Melges 24 World Championship 2011 day three - Leader extends

by Justin Chisholm on 19 May 2011 Melges 24 World Championship 2011 in Corpus Christi, Texas reached its midpoint today.

Races 5 and 6 were completed in fresh conditions and the racing was characteristically tight throughout the fleet. Each start and every mark rounding was fiercely contested on day three of competition.

Overnight leader Lorenzo Bressani at the helm of ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing, won both of today's races to establish a 15 point lead and an effective stranglehold on the championship. A fourth and a seventh for Kristen Lane on USA 812 Brick House 812, sees her retain her second place overall, tied on points now with Flavio Favini helming SUI 596 Blu Moon in third. Also tied just one point adrift of Favini, in fourth and fifth respectively are Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle and Nathan Wilmot on IRL 607 Embarr.

Race 5 started bang on time on in a solid 15 knots of breeze. The fleet got away to a clean start at the first time of asking, with the boats quickly splitting into two distinct groups on either side of the first beat. Lorenzo Bressani on ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing soon established an advantage in the group on the left, whilst Kristen Lane on USA 812 Brick House 812 led the pack on the right. When the fleet converged on the approach to the first windward mark it was Bressani who led around the buoy, with Lane close behind in second and Eivind Melleby on NOR 804 Full Medal Jacket and Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle overlapped in third and fourth. Alec Cutler on USA 655 hedgehog was hot on their heels in fifth.

Down the first run Bressani showed some remarkable off-wind pace to extend his lead considerably by the leeward gate. With the breeze ratcheting up to around 17 knots, behind Bressani there was a real scrap on for second place. Alan Field, who had rounded the previous mark in seventh place, sailed a remarkable leg to move up to second at the gate, just ahead of a large gaggle of boats who arrived at the buoys en masse. Alec Cutler led the group into the left hand buoy but broached in the process of dropping his chute, causing Nathan Wilmot on IRL 607, who was right on his transom, to do the same. The ensuing chaos allowed Andrea Racchelli on ITA 735 Altea, Porter and Flavio Favini on SUI 596 Blu Moon, to sneak through inside them at the buoy. Meanwhile, almost simultaneously at the other gate mark, Melleby, Lane and Bora Gulari on USA 820 New England Ropes/West Marine were rounding three abreast.

With Bressani leading comfortably at the second top mark, and Field also looking relaxed in second, attention turned to the street fight for third place between Lane and Melleby. These two converged right at the mark with Melleby coming in on port and tacking in closely in front of Lane on starboard, forcing her to throw her bow up to avoid a collision and subsequently fly a protest flag. Despite Lane pushing Melleby hard down the final run there were no changes to the top four positions at the finish, with Bressani taking the gun, Field second, Melleby third and Lane fourth. Cutler came home fifth with Favini in sixth. Later in the day Lane's protest against Melleby for the incident at the top mark was upheld by the protest committee, resulting in the Norwegian receiving his second disqualification of the championship.

The second race of the series also got away cleanly with the fleet once again splitting left and right in the early stages of the beat. Bressani made another good start and initially led the group on the left before choosing to work his way to the middle soon after the half way point. A significant left shift in the second half of the beat rewarded Wilmot and Favini, who had been working that side of the beat and they rounded in first and second at the first windward mark. Bressani rounded a couple of lengths behind in third, with Porter, Guy Mossman on USA 786 Battle Rhythm, and Melleby rounding in quick succession behind. With the breeze now up at 18 knots plus, the first run was a high speed affair which saw Wilmot holding off Favini right up until the final approach to the leeward gate. As the two boats gybed together, Favini's slicker execution enabled him to roll over the top of Wilmot and lead around the left buoy. Wilmot peeled off to the right buoy and rounded just ahead off Bressani.

On the second beat, despite Bressani and Wilmot appearing to be engaged in a private match race on the right, they arrived at the top mark ahead of Favini who had been sailing his own race on the left. In the final few boat lengths, Wilmot led Bressani in on the port layline, with the Italian close enough behind to prevent the Irish boat from tacking. Rounding the top mark locked together, they continued their match race down the run, with Bressani eventually prevailing to take another race win and Wilmot closing out the rapidly advancing Favini just before the finish line to take second.

