2015 Audi Melges 20 Worlds - Wet and Wild on San Francisco Bay

by Joy Dunigan on 3 Oct 2015 The second day of completed 2015 Audi Melges 20 World Championship racing in San Francisco boasted spectacular conditions with the daily MVP award being handed to 12-year old Liam Kilroy on Wildman. Two bullets, plus an eighth place finish in Race Six has him holding firm in second place, right behind his reigning World Champion dad - John Kilroy on Samba Pa Ti in first place. Guido Miani's Out of Reach cashed in big with a ten – two - four daily performance, moving him up from seventh to third overall.

'We are learning by doing. We should have been here two weeks ago. It was marvelous here today, actually it's beautiful everyday here,' said Miani. 'I am falling in love with this place. It is an amazing place to sail. To sail in these conditions for us is a bit unusual though for us. The rest of our season was relatively light in comparison.'

'What I find at the end of the day, is that the Melges 20 sails beautifully in many conditions, especially these. We are so much more confident and more people should be out sailing this class of boat. This boat is just so amazing. It is a dream come true.'

In the Corinthian division, Russia's Oleg Evdokimenko aboard Kotyara had a great day advancing into the overall all-amateur division lead. Overnight leader Paul Currie from Canada on Wild Deuces is now in second, ahead of Jay Golison's Midlife Crisis steady remaining in third.

'Wow. It was great, what an incredible experience today was,' says Corinthian competitor John Murphy, owner of Solas who is sailing with his kids. 'This was the biggest wind we've ever sailed in together and it was so much fun.'

Three additional races were held - the spice of sailboat racing is variety. From Race Four's light to moderate breeze with flood, to Race Five's moderate to heavy and flood to ebb, then Race Six's classic bay area, nuking conditions, it was a day filled with a little bit of everything for everyone.

By far, the final race of the day was the most exciting and eventful. For the start, eighteen knots set the pace with the top weathermark reporting gusts over twenty. The breeze oscillated five - ten degrees continuously which made the beats and runs all the more challenging. Monaco's Corrado Agusta on Customly figured things out early rounding the weather mark in first ahead of Rhonda Joyce's Grinning Streak in second, and Cesar Gomes Neto on Portobello in third. Downwind, Joyce had a smile a mile wide as she and her team of Matt Woodsworth and fiance Mike Wolfs ripped downwind to round through the gate, holding their third place course position.

Back upwind, it was gnarly. Big waves and full-on breeze pounded the fleet, as the top six separated themselves to become the lead pack. Agusta remained strong, and Kilroy improved to round second. The final run though took its toll on Agusta, Gomes Neto and others as they wiped out on the jibe set to finish. This window of opportunity is exactly what Kilroy was looking for as he slipped into the lead and won. Agusta recovered to finish second. Joyce had her best finish to take third, followed by Miani in fourth and Gomes Neto finishing fifth.

'Today was better. We had a lot of fun. We were really happy with the conditions today,' commented Agusta post-racing. 'We had good boat speed and went upwind well. We are still practicing as this is our first season in the class. Gabrio (Zandona, tactician) made some really good calls today. We have a great team, a really great group.'

The final run to the finish

Tomorrow's forecast calls for more breeze. Three races are to be held with cocktails at 18:30 and dinner at 1900.

Top ten results (Preliminary - After Six Races, One Discard)

1.) John Kilroy, Samba Pa Ti; 1-[6]-3-2-4-1 = 11
2.) Liam Kilroy, Wildman; [13]-1-6-1-1-8 = 17
3.) Guido Miani, Out of Reach; 2-[22]-5-10-2-4 = 23
4.) Cesar Gomes Neto, Portobello; 5-2-[16]-6-6-5 = 24
5.) Drew Freides, Pacific Yankee; [18]-8-1-5-3-10 = 27
6.) Jim Wilson, Oleander; 9-[25]-2-4-9-6 = 30
7.) Corrado Agusta, Customly; [40/DNF]-9-21-8-7-2 = 47
8.) Achille Onorato, Mascalzone Latino Jr.; 6-13-4-[24]18-9 = 50
9.) Michael Illbruck, Pinta; [16]-5-15-11-8-11 = 50
10.) Alessandro Rombelli, STIG; 10-3-8-[27]-11-21 = 53

Top three Corinthian results (Preliminary - After Six Races, One Discard)

1.) Oleg Evdokimenko, Kotyara = 100 pts
2.) Paul Currie, Wild Deuces = 125 pts
3.) Jay Golison, Midlife Crisis = 134 pts

