Melges 24 World Championship day 2 and a new leader

by Justin Chisholm on 18 May 2011 The 2011 Melges 24 World Championship is underway in Corpus Christi, Texas. The event continues until Saturday May 21st.

Day two of the 2011 Melges 24 Worlds in Corpus Christi, Texas delivered two spectacular races sailed in near perfect conditions, under crystal clear skies and in a solid breeze which built from 15 up to around 19 knots throughout the day. Lorenzo Bressani on ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing, and Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle, traded blows at the front of the fleet in both races, with Bressani winning ahead of Porter in Race 3 and then Porter holding off Bressani to take the win in Race 4. Bressani's near perfect performance today means that he tops the leaderboard tonight with an 11 point lead over Kristen Lane on USA 812 Brick House 812, whose 10, 3, scoreline sees her in second overall, tied on points with Flavio Favini on SUI 596 Blu Moon in third, and Andrea Racchelli on ITA 735 Altea. Yesterday's overnight leader Nathan Wilmot on IRL 607 Embarr could only manage a fifth and an eleventh today, dropping him down to fifth overall.

Reveling in the windier conditions on Day 2, Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle and Lorenzo Bressani on ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing, spent both of today's races engaged in their own private battle at the front of the fleet. Bressani led the first race of the day from start to finish, with Porter chasing hard throughout in second. In the second race of the day, it was Porter who led at the windward mark ahead of Bressani who arrived at the buoy on port tack, just a couple of boat lengths behind. With no gap to tack into, Bressani was forced to duck behind two boats before then rounding in fourth. By the leeward gate, a charging Bressani was up to second and clearly focused on closing Porter down even further. As the leading pair blasted down the final run, Bressani had reduced Porter's lead to just a few lengths, and the Italian appeared to be gaining with every gust. In the last few feet to the finish, Porter, coming in at pace from the right, just managed to pull off a gybe in front Bressani, who was hurtling in from the left. With Bressani arriving at full speed on the layline to the finish, Porter was just able to complete his gybe in time enough to surf home, only a few feet ahead.

Despite finishing tenth in the first of today's races, Kristen Lane at the helm of USA 812 Brick House 812, proved that her race win on the opening day was no flash in the pan, when in the second race of the day she clawed her way back from a poor windward mark rounding to ultimately take third. Rounding the final windward mark in seventh place, Lane showed blistering pace down the last leg to move within striking distance of the pack of boats all scrapping for third. Nailing the port layline into the finish with absolute precision, Lane came in very hot from the left to snatch third place, after just managing to thread herself between the pin end line boat and the fast approaching bowsprits of Andrea Racchelli on ITA 735 Altea, Flavio Favini on SUI 596 Blu Moon and Bora Gulari on USA 820 New England Ropes/West Marine. Lane's gutsy maneuver has earned her second place in the overall standings at the end of Day 2.

It is a testimony to the extremely close nature of the racing at this championship that second placed Lane is in a three way tie on points with both Favini and Racchelli, who are in third and fourth places respectively. Indeed just six points separate second from seventh overall. A fifth and an eleventh today for yesterday's regatta leader Nathan Wilmot on IRL 607 Embarr sees him drop to fifth place overall, with a four point advantage over Alec Cutler on BER 655 hedgehog in sixth. After a poor opening day by his own standards, Brian Porter on USA 749 Full Throttle has moved up to seventh by way of his 2,1 performance today.

Now holding an eleven point advantage at the top of the standings, the reigning world champions on Uka Uka Racing, were looking understandably calm and relaxed after racing today. 'Yes it was a good day for us.' commented their tactician Jonathan McKee. 'We are obviously very happy with the way things went today. We managed to get off the line quickly and we felt we had good boatspeed in those conditions.' Asked if he had been following a particular strategy today, he had this to say 'It was all surprisingly subtle out there. The wind was pretty steady and there wasn't a consistent side of the racecourse which seemed to pay. It was more about finding the best pressure downwind and avoiding the bad sets of waves upwind.' Trimmer Federico Michetti, paid this tongue in cheek tribute to his helmsman. 'Rufo (Lorenzo Bressani) likes the breezy conditions, so this makes it very easy for the rest of us. He is like a racehorse, we just take the blinkers off his eyes at the start, and off he goes!'

In the all amateur Corinthian Division, Eiichiro Hamazaki on JPN 783 continued to dominate with another pair of bullets to give him an 11 point overall lead over August Hernandez on USA 533 High Voltage in second and Christof Wieland on GER 635 Unsponsored in third.

With the normal weather system in Corpus Christi now appearing to have re-established itself, local opinion suggests that tomorrow may bring windier conditions still. Racing on Day 3 is scheduled to start at 11 AM local time with two more races scheduled.

