Fifty-Six Teams Vie for Melges 20 World Title

Scarlino, Italy (August 24, 2016) – Representing 15 nations, 56 teams will compete at the 2016 Melges 20 World Championship, with up to 10 races planned on August 25-28.

The fleet includes such luminaries as John Kostecki, tactician aboard Michael Illbruck’s Pinta, Cameron Appleton who will call tactics for Achille Onorato on Mascalzone Latino Jr., alongside Alessandro Rombelli will be Paul Goodison on STIG, Flavio Favini will call the shots aboard Yukihiro Ishida’s Yasha Samurai, and Morgan Reeser will once more assist Californian Drew Freides on Pacific Yankee.

Also vying for the title is John Kilroy, Jr. and his son Liam. John, at the helm of his famous Samba Pa Ti will attempt to further extend his unbeaten record run in the World Championship challenge having won in 2014 (Riva del Garda), and again in 2015 (at home in San Francisco, CA). Considered one of his greatest opponents is Liam, a talented helmsman in his own right and currently looks to be among the fastest in the fleet as he won the 2016 Open Russian Championship that was held in Scarlino last weekend.

Other favorites include Guido Miani’s Out of Reach from Monaco (Gabriele Benussi, tactician) who has managed to capture victory at almost every major event with the exception of a World Championship. Richard Davies’ Section 16 (Chris Rast, tactician) is among the strongest teams of the European season and perhaps considered an underdog.

Russia is by far the largest fleet in attendance and looking to secure a win, because up until now, the stage has been dominated by Italy and the USA – Francesco Farneti on ITA-157 in 2010. Rombelli in 2011, Dario Levi on Fremito D’Arja in 2012, John Taylor’s Ninkasi in 2013 and then Kilroy in both 2014 and 2015.

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Source: Melges 20 Class