Audi Melges 20 World Championship - ‘Samba Pa Ti’ crowned champion

by International Audi Melges 20 Class Association on 31 Aug 2014 After one final race at the 2014 Audi Melges 20 World Championship, John Kilroy at the helm of Samba Pa Ti, tactician Paul Goodison and crew Jeff Reynolds proved they were more than deserving of the 2014 Audi Melges 20 World Champion title. Four days of racing and no worse than a fourteenth in a fleet of fifty-seven entries, the Samba Pa Ti team excelled in almost every condition and under a wide variety of pressure.

'All we wanted to do for the start of the race today was to control Mascalzone as they were the only ones that could possibly win the event other than us. So, we did a little match racing on the start,' commented a very happy Kilroy. 'Things just went our way. Everything just went right for us. We’ve trained a lot and we have a great team.'

Kilroy attributes much of this week's success to the training he has been doing in his home town of San Francisco, California with his son, 11-year old Liam Kilroy who helms Wildman. 'The training we did against and with Wildman made me a much better small boat driver. We did a lot of match racing, practiced straight-line speed work and crew kinetics so, hats off to Wildman as they really made us a better team.'

In second overall is Achille Onorato helming Mascalzone Latino, Jr. with tactician Malcolm Page and Stefano Campialini as crew. Rounding out the top three is Guido Miani on Monaco Racing Fleet with tactician Gabriele Benussi and crew member Massimo Gherarducci who are the only other team other than Samba Pa Ti to hold three race wins in Riva.

In the all-amatuer Corinthian division (all ISAF Group 1 on board), Marco Gambarella’s Chimera edged out American John Brown’s Blind Squirrel for the overall title. From Canada, Paul Currie’s Wild Deuces finished third.

For now the World Championship title remains in the hands of the Americans.

A huge congratulations to the 2014 Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series Champion Miani. Over the last few months, since the start of the Series in Naples, which then traveled onward to Porto Ercole, Talamone and Riva Del Garda, Miani has been challenged by Dario Levi’s Fremito D’Arja all season long - until today. Onorato placed second in the series, while Levi finished in third overall. Pasquale Orofino's Raffica and Mirko De Falco's Peccere completed the Series in fourth and fifth respectively.

In 2015, the next World Championship will take place in San Francisco, California hosted by the San Francisco Yacht Club on September 30-October 3.

The 2014 World Championship was not only the largest ever in International Class history, it has been one of the most incredible events ever. The venue, conditions, competition, shore-side atmosphere and camaraderie have been nothing short of world class. It has been the absolute best. This is in great gratitude to Sailing Series and circuit title sponsor Audi, the entire B.Plan Sport&Events staff, Melges Europe, and host Yacht Club Fraglia Della Vela Riva and their league of volunteers, race committee and management. Most especially to all the participants that traveled from eleven different countries, made this Championship fantastic.

Preliminary Cumulative Results

			Bow	Sail Number	Yacht Name	Owner/Skipper	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8	Race 9	Race 10	T O	Total
		1.	313	USA 13131	Samba Pa Ti	John Kilroy	2	14	12	1	1	[14]	40.0
		2.	23	ITA 23	Mascalzone Latino	Achille Onorato	9	6	1	4	12	[18]	56.0
		3.	333	MON 333	Monaco Racing Fleet	Guido Miani	1	1	30	3	2	[30]	60.0
		4.	271	JPN 271	Mamma Aiuto!	Naofumi Kamei	5	13	8	2	7	[30]	97.0
		5.	8	USA 008	Shimmer	Russ Lucas	15	22	3	11	35	[35]	107.0
		6.	50	ITA 50	Fremito D'arja	Dario Levi	6	21	15	30	45	[45]	110.0
		7.	14	USA 14	Red Sky Sailing Team	Paul Reilly	8	8	14	24	21	[27]	123.0
		8.	15	USA 1315	Ninkasi	John Taylor	10	4	20	5	25	[36]	125.0
		9.	217	USA 217	Slingshot	Wes Whitmyer Jr	13	16	18	7	16	[45]	129.0
		10.	65	ITA 65	STIG	Alessandro Rombelli	43	10	41	14	20	[43]	131.0
		11.	276	USA 276	Section 16	Richard Davies	3	58/OCS	23	29	11	[58]	132.0
		12.	106	ITA 106	Asante Sana Sailing Team	Claudio Dutto	36	7	35	6	6	[36]	142.0
		13.	311	USA 311	Wildman	Liam Kilroy	11	31	19	32	26	[32]	143.0
		14.	157	ITA 157	ITA 157	Francesco Farneti	7	15	13	25	4	[33]	143.0
		15.	167	ITA 167	Maolca	Manfredi Vianini Tolomei	14	18	17	8	42	[42]	153.0
		16.	180	CZE 180	Aloha	Jan Kuchar	28	2	49	16	31	[49]	167.0
		17.	112	ITA 112	Peccere'	Mirko de Falco	20	37	21	21	15	[44]	167.0
		18.	108	MON 108	Lucifer	Matteo Marenghi Vaselli	17	27	6	19	43	[43]	168.0
		19.	124	ITA 124	Audi G-Tron F.lli Giacomel	Roberto Martinez	22	32	29	12	5	[32]	170.0
		20.	173	RUS 173	Ost Legal	Vladimir Lipavsky	18	26	2	18	41	[41]	179.0
		21.	149	ITA 149	CAMAY	Lauro Bonora	58/DNF	33	4	52	18	[58]	195.0
		22.	107	ITA 107	Leviathan	Davide Albertini Petroni	12	23	47	38	14	[47]	200.0
		23.	189	ITA 189	Sailing Lab	Andrea Bruschi	29	24	27	17	3	[46]	201.0
		24.	27	ITA 027	Chimera (Corinthian)	Marco Gambardella	33	11	9	57	13	[57]	203.0
		25.	7	RUS 7	ANYWAYANYDAY	Kirill Podolsky	26	17	7	27	27	[42]	211.0

For full results, click Melges 20 website