So at the halfway point in the championship, Lorenzo Bressani on ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing now holds a 15 point lead over second placed Kristen Lane on USA 812 Brick House 812, with Flavio Favini on SUI 596 Blu Moon moving up to third, tied on points with Lane. Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle moves up to fourth, tied on points with fifth placed Nathan Wilmot on IRL 607 Embarr.

In the amateur only Corinthian Division, Eiichiro Hamazaki on JPN 783 Esprit continues to dominate with two more wins today to maintain his perfect score so far. By way of two third places today, Christof Wieland on GER 635 Unsponsored moves up to second overall ahead of Scot Holmgren on USA 674 Rosebud, whose pair of second places today sees him ease into the Corinthian top three.

Bow/Sail	Boat	Skipper	Yacht Club		1	2	3	4	5	6		Total	Pos
21 / ITA 817	UkaUka Racing	Lorenzo Bressani	Club Vela Portocivitanova		[6]	2	1	2	1	1		7	1
02 / USA 812	Brick House 812	Kristen Lane	St. Francis Yacht Club		8	1	[10]	3	3	7		22T	2
20 / SUI 596	Blu Moon	Flavio Favini	YCL		3	6	[8]	5	5	3		22T	3
29 / USA-749	FULL THROTTLE	Brian Porter	Lake Geneva Yacht Club.		[16]	9	2	1	7	4		23T	4
04 / IRL 607	Embarr	Conor Clarke	Royal Jamaica Yacht Club		2	5	5	[11]	9	2		23T	5
17 / BER655	hedgehog	Alec Cutler	Royal Bermuda Yacht Club		[9]	8	3	7	4	5		27	6
01 / USA 811	WTF	Alan Field	California Yacht Club		1	[11]	11	8	2	9		31	7
15 / ITA 735	ALTEA	Andrea Racchelli	CVCI		4	7	7	4	10	[13]		32	8
16 / ITA 819	AUDI	Riccardo Simoneschi	YCCS		7	[12]	4	9	12	10		42	9
32 / JPN 783	Esprit	Eiichiro Hamazaki [Corinthian]	Seabonia Yacht Club		11	4	9	[15]	11	11		46	10
25 / USA 820	New England Ropes/West Marine	Bora Gulari	Bayview Yacht Club		15	10	12	6	8	[18]		51	11
06 / USA 623	Brick House 623	Peter Lane	St. Francis Yacht Club		[18]	18	6	10	6	12		52	12
27 / NOR 804	Full Medal Jacket	Eivind Melleby	Royal Norwegian Yacht Club		5	3	[33/DSQ]	12	33/DSQ	6		59	13
08 / AUS 553	Bandit	Warwick Rooklyn	CYCA		14	13	13	13	14	[17]		67	14
24 / USA 786	BATTLE RHYTHM	Guy Mossman	Carolina Yacht Club		[22]	15	17	14	16	8		70	15
22 / FRA 644	ZIG ZAG 18	Henri Samuel	YACHT CLUB DE DINARD		12	16	15	17	[23]	23		83	16
31 / USA 379	Team Velocitek	Daniel Kaseler	Port Madison Yacht Club		20	[21]	20	18	13	16		87T	17
28 / GER 635	Unsponsored	Christof Wieland [Corinthian]	Bayrischer Yacht Club		[33/RAF]	19	18	16	19	15		87T	18
07 / AUS 686	Coco	Heath Walters	Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club		13	17	19	[26]	22	20		91	19
05 / USA 700	ARDOR/C.R.E.A.M.	David O'Reilly	ChYC		19	20	[23]	20	15	19		93	20
10 / USA 533	High Voltage	August Hernandez [Corinthian]	Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club		[28]	14	14	19	24	25		96	21
26 / USA 604	Tom Slick	Jeff Wittenberg	Columbia		10	23	16	22	[26]	26		97	22
03 / USA 674	Rosebud	Scott Holmgren [Corinthian]	OCBC		23	[26]	22	23	17	14		99	23
13 / USA 615	Funtech Racing	Charlie Hess [Corinthian]	BYC		24	[27]	21	21	20	22		108	24
12 / USA675	12happythoughts	David Brede	CYC Seattle		[25]	25	24	25	18	21		113	25
14 / USA 24	Smokin	Kevin Clark [Corinthian]	Encinal		21	24	[28]	24	21	24		114	26
09 / USA 344	Cold Shot	Steve Eller [Corinthian]	Austin Yacht Club		17	28	25	[29]	29	28		127	27
11 / CAN 121	Black Dog	Dave Black [Corinthian]	Etobicoke Yacht Club		27	22	27	28	28	[30]		132	28
18 / USA 494	Wee Jaggie	Andrew Walford [Corinthian]	Oklahoma City Boat Club		30	[31]	29	27	25	27		138	29
33 / USA 480	Monsoon II	Mark Hulings [Corinthian]	Corpus Christi Yacht Club		26	30	26	[31]	27	31		140	30
23 / USA 15	Abordage	Erwan le Gall [Corinthian]	Golden Gate Yacht Club		29	29	[30]	30	30	29		147	31
30 / USA 201	Mako	Stephen McMillan	Tahoe City Yacht Club		31	[32]	31	32	31	32		157	32

