that and give us a little bit of a briefing every morning. It's important to have the weather forecast to get your mindset ready for the day and know how to set the boat up. Having you, George, as a local in San Diego was also helpful as we would be chatting all the time about what we thought the conditions were like and what kind of day it was going to be. But when you get out on the racetrack, you must keep your eyes open and identify if the weather reports are correct or not. And sometimes they weren't correct.
Szabo: It almost became a race to get our sails up and get ready every day. Once we were out on the course, we found each other super quickly. One reason I love sailing with you, John, is you get tuning right away. You don't waste any time.
Kostecki: It was great how we just stuck to the same plan, and we would do the same thing. We would raise our sails and find each other and get tuning straight away. And when we could, pretty much every day, we would do a split to get the favored side of the course. And I think that was an advantage we had over all our competitors because I honestly did not see any other teams doing a split like what we did.
What Set Them Apart
Szabo: What do you think secured you the win?
Sperry: I think where we really separated ourselves was the open communication between our team and you. There was nothing off limits, even when we were sailing around and I don't think it's a very big secret: we weren't that fast downwind and it wasn't the sails or the boat, it was me and JK just having a lack of time in the boat. It got better, but there's so much room for improvement in up and downwind performance. Even sailing with you before the races, right? We'd go upwind, we'd split, we'd come back together, go downwind, you'd look at our setup, you'd give us little feedback, and vice versa. It was great to have someone that we trusted and could lean on for advice, whether it was, "What top batten are we going with today?". "Are we going light?". "Where are we on the base settings?". All those little things and the communication that we had, that's why we won the Worlds.
Choosing the Right Sail Setup
Szabo: You got your program together quickly and were learning and adjusting as the season went on. Talk to me about the sail set up and the thought process there.
Sperry: Right, we started the season with Quantum sails, and then you first came onboard to sail with us around the time of The King of Spain Regatta in Marina del Rey.
Kostecki: Being successful in yacht racing is obviously about having a fast boat. Having the fastest boat in the fleet makes it a lot easier to win races. I've learned that through the Olympics, America's Cups, and Volvo Ocean races. The main focus is always to go fast, because it just makes life easier. So, that was our team mentality on the standard Folli boat, that we had a lot of confidence in, and with the Quantum Sails.
Sperry: We needed to know that we could get to a winning level with relative ease and not have to overthink things because the Star is already hard enough to sail. From there, we just went all-in on the Quantum program and the George Szabo program. We tried many different things including busting out a few sails from back in the ‘07 days that I liked. On the way to our ultimate choice to go with standard Quantum sails, we tested a Q-1 light air mainsail that was originally designed for my win at the Olympic trails in China, a P-20 jib that was fuller down low and a light cloth 46 mainsail. You only have a finite amount of time. So, you must start cutting things off quickly. Try it for 30 minutes. If it works, great. If it does not, it's off the list. We are moving on. We are not second-guessing ourselves.
Kostecki: At the end of it all, we ended up with standard sails, mainly because we listened to you from your experience, and it turned out to be the right thing to do. We had two P-16 jibs and two 46 mains. Straight off the block. The only thing we changed at the Worlds halfway through was using the other jib, but we kept using the same main. We just felt like it was going really well. There was no need to tweak anything on our side.
Sperry: We only tested one mast. We had three brand-new masts. We used one. We never put the other two up. So, we were a little risky in that position, but we felt confident that we were not going to break a mast.
Szabo: What did you do to a stock boat modification-wise to go out and win the Worlds after it was just built? Did you get it fared? repainted? Did you template the keel or the front? I think that's one thing that's neat about the Star Class that people don't understand. Star sailors are just taking a boat, going out, and sailing fast.
Kostecki: That's the great thing about the Star Class.
Sperry: Marc Pickel is probably one of the best and most thoughtful boat builders in the world, right? The boat itself is stock, but we were very selective in what became of the boat, all the inputs to make the vessel. You can't do anything outside the rules, but Pickel was very specific when picking out the keel that he wanted, weighing the materials that went in the boat, etc. We managed all of that from start to finish.
Tuning
Szabo: So, you have only six months of data to go on going into Worlds. How are you compiling the data every day?
Kostecki: We had a simple tuning grid. It didn't really change much. As we evolved, it was just a little bit here and there. We did change our tune throughout the Worlds with the different conditions and it seemed like it really helped. We got faster as the Worlds went on, upwind. So, I think the takeaway is to know your settings for your sails. Don't be afraid to make small changes, based on the feel of the boat and how you're performing in comparison to your tuning partner. Being able to go back and forth with you [Szabo] was very helpful. We could both experiment and try something different while always keeping one of us as a base. Being flexible and open-minded about making changes is important.
Kostecki: In California, our rule of thumb was to keep it simple and not have too many changes. Occasionally, if the wind came up, above 13/14 knots, then we would tighten the cap shrouds like three faces and that's it. We wouldn't touch the lowers or anything.
Then obviously there was the top batten that we would change in different conditions and that seemed to make a pretty big difference. The softer batten seemed a lot faster downwind. I noticed depth in the head of the mains in the Star Class was nice to have when traveling downwind. Any way you can get depth would really help you. Some competitors had some fuller sails and that gave them a bit of an advantage downwind.
Closing Thoughts
Szabo: Any advice for sailors looking to compete on this level?
Sperry: Ask the questions. If you have a question or you're not sure, just ask the dumb question because chances are others have the same thought and are just too intimidated or scared to ask. From a young age, I've never been afraid to ask a dumb question. I just didn't care if people laughed at me. I was thirsty for knowledge and wanted to learn.
Also, It's always the little things. It's the inches that make the difference. Add all those little inches add up, whether it's a good exit at the top mark, a good entry and a good rounding at the bottom, a proper start near the favored end. Those are the little things that make the difference that allow you to be in a position to win or to lose at the end of the day.
Interested in updating your Star inventory? Our range of mainsails and headsails provide sailors in this class with sails for every condition and specialized location. Reach out to your local loft to get in touch with an expert and start the conversation to build out your 2025 program.