B.C. Light Air Melges 24 Worlds

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June 5, 2018 - Victoria, BC, Canada - Light breeze was the protagonist of the opening day of the 2018 Melges 24 World Championship in Victoria BC, Canada, where forty-one crews from five countries gathered to determine who will be the next one to achieve the Melges 24 Worlds title after Italian Gian Luca Perego's Maidollis success at the 2017 Championship in Helsinki.

The Race Committee presided by John Abel waited for the breeze to fill in, displaying AP flag ashore, before sending the fleet out to the water from the Victoria International Marina.

The shifty and light breeze only allowed to complete one race in the inaugural day of the 2018 World Championship and the American crews were the indisputable protagonists of the regatta: the "birthday bullet" was scored by Alan Field's WTF USA829, with Steve Hunt calling the tactics celebrating also his birthday today.

"It was a light air flight and we were over the line in the start, so we had to come back and sailed a very good race. Also we might have a little bit of luck, because it's my birthday today. Alan sailed very fast and we all stayed really calm and the team sailed a really nice race. The wind got really weird in the last run and died out and the current just pushed the top finishing boats over the finishing line. The Race Committee did a great job and they tried hard to start another race while waiting for a wind to fill in and it almost pulled it off, but it wasn't enough, though," Steve Hunt, tactician of the WTF said.



all images © IM24CA/Zerogradinord






WTF was shortly followed on the finish line by Brian Porter's Full Throttle USA849, already World Champion in San Francisco 2013, and Bruce Ayres' Monsoon USA851 in third position.

The Canadian entry ADHD CAN184 by Brad Marchant, closing the race in seventh position overall, leads the provisional Corinthian ranking, with just one point margin over Matt MacGregor's Good Enough USA806. The provisional podium of the Corinthian division after the first day of racing is completed by another Canadian entry, Hold My Beer CAN591 by Mike Bond.

Principal Race Officer John Abel was saying that the wind was just above the class minimum speed throughout much of the race. "Crews found the going slow up the first beat due to the counter current which then turned to advantage on the downwind leg. The wind fell to very light on the final downwind leg, but the current allowed all boats to finish within the time limit from the first finisher. The wind teased the Race Committee a couple of times later in the day but never reached a level suitable for running a race."













The racing for the Melges 24 Worlds' title will resume on Wednesday with a first signal schedule at 11am.

Overall Top 3 after Day 1
1. WTF USA 829, Alan Field, Erik Shampain, Willem Van Waay, Steve Hunt, Lucas Calabrese, California Yacht Club, - 1 ; 1
2. Full Throttle USA 849, Brian Porter, RJ Porter, Matt Woodworth, Andy Burdick, Lake Geneva Yacht Club, - 2 ; 2
3. Monsoon USA 851, Bruce Ayres, Chelsea Simms, George Peet, Jeff Reynolds , Mike Buckley, NHYC, - 3 ; 3

Corinthian Division Top 3 after Day 1
1. ADHD CAN 184, Brad Marchant, Adam Thomson, Alex Smyth, Ben Mumford, WVYC, - 7 ; 7
2. Good Enough USA 806, Matt Macgregor, Daryl Fitch, Genevieve Livingston, Kati Belden, Keith Hammer, PMYC, - 8 ; 8
3. Hey Mum, Follow this boat CAN 591, Mike Bond, Gord Shannon, Mike Bassett, Sophie Stukas, Rvyc, - 10 ; 10

FULL RESULTS

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Day 2 Victorian M-24 Worlds




June 7, 2018 - Victoria, BC, Canada - The breeze eventually fills in on the race course of Victoria and the Melges 24 fleet takes home a full day of sailing, with three races completed in the third day of the 2018 Melges 24 World Championship.