Melges 24 Corinthian

Sail   Boat   Skipper Yacht Club  1   2   3   4   5   6  Total Pos JPN 783   Esprit   Eiichiro Hamazaki/ Kentaro Ishiguro Tatsuhito Kawanishi Makoto Nagahashi Yasuhiro Tabuchi [Corinthian]   Seabonia Yacht Club/ Seabonia Yacht Club / Seabonia Yacht Club / Seabonia Yacht Club / Seabonia Yacht Club   [1]   1   1   1   1   1   5   1   GER 635   Unsponsored   Christof Wieland/ Giulia Della Rosa Jens altern Wathne Jorgen Wathne [Corinthian]   Bayrischer Yacht Club/ Lega Navale Italiana, sez. Milano / Haugesund SF / Haugesund Yacht Club   [12/RAF]   3   3   2   3   3   14   2   USA 674   Rosebud   Scott Holmgren/ Alan Nakanishi Frank Beling Justin Howard Justin Adams [Corinthian]   OCBC/ Waikiki Yacht Club / OCBC / OCBC / Arlington yacht club   4   [6]   5   5   2   2   18   3   USA 533   High Voltage   August Hernandez/ Martin Johnsson Michael Hoey Mike Schroff Susan O'Neil [Corinthian]   Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club/ Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club / Bayveiw Yacht Club / Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club / Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club   [8]   2   2   3   6   6   19   4   USA 615   Funtech Racing   Charlie Hess/ Greg McCliment Thac Nguyen Thomas Murray [Corinthian]   BYC/ Bayview Yacht Club / Edison Boat Club / Eastport Yacht Club   5   [7]   4   4   4   4   21   5   USA 24   Smokin   Kevin Clark/ Mahalynn Lu Michael Andrews Tom Rankin [Corinthian]   Encinal/ none / Encinal Yacht Club / SOBYC   3   5   [9]   6   5   5   24   6   USA 344   Cold Shot   Steve Eller/ Jeff Jones Ray Shull Karen Owens [Corinthian]   Austin Yacht Club/ Austin Yacht Club / Austin Yaht Club / Austin Yacht Club   2   8   6   9   [10]   8   33   7   CAN 121   Black Dog   Dave Black/ Paul Dennis Eric Schaefer David Hymers [Corinthian]   Etobicoke Yacht Club/ Royal Canadian Yacht Club / EYC / Etobicoke Yacht Club   7   4   8   8   9   [10]   36   8   USA 494   Wee Jaggie   Andrew Walford/ Kevin Smith Kendall Helm Jake Dragoo Richard Walford [Corinthian]   Oklahoma City Boat Club/ Kevin Smith / Oklahoma City Boat Club / Oklahoma City Boat Club / OCBC   10   [11]   10   7   7   7   41   9   USA 480   Monsoon II   Mark Hulings/ Meredith Rummel Paul Arntson Michael Davidson Chloe Childs [Corinthian]   Corpus Christi Yacht Club/ Corpus Christi Yacht CLub / Corpus Christi Yacht Club / Corpus Christi Yacht Club / Corpus Christi Yacht Club   6   10   7   [11]   8   11   42   10   USA 15   Abordage   Erwan le Gall/ Lance Kim Amanda Kawamura Geoffrey Byrne [Corinthian]   Golden Gate Yacht Club/ Cal Sailing Club / None / King Harbor Yachy Club   9   9   [11]   10   11   9   48

 

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