Debriefing the 2016 Melges 32 Worlds with Winning Skipper Ryan DeVos

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 10 Oct 2016 The Melges 32 One Design class was created in 2005 in an effort to introduce sportboat-style performance and speed to the 30-plus-foot crowd, and the results have been impressive. The boat is an absolute riot to sail off the breeze in a blow, and while the uphill hiking work can be a bit on the brutal side for the crew, this can be overlooked once the kites inflate and the sled rides begin during a breeze-on regatta such as the 2016 Melges 32 Worlds (September 29 to October 2), which just recently wrapped up on the waters off of Newport, Rhode Island.

As with many hot One Design classes, professional sailors have long gravitated to the Megles 32 class, creating a situation where top-level owner/drivers work with world-class professionals top build winning teams and campaigns that stretch over years. While this can be intimidating (and frustrating) for Corinthian-level teams, the bottom-line reality is that there is often a class for each kind of sailor, and the Melges 32 has long been a class for owners who want a Grand Prix program, sans the cost and complexity of shipping a maxi-sized boat and crew around the world for different regattas.

Mind you, campaigning a Melges 32 is certainly not for those lacking financial wherewithal, but it does offer Grand Prix-level racing for the fraction of the cost of running a bona-fide big-boat program. Moreover, the nature of the class also provides opportunities for owner/drivers to learn from their tacticians and trimmers, while also increasing their team’s racecourse potency.

Such was the case at the 2016 Melges 32 Worlds, where owner/driver Ryan DeVos and his Volpe crew proved that they had speed to burn. DeVos, now 25, grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where he is a member at the Macatawa Bay Yacht Club, in Holland, Michigan) and currently works for the Orlando Magic basketball team doing business strategy, a skill set that he acquired while studying at Rollins College in Orlando, Florida. DeVos was exposed to sailing at an early age thanks to his dad, who is a keen sailor, and went through junior sailing but the epoxy didn’t really kick until 2008 when DeVos started racing Melges 32s.

Since then, however, DeVos has worked to steadily improve his results in a class that defines the term competitive, culminating in his win at the 2016 Melges 32 Worlds. I caught up with DeVos on the phone to learn more about his proud win at this high-level event.

What were the biggest keys to your success at the 2016 Melges Worlds?
I think we had a really great team. Our three pros are absolutely fantastic. Scott Nixon, Sam Rogers and [tactician] Mark Mendelblatt, they all worked well together from a speed and tactical standpoint. Our Cat 1 [amateur sailors] were pretty amazing, Drew Weirda, Mike Hill, Erika Reineke, and Peter Kinney.

Can you tell me about the conditions at this year’s Worlds? It was pretty windy, no?
It was really breezy, which is [all] you can ask for in the Melges 32. They’re made to rip downwind, so it was a lot of fun. In the first three days, we were seeing anywhere from 15, 16 and at the absolute low end [of the wind scale], up to gusts to 25, 26, 27 [knots] something like that. It was definitely breezy.

Were you guys sailing in Narragansett Bay or were they sending you guys out [of protected waters]?
Yes, we stay in [Narragansett] Bay. We [sailed] right by Halfway Rock, that general area right in there, which I think was the right call just given how windy it was and then how rough it probably would have been out on the ocean.

What kind of seas were there in the Bay?
It was short chop, I’d say two, no more than three feet on the [roughest] days.

That must have made for some pretty uncomfortable uphill hiking.
Yes, fortunately I didn’t have to hike. [laughs] I felt bad for those guys!

What are the other Melges 32 sailing did you do to prepare for the Worlds?
The boat did [what] we call the [three-regatta] Blue Water Series, which is a Melges 32 event based out of Fort Lauderdale, [Florida,] which is made up of three different regattas. I was only able to drive one of them and my dad drove the other two. We [went] away as the Blue Water Series champions. Then we had two other events up in Newport, [Rhode Island], one that was pretty light…I think we only ultimately have five, [Melges] 32s racing. And at the Nationals where I think we had 8 or 9 [boats]. We ended up second at the Nationals.

