Iain Percy and OP Andrew 'Bart' Simpson (90-95) win the Star class world title in Rio de Janeiro

Iain Percy and his crewman Bart Simpson have been crowned the 2010 Star World Champions, adding to the Olympic crown that they claimed in Beijing in 2008. The 33-year-old best mates won the world title despite coming in a lowly 16th place in the sixth and final race January 21 in frustratingly light winds outside Guanabara Bay.

With their main rivals, the Swiss crew, also faring poorly in the challenging conditions, their strong earlier results were enough to pull them through. "The start did not quite go as planned," explained Simpson later. "We thought we were pushing them (the Swiss) to the wrong end of the line, but then a big (wind) shift came through in their favour." The miscalculation put the Swiss more than two dozen boats ahead of the British duo at the top mark.

Percy/Simpson made a huge gain up the second beat and got quite close to the leaders (the US crew) while the Swiss slipped from contention and eventually finished in 12th place.

The British duo took a breather from Star sailing following the Olympics and have been doing a lot of match racing. As a result they did not complete in the 2009 Star World championship and had only two practice sessions leading up to the Rio de Janeiro event.

This latest victory places Percy in rarefied company as a Star skipper who has won an Olympic gold medal and also multiple world championship titles (he was world champion once before in 2002 with another crewman). The last race of the 2010 championship, he said afterwards "was a good reminder that you can't rest on your laurels, especially in the Star class."