Ninety-five teams seek to be Melges 24 World Champion

Middelfart, Denmark (June 29, 2015) – On the eve of the Melges 24 World Championships 2015, 95 boats trialed the course with a practice race today as they set up to fight for the title on Tuesday through Sunday.

“We’ve worked intensely on this event since November of 2013,” notes event coordinator, Soren Laugesen from Match Racing Denmark. “It took quite some time to find the best place in the racing calendar, so it would fit in just after Kiel Race Week. And on top of that, we had to mingle dates around to fit into the women’s match racing schedule.”

On the water attention is drawn to the top names of the class: Gulari, McKee, Simoneschi, Lindberg to name a few. A look at the competitors list reveals many names usually featured on rosters of America’s Cup, Extreme Sailing Series and Olympic Sailing teams.

Eighteen nations are represented: Austria (3), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (17), Estonia (2), Finland (2), Great Britain (3), Germany (18), Hungary (2), Italy (5), Lichtenstein (1), Netherlands (5), Norway (18), Slovenia (1), Switzerland (4), Slovak Republic (1), Sweden (9), Ukraine (2) and United States of America (1).

A maximum of 14 races will be sailed and the schedule allows for up to three races per day.

Five (5) races are required to be completed to constitute the championship. When fewer than six (6) races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores. When from six (6) to twelve (12) races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her scores excluding her worst score. When thirteen (13) or more races have been completed, a boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores excluding her two worst scores.

The professional and Corinthian crews will race against each other in a single fleet for the overall Melges 24 World Championship title, with the Corinthian results being extracted to determine the winner of the Corinthian World Championship title. Fifty-six out of ninety-five teams will fight for the Corinthian (non-professionals allowed) World Champion’ Trophy which comes all the way long from Australia here.

The World Championships will be covered with live TV, taped interview shows, online tracking and on social channels.

Danish broadcasting company SportsXstream will use their custom-build TV-catamaran to cover the racing with additional cameras placed on the race course. This will be mixed live with tracking devices on the boats to make it possible to follow the racing – even for the people who need to be at work.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook – Live-Streaming

Event dates:
Saturday 27 to Monday 29 of June: Measurement and registration
Monday 29 of June: Practice race and the Opening Ceremony at the Hindsgavl Castle
Tuesday 30 of June to Sunday 5th of July: 2015 Melges 24 World Championship
Sunday 5 of July: Closing Ceremony