What’s it like to sail in a class with so many professional sailors? Also, how does having a guy like Mark Mendelblatt aboard help your whole team sail faster?
It is really what keeps me coming back to sailing. I mean the Melges 32 class-the boats are amazing, but the thing I really love about it is sailing against the best sailors in the world. I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s that highly competitive nature that makes it exciting.

Just learning and sailing with guys like Mark [Mendelblatt] has incredible. I’m still pretty early in my sailing career…and I’ve had a lot of help along the way. My main[sail] trainer Scott Nixon has been sailing with me since 2008 or 2009, so he’s been a huge help. Sam Rogers who does kite and jib for me has been with us since 2010.

So we’ve had a pretty long tenured team, at least from our professionals. They have been invaluable, and I just learned a lot from a lot of different people coming onboard along the way. We had Ed Baird sailing with us for quite a while earlier on in my career, and that was absolutely invaluable just to learn the basic techniques from a guy who is probably one of the best helmsmen in the world. Two Worlds ago we had Jimmy Spithill on board and again just kind of taking things to a new level. That was a good experience for him to get out there and get some fleet racing, but it was great to sail with him and learn a little bit from him.

Was it intimidating to go head-to-head with so many other top sailors? If memory serves, you had two other former Melges 32 World Champions in the fleet, no?
Yes, that’s correct. Certainly, at first when I was jumping into the boats, it was extremely intimidating but then, the more we sailed the boat the more success we found-[for example,] we won the nationals, we won the North-Americans-so suddenly we were one of the top boats in the fleet. That certainly helped take the nerves off a little bit. But yes, sailing against guys like Jason Carroll, Alessandro [Rombelli] is an incredible experience. They are both incredible sailors. Like you said, they both won World Championships. It’s a real honor to be stacked-up against guys like that.

Were there any key moments/races that contributed to your proud win, or was it a case of consistency winning the day?
We were actually somehow inconsistent. We started a little weak on the first day. [We] just wasn’t going all that well. I think we had a 2 [and a] 7 was our finish on the first day, but [we] really kicked into gear on the second day. We ended up winning two of the races, and we finished sixth in the third race of the day… We were called over early, and we were able to fight back to sixth [place,] which was really good.

It was a little bit frustrating-what would be an amazing day turned out to be a great day, but we would have liked to not to have that sixth on the record. It was actually the same scenario as the second day for the third day: We won two races and finished seventh in another, seventh or ninth or something like that, I don’t remember. We were a little inconsistent but our four race wins really helped to erase those mistakes to some degree.

[Ed Note: Volpe finished 1, 9, 1 on the third day of racing.]]

Did you guys end up dropping a race?
We scored nine races but we raced ten. We ended-up dropping [our] ninth-place finish.

Am I correct that your whole family sails and competes in the Melges 32 class? Can you tell me about this?
Yes absolutely. I ultimately jumped into the boat first. I was in high school when we got into it. My dad wanted something to sail and wanted something that we could do together, so he got us a [Melges] 32. I ended up driving and he crewed for me for a number of years-he actually just recently got out of the boat about a year ago. That was a really great father-son experience.

My cousin Dalton actually ended up getting a [Melges] 32 as well. His dad, my uncle Doug, jumped on and is crewing his crewing as well. We had a little inter-family rivalry, which was a lot of fun, going on. We went back and forth pretty [well]. [Tactician] Jonathan [McKee] was sailing with them and they were fast for a while there, and Dalton is on a long boat trip right now.

With Dalton’s departure, my [older] brother [Rick] stepped in and started driving Delta, which is the other boat. So now we have a little sibling rivalry, which is a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of fun sailing against my [older] brother.

I’ve got to imagine that it makes your dad super happy to see you guys both so involved, right?
He was beaming when we ultimately finished [the 2016 Worlds].