Star Sailors League Explained

SSL
Full Name:	Star Sailors League SA
Remarks:	The athletes are the Stars
Parent Organization:	Sailing Athletes Foundation
Status:	Société Anonyme (Swiss)
Purpose:	Global inshore sailing circuit

The Star Sailors League (SSL) is a sports governing body in sailing in charge of the SSL Ranking, the SSL Circuit and the SSL Gold Cup.

SSL Circuit

The global inshore sailing circuit launched by Olympic athletes in 2012. Supported by the sailing stars like Loïck Peyron and Dennis Conner (SSL honorary chairman), the SSL is recognized as "special event" by World Sailing since 2017. Its main philosophy considers the athletes (not the boats) as the "Stars". Its goals are:

• Showcase the annual global sailing championship with its 15’000 regattas on the example of the Calcio of football in Italy
• Determine and celebrate the world leaders in sailing
• Promote the inshore regattas to the global audience

The three main components of the SSL Circuit:

• SSL RANKING: Every Tuesday, the SSL updates and publishes the ranking of the 100,000 leading athletes of the SSL Circuit, thus highlighting the world's top inshore sailors. (The SSL Circuit = 15,000 regattas/year in more than 100 countries)
• SSL FINALS: Every year around November–December, on the model of the yearly play-off in ice-hockey, the SSL organizes the annual final of the SSL Circuit among the 20 best athletes of the ranking, to crown the champion of the season
• SSL GOLD CUP: Every two years, on the model of the football World Cup (or rugby or cricket, etc.), the SSL organizes the "ultimate" championship of the circuit among the 56 first nations of the ranking, to crown the best sailing nation

SSL Ranking

From 2019, a wide range of class race results will be gradually integrated into a weekly world ranking inspired by the ATP tennis ranking. At the end of the season, it will qualify the best in the world for the annual final of the circuit (with prize money), and every two years for the SSL Gold Cup. The SSL Global Ranking does not replace the rankings specific to each class but completes them, to offer a simple and attractive overview of inshore sailing to the general public; the SSL Global Ranking will bring together nearly 100,000 athletes in 2021 and will be used as a communication tool in 2019 to promote athletes and the sailing season.

SSL Global Ranking Method

Reference tables for allocation of points

Categories of events

Category	1	MAJOR	SSL 4000	Major event:                               Olympic Games, America's Cup, SSL Gold Cup & Finals
Category	2	WORLD	SSL 2500	World event : ^a World Championships (Fleet + Match Racing (MR)), AC Challenger Selection Series SSL Grand Slam (run on several classes since 2021)
Category	3	CONTINENTAL	SSL 1000	Continental event: ^a+b Continental Championships ^c Continental Games ^d Grand Prix I WS World Cup Regatta with 200 boats or more (Opti: 400 boats or more) MR-Grade W + 1
Category	4	INTERNATIONAL	SSL 500	International event: AC World Series Olympic qualifier Regional games (4–9 nations) ^e Grand Prix II Regatta with 80 boats or more (Opti: 200 boats or more) MR-Grade 2
Category	5	NATIONAL	SSL 250	National regatta: ^a National championship Local games (< 4 nations) ^a District championship ^f Grand Prix III Regatta with 30 boats or more MR-Grade 3
Category	6	REGIONAL	SSL 100	Regional regatta: Regional regatta with 10 boats or more MR-Grade 4
Category	7	LOCAL	SSL 10	Local regatta : Local regatta with a participation between 3 and 9 boats MR-Grade 5

^a With the exception of MR & all Grand Prix, World + Continental + National Championships with less than 10 boats will be downgraded to the lower category

^b Continental: African-Asian-European-Oceania-South/American-North/American-Eastern/Hemisphere-Western/Hemisphere-Championships

^c Continental Games: African-Asian-Pacific-Pan American Games

^d Grand Prix I:

^e Grand Prix II: Sail GP, TP52 Super Series, RC44 Cup, GC32 Racing Tour, 18 Footers

^f Grand Prix III: D35, M32, TF35

Classes

Status	1	OLYMPIC CLASS	100%	Olympics + Particularities:  49^er, 49erFX, ILCA 7, ILCA 6, Nacra 17 Mixed, 470 Mixed + Current America's Cup Class + Match Racing Grade W + Grand Prix I
Status	2	WS CLASS	85%	Classes with Official Worlds: 5O5, Dragon, Hobie 16, J/70, Melges 24, Moth, Optimist, Snipe, Star, Sunfish, SSL 47, TP52, Grand Prix II & III, ... (~100 classes)
Status	3	OTHER CLASS	75%	All Other Classes : 1-Kronan, Albin Express, Folketboot, MC Scow, Naples Sabot, National 10, P-Boot, Sea Snark, Surprise,... (~ 5000 classes)