2015 Audi Melges 20 World Championship - Preliminary Cumulative Results

Bow   Sail Number Yacht Name Yacht Design Skipper/Crew Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 T O Total World Championship Racing One Design Division Audi Melges 20 1. 313 USA 13131 Samba Pa Ti Audi Melges 20 John Kilroy 1 6 3 2 4 1 [6] 11.0 2. 311 USA 311 WildMan Audi Melges 20 Liam Kilroy 13 1 6 1 1 8 [13] 17.0 3. 333 MON 333 Out of Reach Audi Melges 20 Guido Miani 2 22 5 10 2 4 [22] 23.0 4. 245 BRA 245 Portobello Audi Melges 20 Cesar Gomes Neto 5 2 16 6 6 5 [16] 24.0 5. 236 USA 236 Pacific Yankee Audi Melges 20 Drew Freides 18 8 1 5 3 10 [18] 27.0 6. 250 USA 250 Oleander Audi Melges 20 James Wilson 9 25 2 4 9 6 [25] 30.0 7. 81 MON 81 Customly Audi Melges 20 Corrado Agusta 40/DNF 9 21 8 7 2 [40] 47.0 8. 23 ITA 23 Mascalzone Latino jr. Audi Melges 20 Achille Onorato 6 13 4 24 18 9 [24] 50.0 9. 401 USA 4014 Pinta Audi Melges 20 Michael Illbruck 16 5 15 11 8 11 [16] 50.0 10. 65 ITA 65 STIG Audi Melges 20 Alessandro Rombelli 10 3 8 27 11 21 [27] 53.0 11. 214 CAN 214 Grinning Streak Audi Melges 20 Rhonda Joyce 14 11 12 16 14 3 [16] 54.0 12. 8 USA 8 Shimmer Audi Melges 20 Brian Porter 20 18 11 3 12 12 [20] 56.0 13. 301 MON 301 Raya Audi Melges 20 Matteo Marenghi Vaselli 26 10 7 7 29 23 [29] 73.0 14. 15 USA 1315 Ninkasi Audi Melges 20 John Taylor 22 7 9 15 20 25 [25] 73.0 15. 210 AUS 13 Transfusion Audi Melges 20 Guido Belgiorno-Nettis 4 16 19 21 16 24 [24] 76.0 16. 280 USA 280 Merga Audi Melges 20 Drew Wierda 25 4 10 23 26 18 [26] 80.0 17. 133 USA 133 Funner Audi Melges 20 Sid Gorham 7 19 33 12 22 20 [33] 80.0 18. 14 USA 14 Red Sky Sailing Team Audi Melges 20 Paul Reilly 15 15 23 29 10 17 [29] 80.0 19. 414 USA 414 Cinghiale Audi Melges 20 Robert Wilber 24 20 18 26 17 7 [26] 86.0 20. 228 USA 228 Midnight Blue Audi Melges 20 Jason Michas 8 21 35 19 27 13 [35] 88.0 21. 217 USA 217 Slingshot Audi Melges 20 Wes Whitmyer Jr 12 17 29 18 35 14 [35] 90.0 22. 50 ITA 50 Fremito D'Arja Audi Melges 20 Dario Levi 40/DNS 40/DNS 13 20 5 15 [40] 93.0 23. 76 USA 7676 Kuai Audi Melges 20 Daniel Thielman 17 27 22 13 19 28 [28] 98.0 24. 47 RUS 047 Kotyara (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Oleg Evdokimenko 19 29 26 14 15 26 [29] 100.0 25. 88 USA 88 Heartbreaker Audi Melges 20 Robert Hughes 3 26 28 30 23 22 [30] 102.0 26. 211 USA 211 Makaira Audi Melges 20 Skip Shapiro 28 12 27 9 31 31 [31] 107.0 27. 16 USA 16 Section 16 Audi Melges 20 Richard Davies 27 23 14 25 24 33 [33] 113.0 28. 225 USA 225 Flygfisk Audi Melges 20 Tom Kassberg 29 28 20 37 25 16 [37] 118.0 29. 196 USA 196 Midnight Sun Audi Melges 20 Alexis Michas 23 30 17 31 21 27 [31] 118.0 30. 222 CAN 222 Wild Deuces (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Paul Currie 21 14 24 33 33 34 [34] 125.0 31. 25 RUS 25 Versya Audi Melges 20 Anatoly Karachinskiy 33 32 25 17 34 19 [34] 126.0 32. 226 USA 226 Midlife Crisis (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Jay Golison 11 35 34 22 32 35 [35] 134.0 33. 230 USA 230 Yeah Baby Audi Melges 20 Justin Smart 30 31 30 35 13 32 [35] 136.0 34. 161 GER 161 Mojito (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Florian Rixner 30/RDG 30/RDG 40/DNC 32 28 30 [40] 150.0 35. 176 JPN 176 Quatre Hiro Audi Melges 20 Takahiro Kato 40/DSQ 24 36 28 36 36 [40] 160.0 36. 227 USA 227 Manatea 20 Audi Melges 20 Bob Hayward 34 36 32 38 30 29 [38] 161.0 37. 187 JPN 233 Swift Magic (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Naoki Hirakawa 32 34 31 36 38 38 [38] 171.0 38. 298 JPN 298 SP1 (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 Yosuke Watabe 31 33 37 34 37 39 [39] 172.0 39. 17 USA 17 Solas (Corinthian) Audi Melges 20 John Murphy 35 37 38 39 39 37 [39] 186.0   2015 Audi Melges 20 World Championship - Corinthian Teams - Preliminary Cumulative Results Bow   Sail Number Yacht Name Yacht Design Skipper/Crew Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 T O Total World Championship Racing One Design Division Audi Melges 20 1. 47 RUS 047 Kotyara Audi Melges 20 Oleg Evdokimenko 19 29 26 14 15 26 [29] 100.0 2. 222 CAN 222 Wild Deuces Audi Melges 20 Paul Currie 21 14 24 33 33 34 [34] 125.0 3. 226 USA 226 Midlife Crisis Audi Melges 20 Jay Golison 11 35 34 22 32 35 [35] 134.0 4. 161 GER 161 Mojito Audi Melges 20 Florian Rixner 30/RDG 30/RDG 40/DNC 32 28 30 [40] 150.0 5. 187 JPN 233 Swift Magic Audi Melges 20 Naoki Hirakawa 32 34 31 36 38 38 [38] 171.0 6. 298 JPN 298 SP1 Audi Melges 20 Yosuke Watabe 31 33 37 34 37 39 [39] 172.0 7. 17 USA 17 Solas Audi Melges 20 John Murphy 35 37 38 39 39 37 [39] 186.0