Melges 24 day 4 - Favini continues to lead

by Melges PR on 25 Jan 2008
With a total of five races completed at ACURA Key West 2008 presented by Nautica, Flavio Favini helming for Switzerland's Franco Rossini on 'Blu Moon' is still the overall leader. Beyond that, it was a complete shake-up with Alan Field from Los Angeles, California on 'WTF' in second and in third, Benoit Charon from France on 'Tresvalles.com.'

Britain's John Pollard is now in sixth overall with and another GBR boat, Natural Mojo of Miles Quinton from the Hamble, is in eighth after a much better day, recording two, fourth place finishes.

Despite an initial postponement the Melges 24 fleet conducted racing during the late afternoon hours on Thursday enabling two additional heats to be added to the bag.

The fleet arrived on the scene around 1pm, and felt the frustration of yet another postponement but the race committee was confident that the wind mother nature promised would be delivered. Approximately an hour later the wind gradually began to increase and the race committee set the course.

By race time, the skies were still overcast with the sun beginning to bear down. Patches of blue that initially appeared here and there grew larger, the sun eventually made a showing and the breeze built to 10-12 knots at 320 degrees.

The fleet made a clean sweep of the start as Corinthian extraordinaire Bruce Ayres from Newport Beach, California on 'Monsoon' shot out to the front of the pack. As the race progressed he slowly but surely put distance between himself and the fleet.

As he rounded the weathermark in first, another Corinthian came along as well — Argyle Campbell also from Newport Beach, California on 'Rock n' Roll.' Their closest challenge was 2007 World Champion Dave Ullman on 'Pegasus 505', Miles Quinton from the UK on 'Natural Mojo' and Field. Ayres went on to display an amazing burst of speed that took him all the way to the finish. Campbell finished in second and Ullman was third.

It was a spectacular day for the Corinthian fleet as Kelly Gough helming for Shawn Grisham on 'Bulls-eye' decided to take the top spot out for a spin in race two as he practically lead part of the race aggressively chased by Ullman, Favini, Charon and Quinton.

'We had a really good start in the second race of the day, and as most know, to get out front and stay in clean air means life is good. We had our rig really dialed in. It was a lot of fun. The wind was perfect today for us. The whole trick was we had clean air from the start and we hit the first two shifts,' commented 'Bulls-eye' crew member John Fleming.

Gough|Grisham finished a close second to Favini if first, Charon pulled up to third, Quinton was fourth and in fifth was Field.

As it stands Favini is the official leader going into Friday's racing five points out in front of Field in second. The points spread gets a little tighter between the third thru fifth positions. It's tight. Charon is seated in third with 28 (two points out of second), Ullman has 34 and in fifth with 36 points is Brian Porter from Winnetka, Illinois on 'Full Throttle'.

Racing is scheduled to start one hour earlier than originally slated for Friday.

Melges 24 - Results after day 4

1 Blu Moon Franco Rossini Lugano, SUI 1 1 2 18 1 23
2 WTF Alan Field Marina Del Rey, CA 6 4 8 5 5 28
3 Tresvalles.com Benoit Charon Granville, FRA 2 10 5 10 3 30
4 Pegasus 505 David Ullman Newport Beach, CA 3 5 6 3 17 34
5 Full Throttle Brian Porter Lake Geneva, WI 4 2 11 8 11 36
6 Excellent John Pollard Torquay, GBR 7 3 3 9 19 41
7 Monsoon Bruce Ayres Newport Beach, CA 20 6 15 1 9 51
8 Natural Mojo Miles Quinton Hamble, UK 16 20 7 4 4 51
9 Flyer Chuck Holzman Detroit, MI 5 9 20 13 8 55
10 Rock N' Roll Argyle Campbell Newport Beach, CA 9 15 4 2 26 56
11 F.GiacomelAudi R. Simoneschi Genova, ITA 15 8 1 25 15 64
12 Lounge Act Loren Colahan Santa Barbara, CA 23 7 18 7 12 67
13 Brick House Peter Lane Tiburon, CA 10 13 9 20 24 76
14 Cujo Tony Wetherell Snaith, GBR 8 19 23 27 10 87
15 Bulls Eye Shawn Grisham Dallas, TX 14 27 30 15 2 88
16 Outhouse Kristen Lane Newport, RI 30 17 12 12 23 94
17 I Won Yoga Simon Strauss Larchmont, NY 47 ocs 21 16 6 6 96
18 Pied Piper Jack Jennings Chicago, IL 12 22 33 22 7 96
19 Where's Bob? Bob Tennant San Francisco, CA 29 14 13 11 36 103
20 Gannet O. M.v. Blumencron Annapolis, MD 46 p40 11 10 23 16 106
21 Babs Henry Colie Mantoloking, NJ 18 24 19 32 13 106
22 US 515 Yevgeniy Burmatnov Oyster Bay, NY 11 26 36 21 14 108
23 Kleine Rainbow Bent Dietrich Hamburg, GER 17 23 avg1 29 16 30 115
24 Tramp Thomas Ritter Bayview YC, MI 36 12 25 19 29 121
25 Flygfisk Tom Kassberg San Francisco, CA 22 16 22 39 28 127
26 Speedemon Richard Mallinson Oklahoma City, OK 25 29 31 17 27 129
27 USA 686 John Downing San Diego, CA 31 18 17 33 33 132
28 12happythoughts Dave Brede Seattle, WA 13 47 dsq 27 14 32 133
29 Blair Which Project Blair Ross Chicago, IL 19 32 28 34 20 133
30 Obsession Gary Schwarting Naples, FL 27 23 14 41 35 140
31 NOR 724 Lasse Kjus Oslo, NOR 21 34 37 31 21 144
32 Trust Me Arthur Anosov Oyster Bay, NY 34 28 35 30 18 145
33 Eric Martin Wedge Torquay, GBR 26 25 21 42 40 154
34 The Rodent Hank Wissenz NOLSC, CAN 39 31 34 29 22 155
35 StarTack David Happ Madison, WS 35 35 26 35 37 168
36 Evolution Lance Smotherman Detroit, MI 24 39 47 dnc 26 34 170
37 Risky Business Mark Beck Novelty, OH 33 36 24 47 ocs 31 171
38 Zingara Richard Reid Port Credit, CAN 47 dnf 40 32 28 38 185
39 Vindicator Rick Bernstein CSA, St. Louis, MO 32 38 39 36 41 186
40 Chillout Bradford Jungels Ocean City, NJ 37 33 38 37 42 187
41 Regatta.nu Arne Larssen Onsala, SWE 47 ocs 47 dnc 47 dnc 24 25 190
42 Riot Act Guy Mossman Charleston, SC 38 41 41 38 44 202
43 TravelingCircus Kyle Hintze Salt Lake City, UT 41 42 40 43 43 209
44 Wiggle Room Chris Johnson Seattle, WA 40 37 42 47 dnc 47 dnc 213
45 m John Hamilton Newport, RI 47 dnc 47 dnc 47 dnc 40 39 220
46 HP 1030 Carl Sylvan Gšteborg, SWE 47 dnc 47 dnc 47 dnc 47 dnc 47 dnc 235