Types of competitions

Type	1	OPEN	100%	Olympic Classes ^g: 49^erFX, ILCA 6 Reserved for Women / 49^er, ILCA 7 Reserved for Men / Nacra 17, 470 for Mixed Teams
				America's Cup, SSL: Even if some America's Cup & SSL events require to be qualified to participate, all of them remain "Open" competitions
Type	2	NON-OPEN	40% ^h	Reserved for Specific Gender: Reserved for Women, or for Men, or for Mixed Teams
				Reserved for Age Groups: Reserved for Cadets, Juniors, Masters, Grand Masters, U20, U21, U23, U30, …
				Reserved for Other Groups: Reserved for Professionals or "Amateurs", or for Disableds, or for Owners

^g Competitions for Olympic or local Games qualification and for Olympic or local Games remain "Open" competitions

^h Competitions that add 2 (or more) of particular types (eg Juniors + Girls) get 20% of the points

Time validity of points

Due to the exceptional situation that occurred for COVID-19, the SSL Management Board decided to change the "Time Validity Points" rule, starting from December 15, 2020, until July 31, 2023.

Time	1	RECENT	100%	Recent event: Event ended in the last 104 weeks
Time	2	MID-TERM	50%	Mid-term event ^i: Event ended between 105 and 156 weeks ago
Time	3	HISTORICAL	0%	Historical event: Event ended more than 156 weeks ago

ⁱ For the Olympic Games, for the AC Qualifiers and for the America's Cup, the 50% rule continues until the next edition (not only 156 weeks ago)

Starting from August 1, 2023, the "Time Validity Points" will return to the usual one (see table below):

Time	1	RECENT	100%	Recent event: Event ended in the last 52 weeks
Time	2	MID-TERM	50%	Mid-term event ^i: Event ended between 53 and 104 weeks ago
Time	3	HISTORICAL	0%	Historical event: Event ended more than 104 weeks ago

ⁱ For the Olympic Games and for the America's Cup, the 50% rule continues until the next edition (not only 104 weeks ago)