The first victory of the series today went to the home-players Canadians on board of MiKEY CAN838 by Richard Clarke: "We won the first race of the day, probably the one with the trickiest conditions since the wind was still filling in, and we are very happy with this result. Our philosophy has always been that of dealing with what we have, being consistent and not trying to chase rainbows: today it worked out particularly well. We've been training on this race course a lot and this for sure gave us a massive advantage because the conditions of Victoria Waterfront are tricky, with big shifts and heavy currents: in any case, a little bit of luck is always needed and we'll see what happens in the next days. We'll try to be conservative and consistent," commented the owner and helmsman of MiKEY, Richard Clarke.


all pics © IM24CA/Zerogradinord




In the remaining two races of the series, the Italian entry, Altea ITA722, already winner of the only race of yesterday, set the pace to all the fleet, scoring two bullets in a row and hence gaining the leadership of the provisional ranking. The boat helmed by Andrea Racchelli, in fact, takes control of the standings with a margin of six points over WTF USA829 by Alan Field and fourteen points over Monsoon USA851 by Bruce Ayres.

With daily partials of 9-12-5, Brian Porter's Full Throttle USA849, the leader after the first two days of racing, slips in to fourth position, tied with just one point of margin to Richard Clarke's MiKEY CAN838 that completes the provisional top-five.

Matt MacGregor's Good Enough USA806 maintains the leadership of the Corinthian division, with a good advantage over the Canadian entry ADHD CAN184 of Brad Marchant, second in the ranking reserved to non-professional sailors, and on the representatives of the hosting entity RVYC, on board Mike Bond's Hold My Beer CAN591.






The show of the day was to witness a family of killer whales coming to the race course and event to the Victoria harbour. Race Committee was forced to postpone the race because of them having they playground on the race course for a while. Also the Marine Aerodrome has been shut down due to the fact that the wales came also to the harbour, what has not happened before here.

Tomorrow will be a penultimate day of the Melges 24 World Championship 2018 here in Victoria with a first warning signal scheduled at 11am. With one additional race sailed the discard of the worse result will apply playing the cards in the total scores.

Top five after Day Three (Overall)
1. Altea ITA 722 (bow #678), Andrea Racchelli, Filippo Togni, Gaudenzio Bomni, Matteo Ranian, Michele Gregoratto, Altea - 5 - 1 - 5 - 1 - 1 ; 13 pts
2. WTF USA 829, Alan Field, Erik Shampain, Willem Van Waay, Steve Hunt, Lucas Calabrese, California Yacht Club, - 1 - 6 - 4 - 5 - 3 ; 19 pts
3. Monsoon USA 851, Bruce Ayres, Chelsea Simms, George Peet, Jeff Reynolds, Mike Buckley, NHYC, - 3 - 5 - 2 - 15 - 2 ; 27 pts
4. Full Throttle USA 849, Brian Porter, RJ Porter, Matt Woodworth, Andy Burdick, Lake Geneva Yacht Club, - 2 - 3 - 9 - 12 - 5 ; 31 pts
5. Zingara CAN 838, Richard Clarke, Ansel Koen, Rachel Spinelli, Ben Whiting, Hunter Lowden, Anacortes Yacht Club, - 4 - 9 - 1 - 8 - 10 ; 32 pts

Top five after Day Three (Corinthian)
1. Good Enough USA 806, Matt MacGregor, Daryl Fitch, Genevieve Livingston, Kati Belden, Keith Hammer, PMYC, - 8 - 4 - 21 - 2 - 8 ; 43 pts
2. ADHD CAN 184, Brad Marchant, Adam Thomson, Alex Smyth, Ben Mumford, WVYC, - 7 - 7 - 7 - 34 - 12 ; 67 pts
3. Hold My Beer CAN 591, Mike Bond, Gord Shannon, Mike Bassett, Sophie Stukas, RVYC, - 10 - 14 - 14 - 38 - 13 ; 89 pts
4. Lekker CAN 371, Malcolm Smith, Gord Galbraith, Tim Stamper, Tom Insley, RVYC, - 20 - 33 - 11 - 19 - 11 ; 94 pts
5. Full Circle CAN 415, Robert Britten, Graham Harney, Jose Grandizo, Liam Welgan-Gunn, Reid Cannon, RVYC, - 11 - 10 - BFD-42 - 14 - 20 ; 97 pts

FULL RESULTS

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Breeze On For Melges 24 World Finale!




