Melges 24s, J/22s and Cup news—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 7 Oct 2013 The big news in sailing this weekend comes from San Francisco Bay and the Melges 24 Worlds, which wrapped up on Saturday. After a decade-plus of winning virtually everything else under the sun except the Melges 24 Worlds, Brian Porter and his 'Full Throttle' team battled back Flavio Favini and his 'Blu Moon' team in the final race to take top honors at this prestigious event.

'I have been trying to win this thing since the very first Melges 24 World Championship,' said Porter. 'I have come pretty close, second three times, so this has been an elusive target for us.'

Impressively, Porter and the 'Full Throttle' crew recently added mainsail trimmer Federico Michetti to their mix, making this his first Worlds on the 'FT' team. Yesterday’s win became Michetti’s unprecedented fifth Melges 24 Worlds win in this ultra-competitive class.

'I am still a little confused, trying to understand what has happened,' said a happy Michetti. 'It has been a great championship, made better by the fact that I sailed with some good friends. They have been unbelievable to sail with and I am I am so proud to be part of the 'Full Throttle' crew.'

Get the full Melges 24 debriefing, inside, as well as some great image galleries from this high-octane OD regatta.

And for Cup addicts, don’t miss the video footage of the Challenger of Record’s press conference. Here, the father-and-son team of Bob and Sandy Oatley helped explain their vision of AC35, which, from the sounds of the press conference, seems to be aimed at including more teams and more great sailing.

Also in Cup news, it now sounds like Team New Zealand could live on to sail again in the 35th America’s Cup. 'This country and this government stands ready to be part of the next America's Cup,' said Steven Joyce, the New Zealand Economic Development Minister, told the returning team. 'Bring us a proposal and we will work with you on it.'

No doubt this is great news for Grant Dalton, Dean Barker and the rest of the TNZ crew, but the Protocol needs to be firmed-up before serious efforts can be made. Get the full story, inside this issue.

Meanwhile, Allan Terhune and his 'Dazzler' crew have won the J/22 Worlds, which just wrapped up in Newport, Rhode Island. 'I had an awesome team,' said Terhune. 'There’s nowhere better than Newport. We had great sea breezes, we had some Northerlies, we had shifty races, we had a little bit of everything, and that’s what makes it so fun. It was spectacular!' More, inside.

Also inside, get the full report from the RC44 Cascais Cup, the Extreme Sailing Series Act 7 (held in Nice, France) and the Clipper Round the Worlds Yacht Race. And finally, be sure to check out the pre-race report from the Argo Group Gold Cup, which starts this week (October 8) in Bermuda. Enjoy!

May the four winds blow you safely home,