SSL Global Ranking: Principles

1. Fundamental points
   1. Origin
      • The SSL Global Ranking was conceived and continue to be developed by a group of Olympic and amateur sailors.
   2. Philosophy
      • SSL Global Ranking aims first and foremost to offer the first transversal and global ranking of inshore sailors, in complement to all national or international Class Ranking established by the classes and federations.
   3. Goals
      • The SSL Global Ranking aims to represent a reference and an attractive tool of communication used to:
        • Select sailors for the SSL Finals and for the teams in the SSL Gold Cup
        • Promote sailors and their skills
        • Expand the audience of sailing
2. Technical features
   1. 6 Best Scores
      • The SSL Ranking takes in consideration the best 6 scores of each athlete in the last 156 weeks (note: from January 1, 2023, the "Time Validity Points" rules will return to the usual one, i.e. last 104 weeks).
      • Exception: All scores allocated for category 7 competitions are added up without any limitation of numbers
   2. All Rewarded
      • All athletes who have participated in one race receive point(s). The winner gets basically from 10 to 4000 points and the last ranked 1 point.
   3. Weekly Update
      • The SSL Global Ranking is updated weekly and published every Tuesday at www.starsailors.com/ranking.
   4. Filters
      • The SSL Global Ranking can be filtered according to 3 criteria:
        • By Gender (Men – Women – Open/Global)
        • By Class of boats
        • By Nation
   5. Skipper & Crew
      • The SSL Global Ranking produces 2 distinct Rankings:
        • The SSL "Skipper" Global Ranking
        • The SSL "Crew" Global Ranking
      • Note: The "Skipper" designation used generically throughout this document refers specifically and only to the "Helmsman".
3. Eligibility – Integration – Evolution
   1. Eligibility: Athletes
      • All athletes without any restrictions (age, sex, status) who are on an official regatta ranking and who have finished at least one full race, may appear in the SSL Global Ranking.
   2. Eligibility: Events
      • All events which meet the criteria below can be integrated in the SSL Global Ranking:
        • Competition validated by a class recognized by World Sailing or by a National Association
        • Competition in real time (= no Ratings & Handicap Systems) with monotype boats or development sailing classes < 30 ff
        • Inshore competitions organized for a maximum period of 15 continuous days. (Exceptions: America's Cup and SSL GC)
   3. Integration steps
      • Weighting based on Event Category, World Sailing classes, open/restricted events:
        • Major events: (4) Olympic Games, America's Cup, SSL Gold Cup & Finals
        • Special events: (4) World Match Racing Tour (MR), ACWS, SailGP, SSL Grand Slams
        • Classes with Status 1 / Olympic Classes: (8) Finn, Laser (M), Laser (W), 49^er, 49^erFX, 470 (M), 470 (W) Nacra 17
        • Classes with Status 2 / WS Classes: (~100) 5O5, Dragon, Hansa 2.3, Etchells, J/70, Melges 24, Moth, TP52, Star, …
        • Classes with Status 3 / Other Classes: (~5000) Sabot, MC Scow, P-Boot, Sea Snark, Folketboot, Optimist, National 10, …
   4. Rules & evolution
      • The SSL Global Ranking rules are based on the rules that were used in a DEVELOPMENT PHASE from January 2013 to December 2018. During the development phase, to simplify development of the system only results from a single class were used.
      • The SSL Global Ranking will be in a TRANSITION PHASE until December 2021, as dozens of classes and thousands of athletes are added.
      • From 1 January 2022 forward, the SSL Global Ranking will be in its OPERATING PHASE. New classes will be added to the system only at the start of a calendar year, i.e. no new classes will be added during 2022.
4. SKIPPER / CREW – SCORING FEATURES
   1. "Skipper/Crew"
      • Rules The helmsman and each crew member from one team are awarded the same number of points.
      • All crew members of a team who have participated in one race receive the same number of points for the SSL "Crew" Global Ranking; this rule remains fixed, whatever the number of races sailed by each crew member and whatever the number of crew members having participated.
      • Only one helmsman per team and per event may receive points for the SSL "Skipper" Global Ranking.
      • An athlete cannot be awarded SSL points in the 2 categories if they have participated as a helmsman and as a crew member in the same event. In this case, only the SSL points which are allocated for their role as a crew member are retained.
      • The points awarded in each category ("Skipper" and "Crew" Member) cannot be added together.

SSL Nations Ranking Method

The SSL Nations Ranking takes in consideration:

• The total points for each Nation are given by the sum of the position in the global ranking of the top 5 skippers + 2 crews.
• If there is a score tie between two or more Nations, the tie shall be broken in favor of the Nation with its top skipper in the highest position in the Skipper Global Ranking.

The SSL Nations Ranking is updated and published on the 10th of each month.

Statistics

Number one ranked sailors

The following is a list of sailors who have achieved the number one position in the SSL ranking since the inception of the rankings in 2013 for Men and in 2020 for Women:

No.	Sailor	Date reached	consecutive weeks	Total weeks
1		December 10, 2019	129	129
2		July 8, 2014	52	126
4		September 10, 2013	36	72
3		January 1, 2013	26	58
5		December 8, 2015	40	40
6		March 12, 2019	30	30
7		July 7, 2015	22	22
8		January 29, 2013	13	13
9		May 31, 2022	6	6
10		December 5, 2017	1	1

No.	Sailor	Date reached	consecutive weeks	Total weeks
1		June 9, 2020	61	61
2		August 10, 2021	31	46
3		January 1, 2020	22	22
4		November 23, 2021	2	2

No.	Sailor	Date reached	consecutive weeks	Total weeks
1		January 1, 2013	124	180
2		December 10, 2019	135	135
3		March 14, 2017	38	51
4		September 15, 2015	31	43
5		December 11, 2018	40	40
6		December 6, 2016	14	23
7		January 29, 2013	13	13
8		September 17, 2019	12	12

No.	Sailor	Date reached	consecutive weeks	Total weeks
1		January 1, 2020	35	66
2		August 10, 2021	48	48
3		August 11, 2020	17	17

Year-end number one sailor

Year	Sailor
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

Year	Sailor
2020
2021

Year	Sailor
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

Year	Sailor
2020
2021

Countries with Number one ranked sailors

No.	Country	Number of Number One	Sailor(s)
1		3	,,
2		1
2		1
2		1
2		1
2		1
2		1
2		1

