Melges 32 Fleet touts Cream of the Crop Competition

by Joy Dunigan on 17 Jan 2010
The International Melges 32 Class Association celebrated great success in 2009 and welcomes what appears to be a phenomenal start to 2010. They are the largest fleet in attendance at Premiere Racing’s Key West Race Week with a whopping 22 entries, just one shy of it’s Gold Cup equivalent held a little over a month ago in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Brand new faces and veterans alike have migrated south to enjoy great breeze and warm temps presenting yet another impressive ‘who’s who in sailing’ crew list. Participants include Phil Lotz (Newport, R.I) on Arethusa with Richard Clarke as tactician, Tommy Burnham will call tactics for Michael Dominguez (Newport, R.I.) on Bronco, Jud Smith pairs up with Bob Hesse (Elma, N.Y.) on Lake Effect, Charlie Ogletree sails with Bob Hughes (Macatawa Bay, Mich.) on Heartbreaker, 2009 Melges 24 World Champion Chris Larson serves as tactician for Geoff Pierini (Perth Amboy, N.J.) on Shakedown, and Stu Bannatyne steps in along side of John Kilroy (Malibu, Calif.) aboard his famous Samba Pa Ti, just to name a few.

2009 Melges 32 Gold Cup Champion Rod Jabin (Annapolis, Md.) on Ramrod with the highly-skilled tactical efforts of Gavin Brady will add to the mix. Defending Key West Champion Jeff Ecklund (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) on STAR will attempt a consecutive win with Harry Melges by his side. 2009 Audi Melges 32 Sailing Series Champion Carlo Alberini (Pesaro, Italy) on his very famous Calvi Network will be going for a big win with Gabriele Benussi as tactician.

The fleet is packed with an onslaught of newbies including Malcolm Gefter (Newport, R.I.) on Celeritas and Yukihiro Ishida (Toyko Japan) debuting on Yasha Samurai. Familiar faces can also be found such as Joe Woods (Torquay, UK) on Red, Stuart Simpson (Torbay, UK) on Team Barbarians, John Taylor (Jupiter Island, Fla.) on Ninkasi, and Alex Jackson (Riverside, Conn.) on Leenabarca.

Key West Race Week 2010 is the second of three Winter Series events for the Melges 32 in North America. Rod Jabin is currently leading the series, with Joe Woods in second and Andy Lovell in third. The final event is the Miami Grand Prix on March 4-7.

Other events on the radar are Charleston Race Week in April, the East Coast Championship in May, Newport in June and a spectacular U.S. National Championship happens on July 29-August 1 in Harbor Springs, Mich, hosted by the Little Traverse Yacht Club. View The Complete Schedule. The USA Sailing Series will come to a grand close at the 2010 Melges 32 World Championship on September 22-27 in San Francisco, Calif., hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club.

In Europe, things will heat up with yet another round of Audi Sailing Series events starting in March and progressing throughout the summer months. It winds down in Palma for the fourth and final event. Stay close as more information will follow soon regarding the very first European Championship taking place on June 10-13, 2010.

Five, fun filled days of racing in Key West awaits the fleet. Blog coverage will be available during racing. Stay close to melges32.com as race reports, press releases and photos will be distributed each day.

Key West Race Week Entry List
1.) Argo, Jason Carroll/John Baxter
2.) Flat Stanley, Terry McSweeney/Seadon Wijsen
3.) Arethusa, Phil Lotz/Richard Clarke
4.) Bronco, Michael Dominguez, Tommy Burnham
5.) Calvi Network, Carlo Alberini/Gabriele Benussi
6.) Celeritas, Malcolm Gefter/Tim Healy
7.) Dark n' Stormy, Ed Tillinghast/Charlie Enright
8.) Fantasticaaa, Lanfranco Cirillo/Michele Paoletti
9.) Heartbreaker, Robert Hughes/Charlie Ogletree
10.) Lake Effect, Bob Hesse/Jud Smith
11.) Leenabarca, Alex Jackson/Philip Werheim
12.) New Wave, Mike Carroll/Scott Nixon
13.) Ninkasi, John Taylor/Anthony Kotoun
14.) Ramrod, Rod Jabin/Gavin Brady
15.) Red, Joe Woods/Paul Goodison
16.) Samba Pa Ti, John Kilroy, Jr./Stu Bannatyne
17.) Teasing Machine, Jean-Francois Cruette/Christian Pontieux
18.) Shakedown, Geoff Pierini/Chris Larson
19.) STAR, Jeff Ecklund/Harry Melges
20.) Team Barbarians, Stuart Simpson/Nigel Young
21.) Vanpire32, Dan Van Heeckeren/Willem Van Heeckeren
22.) Yasha Samarai, Yukihiro Ishida/Charlie McKee