June 9, 2018 - Victoria, BC, Canada - On the final day of the 2018 Melges 24 World Championship the international Melges 24 fleet of forty one teams from five nations finally received what they were expecting from Victoria - 15-20 knots wind, blazing sunshine, blue skies and great speed to put on the show while surfing the waves in Victoria Waterfront. A final day of racing yielded three more races to conclude the 10-race series at the Melges 24 World Championship 2018, hosted by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in co-operation with the Canadian Forces Sailing Association and Victoria International Marina as a hosting venue.
The forecast predicted wind, plenty of it, and it was delivered - 12 knots wind in the first race of the day was building up to 15 knots for the second, and was filling in up to 20 knots breeze delivering wonderful champagne conditions - exactly the conditions what the Melges 24 has been built for and the fleet enjoyed three great races.

The ultimate stalwarts of the Melges 24 - Andrea Racchelli's Altea ITA722 from Italy and his crew of Filippo Togni, Gaudenzio Bomni, Matteo Ramian, Michele Gregoratto - have claimed their first and well deserved Melges 24 Worlds' title. Silver in the overall was Alan Field's WTF USA829 from the United States, and winning Bronze was Bruce Ayres' Monsoon USA851 also from the United States.

Nothing was confirmed in the leaderboard when entering to the last day of racing. The Italian crew has been able to sail very consistent races, collecting as the only crew three bullets to their series, and discarding the 8th result as their worse one: they closed the series with a total of 30 points and a margin of 6 points over the second classified and will bring the historical perpetual trophy of the Melges Performance Sailboats back to Italy, where it was in hold of the 2017 World Champion, Gian Luca Perego's Maidollis.




all photos © IM24CA/Zerogradinord


Runner-up of the Worlds 2018 is American WTF by Alan Field and crew with some awesome achievements sailing together only for two weeks by now - Erik Shampain, Willem Van Waay, Steve Hunt, Lucas Calabrese. Two bullets scored in the series helped WTF claim the second place on the podium collecting 36 points in total. The American crew is followed by 2017 Melges 24 runner-up team, Bruce Ayres' Monsoon, tied in points. Monsoon with Mike Buckley calling the tactics and with Chelsea Simms, George Peet and Jeff Reynolds in crew were holding the leading position in the morning of the final day, but scoring 11 pts from the second race of the day diminished their chances to claim the highest place on the podium. Consistency scoring five times second result during the series was the key to the podium.

2013 World Champion, Full Throttle USA849 is following as fourth with 41 points and Richard Clarke's Mikey USA835 completes the Top 5, two points behind.

However, the boat of the day was 2017 Worlds Bronze medal team - Kevin Welch/Jason Rhodes' Mikey USA835, scoring third place from the first and two bullets from the two final races of the day ending up with the 7th placement in the overall ranking.











Meanwhile in Corinthian division B the local Royal Victoria Yacht Club team of Full Circle CAN415 by Robert Britten with crew of Graham Harney, Jose Grandizo, Liam Welgan-Gunn, Reid Cannon, who yesterday raced to a 1st placed finish, and starting to climb up from the third placement of the division this morning, defeated 24 other entries in Corinthian Division. Despite being black-flagged in Race 3, the bullet and also fifth result from one race of today helped them beat the contestants. They were awarded with the Challenge Henri Samuel Trophy, which was donated to the International Melges 24 Class Association by at that time Chairman of the International Melges 24 Class, Henri Samuel. Until 2006 this trophy was awarded to the winner of the Melges 24 French Nationals.

Silver medal finishers were American Matt MacGregor's team and crew of Daryl Fitch, Genevieve Livingston, Kati Belden, Keith Hammer on Good Enough USA806. Having leading this division since the beginning of the game they slipped into the second place after scoring 28th and 26th results from today's races.

Winning Bronze was another local team of Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Mike Bond's Hold My Beer CAN591 with Gord Shannon, Mike Bassett, Sophie Stukas in the crew. Hold My Beer team managed to jump to the third place of the podium from the penultimate day's fifth position. The Top 5 of the division was completed by the Canadian crews: Ben Mumford/Brad Marchant's ADHD CAN184 as fourth and Malcolm Smith/Gord Galbraith team on Lekker CAN371 as fifth.