No.	Country	Number of Number One	Sailor(s)
1		1
1		1
1		1
1		1

No.	Country	Number of Number One	Sailor(s)
1		2	,
1		2	,
3		1
3		1
3		1
3		1

No.	Country	Number of Number One	Sailor(s)
1		1
1		1
1		1

Number one country in the SSL Nations Ranking

No.	Sailor	Date reached	consecutive months	Total months
1		September 10, 2020	11	11
2		September 10, 2021	11	11
3		August 10, 2021	1	1

SSL Finals

SSL Finals

2013 Nassau^[1]	Robert Scheidt Bruno Prada	Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Życki	Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih
2014 Nassau^[2]	Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih	Fredrik Lööf Anders Ekström	Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Życki
2015 Nassau^[3]	George Szabo III Edoardo Natucci	Hamish Pepper Bruno Prada	Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot
2016 Nassau YC^[4]	Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih	Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot	Robert Scheidt Henry Raul Boening
2017 Nassau YC^[5]	Paul Goodison Frithjof Kleen	Robert Scheidt Henry Raul Boening	Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih
2018 Nassau YC	Jorge Zarif Pedro Trouche	Robert Scheidt Henry Raul Boening	Diego Negri Frithjof Kleen
2019 Nassau YC	Iain Percy Anders Ekström	Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot	Eivind Melleby Joshua Revkin

Multiple medallists

	Athlete	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih		2	0	1	3
2	Robert Scheidt		1	2	1	4
3	Bruno Prada		1	1	0	2
3	Anders Ekström		1	1	0	2
5	Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot		0	2	1	3
5	Henry Raul Boening		0	2	1	3
7	Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Życki		0	1	1	2

SSL Grand Slams

SSL Lake Grand Slams

2015 Grandson

George Szabo III Patrick Ducommun

Robert Stanjek Frithjof Kleen

Mark Mendelblatt Brian Fatih

SSL City Grand Slams

2016 Hamburg

Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot

Eivind Melleby Joshua Revkin

Mateusz Kusznierewicz Dominik Życki

SSL Breeze Grand Slams

2019 Riva del Garda

Robert Scheidt Henry Raul Boening

Xavier Rohart Pierre-Alexis Ponsot

Paul Cayard Arthur Lopes

SSL Gold Cup

The SSL Gold Cup has the recognition of World Sailing as an official World cup of nations and will proclaim for the first time in Gran Canaria the best country in this sport.^[6] Announced at the 2018 Yacht Racing Forum by SSL Gold Cup Sport Director Mateusz Kusznierewicz as the SSL Nations Gold Cup,^[7] it was officially launched in 2019 at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne as a biennial event, to be hosted for the first time by the Cercle de la Voile de Grandson in Switzerland during September and October 2021.^{[8] [9]} Suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic, the first edition finals were changed to October 28-November 20, 2022 at Bahrain,^[10] but were postponed,^[11] and will be sailed November 10-December 3 in 2023 at the Canary Islands. 40 teams will compete in the SSL Gold Cup Finals, including the world's top 24 sailing nations in the SSL Ranking, plus the 16 teams who came through the Qualifying Series, held from May to July 2022 amog teams placed 25 to 56.^[12] The conditions will be the same for all teams, with identical SSL47 boats (a modified RC44) and training made available free of charge to all teams.

Notes and References

1. Web site: SSL Finals. Star Sailors League.
2. Web site: SSL Finals. Star Sailors League.
3. Web site: SSL Finals. Star Sailors League.
4. Web site: SSL Finals. Star Sailors League.
5. Web site: SSL Finals. Star Sailors League.
6. Web site: Gran Canaria is ready to host the SSL Gold Cup, the first Sailing World Cup by Nations. 1 October 2023. Sail-World.
7. Web site: Star Sailors League goes next level. 1 October 2023. Scuttlebutt Sailing News.
8. Web site: Football World Cup in Sailing launched. 1 October 2023. Sailweb.
9. Web site: Notice of Race. 1 October 2023. manage2sail.com.
10. Web site: Star Sailors League:Bahrain to host SSL Gold Cup Final Series/. 1 October 2023. World Sailing.
11. Web site: Problems halt SSL Gold Cup Finals. 1 October 2023. Scuttlebutt Sailing News.
12. Web site: ‘Football World Cup’ of Sailing is back. 1 October 2023. Scuttlebutt Sailing News.