RESULTS

Bow/Sail   Boat   Skipper Yacht Club    1   2   3   4    Total Pos 21 / ITA 817   UkaUka Racing   Lorenzo Bressani   Club Vela Portocivitanova     6   2   1   2     11   1   02 / USA 812   Brick House 812   Kristen Lane   St. Francis Yacht Club     8   1   10   3     22T   2   20 / SUI 596   Blu Moon   Flavio Favini   YCL     3   6   8   5     22T   3   15 / ITA 735   ALTEA   Andrea Racchelli   CVCI     4   7   7   4     22T   4   04 / IRL 607   Embarr   Conor Clarke   Royal Jamaica Yacht Club     2   5   5   11     23   5   17 / BER655   hedgehog   Alec Cutler   Royal Bermuda Yacht Club     9   8   3   7     27   6   29 / USA-749   FULL THROTTLE   Brian Porter   Lake Geneva Yacht Club.     16   9   2   1     28   7   01 / USA 811   WTF   Alan Field   California Yacht Club     1   11   11   8     31   8   16 / ITA 819   AUDI   Riccardo Simoneschi   YCCS     7   12   4   9     32   9   32 / JPN 783   Esprit   Eiichiro Hamazaki [Corinthian]   Seabonia Yacht Club     11   4   9   15     39   10   25 / USA 820   New England Ropes/West Marine   Bora Gulari   Bayview Yacht Club     15   10   12   6     43   11   06 / USA 623   Brick House 623   Peter Lane   St. Francis Yacht Club     18   18   6   10     52   12   27 / NOR 804   Full Medal Jacket   Eivind Melleby   Royal Norwegian Yacht Club     5   3   33/DSQ   12     53T   13   08 / AUS 553   Bandit   Warwick Rooklyn   CYCA     14   13   13   13     53T   14   22 / FRA 644   ZIG ZAG 18   Henri Samuel   YACHT CLUB DE DINARD     12   16   15   17     60   15   24 / USA 786   BATTLE RHYTHM   Guy Mossman   Carolina Yacht Club     22   15   17   14     68   16   26 / USA 604   Tom Slick   Jeff Wittenberg   Columbia     10   23   16   22     71   17   07 / AUS 686   Coco   Heath Walters   Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club     13   17   19   26     75T   18   10 / USA 533   High Voltage   August Hernandez [Corinthian]   Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club     28   14   14   19     75T   19   31 / USA 379   Team Velocitek   Daniel Kaseler   Port Madison Yacht Club     20   21   20   18     79   20   05 / USA 700   ARDOR/C.R.E.A.M.   David O'Reilly   ChYC     19   20   23   20     82   21   28 / GER 635   Unsponsored   Christof Wieland [Corinthian]   Bayrischer Yacht Club     33/RAF   19   18   16     86   22   13 / USA 615   Funtech Racing   Charlie Hess [Corinthian]   BYC     24   27   21   21     93   23   03 / USA 674   Rosebud   Scott Holmgren [Corinthian]   OCBC     23   26   22   23     94   24   14 / USA 24   Smokin   Kevin Clark [Corinthian]   Encinal     21   24   28   24     97   25   09 / USA 344   Cold Shot   Steve Eller [Corinthian]   Austin Yacht Club     17   28   25   29     99T   26   12 / USA675   12happythoughts   David Brede   CYC Seattle     25   25   24   25     99T   27   11 / CAN 121   Black Dog   Dave Black [Corinthian]   Etobicoke Yacht Club     27   22   27   28     104   28   33 / USA 480   Monsoon II   Mark Hulings [Corinthian]   Corpus Christi Yacht Club     26   30   26   31     113   29   18 / USA 494   Wee Jaggie   Andrew Walford [Corinthian]   Oklahoma City Boat Club     30   31   29   27     117   30   23 / USA 15   Abordage   Erwan le Gall [Corinthian]   Golden Gate Yacht Club     29   29   30   30     118   31   30 / USA 201   Mako   Stephen McMillan   Tahoe City Yacht Club     31   32   31   32     126   32

Melges 24 Corinthian (11 boats) Series Standing - 4 races scored

Sail   Boat   Skipper Yacht Club    1   2   3   4    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     4   1   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     15   2   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     20T   3   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     20T   4   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     20T   5   USA 24   Smokin   Kevin Clark/ Mahalynn Lu Michael Andrews Tom Rankin [Corinthian]   Encinal/ none / Encinal Yacht Club / SOBYC     3   5   9   6     23   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     25   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     27   8   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     34   9   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     38   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     39   11

Melges 24 World Championship website