The winner of the Corinthian Division, Robert Britten was also awarded with the Zarco Draganic perpetual trophy, which since 2015 belongs to the owner with the highest ranking, taking part the Melges 24 Worlds for the first time ever.














The trophy for the best team with the female skipper was awarded to Laura Grondin, owning and helming Dark Energy USA850, finishing the Worlds with the 22nd result. The prize of the youth team went to American Ryan Conner's Blue Dream USA219 and the crew, who travelled furthest to this championship, was announced to be Kevin Nixon's family team ACCRU AUS812 from Sydney, Australia. Victoria International Marina together with the Royal Victoria Yacht Club awarded a brand new trophy to the team with a best result from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club to the Corinthian Division winner - Robert Britten's Full Circle.

Emotional and moody prizegiving ceremony was held in the Victoria International Marina late in the afternoon. Besides honouring the winners, the organizers chaired by Terry Stamper and also the sponsors and supporters of this first ever in Canada held Worlds were acknowledged and thanked for their great efforts and amazing hospitality.

For the International Melges 24 fleet the next big event will be the 2018 Melges 24 Europeans that will be held in Riva del Garda, Italy from August 3rd to 10th. Also the dates for the 2019 World Championship to be held in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, have been announced - save the dates of October 10th to 18th. Columbia from May 31st to June 8th and

Top five after 10 races (Overall)
1. Altea #678 ITA 722, Andrea Racchelli, Filippo Togni, Gaudenzio Bomni, Matteo Ranian, Michele Gregoratto, Altea, - 5 - 1 - 5 - 1 - 1 - 5 - (8) - 4 - 2 - 6 ; 30 pts
2. WTF USA 829, Alan Field, Erik Shampain, Willem Van Waay, Steve Hunt, Lucas Calabrese, California Yacht Club, - 1 - 6 - 4 - 5 - 3 - 7 - 6 - 1 - 3 - (8) ; 36 pts
3. Monsoon USA 851, Bruce Ayres, Chelsea Simms, George Peet, Jeff Reynolds , Mike Buckley, NHYC, - 3 - 5 - 2 - (15) - 2 - 2 - 2 - 7 - 11 - 2 ; 36 pts
4. Full Throttle USA 849, Brian Porter, RJ Porter, Matt Woodworth, Andy Burdick, Lake Geneva Yacht Club, - 2 - 3 - 9 - (12) - 5 - 6 - 5 - 2 - 5 - 4 ; 41 pts
5. Mikey CAN 838, Richard Clarke, Ansel Koen, Rachel Spinelli, Ben Whiting, Hunter Lowden, Anacortes Yacht Club, - 4 - 9 - 1 - 8 - (10) - 3 - 3 - 6 - 4 - 5 ; 43 pts

Top five after 10 races (Corinthian)
1. Full Circle CAN 415, Robert Britten, Graham Harney , Jose Grandizo , Liam Welgan-Gunn, Reid Cannon, Royal Victoria Yacht Club, - 11 - 10 - (BFD-42) - 14 - 20 - 19 - 1 - 5 - 21 - 11 ; 112 pts
2. Good Enough USA 806, Matt MacGregor, Daryl Fitch, Genevieve Livingston, Kati Belden, Keith Hammer, PMYC, - 8 - 4 - 21 - 2 - 8 - 15 - (31) - 28 - 9 - 26 ; 121 pts
3. ADHD CAN 591, Mike Bond, Gord Shannon, Mike Bassett, Sophie Stukas, Rvyc, - 10 - 14 - 14 - (38) - 13 - 16 - 24 - 13 - 12 - 14 ; 130 pts
4. ADHD CAN 184, Mumford / MarchantAdam Thomson, Alex Smyth, Brad Marchant, Ben Mumford, WVYC, - 7 - 7 - 7 - (34) - 12 - 11 - 25 - 19 - 17 - 29 ; 134 pts
5. Lekker CAN 371, Smith / Galbraith Malcolm Smith, Gord Galbraith , Tim Stamper, Tom Insley, Royal Victoria Yacht Club, - 20 - (33) - 11 - 19 - 11 - 14 - 9 - 25 - 14 - 18 ; 141





RESULTS