Done and Dusted at Melges 24 Worlds

Miami, FL (December 3, 2016) – With all their finishes but one within the top five, the Irish team of Embarr has been crowned at the 2016 Melges 24 World Championship. Demonstrating downwind speed that allowed them to take out amazing recoveries, the closely knit crew won the event with a race to spare.

“We work physically very hard downwind, hiking as if we were sailing upwind and this gives a great help to us, especially when you have wavy conditions as it has been during this World Championship,” declared the owner of Embarr, Conor Clarke. “We’ve been in Miami for a while trying to understand the local conditions and benefit at the most from them. We’ve worked hard and our dream has come true.”

Conor Clarke’s Embarr IRL829 with Stuart McNay helming — © Pierrick Contin – pierrickcontin,fr

With Clarke, the Embarr team included helm Stuart McNay and David Hughes, Maurice O’Connell and Aoife English.

The Italian team Taki 4 secured its victory in the Corinthian division. The crew of Marco Zammarchi kept working hard after the third place obtained in the Europeans of Hyeres and sailed very good races all through the World Championship. On board of Taki 4 were sailing together with the owner: Giacomo Fossati, Matteo De Chiara, Niccolò Bertola and Giovanni Bannetta, with the support of Niccolò Bianchi as coach.

Marco Zammarchi’s Taki 4 helmed by Niccolon Bertola – © Pierrick Contin – pierricknontin.fr

Completing the rest of the Corinthian podium was Tõnu Tõniste’s Lenny (EST) with Toomas Tõniste, Kalev Tanner, Maiki Saaring and Andres Rohtla in the crew, World Champion in 2015 and European vice-champion in 2016, while third place went to Megan Ratliff’s Decorum (USA), who was also awarded as best female-skippered boat. Sailing with Ratliff was her brother Hunter Ratliff along with Zachary Hernandez, Alex Simon and Christopher Stocke.

Twelve races were held from November 29 to December 3.

The 2017 Worlds will be held in Helsinki, Finland with the 2018 edition coming to Victoria, Canada.

Corinthian Division (Top 5 of 37; 12 races, 1 discard)
1. Taki 4, Marco Zammarchi, ITA – 4 -3 -4 -2 -2 -1 -2 -2 -1 -2 -1 -[7] ; 24
2. Lenny, Tõnu Tõniste, EST – 2 -4 -2 -[6] -1 -5 -1 -1 -4 -4 -5 -6 ; 35
3. Decorum, Megan Ratliff, USA – 1 -1 -[22] -1 -6 -2 -4 -4 -2 -3 -2 -11 ; 37
4. ACCRU, G. Nixon / K. Nixon, AUS – 3 -5 -3 -12 -4 -3 -3 -10 -9 -8 -4 -[38] ; 64
5. Team Kesbeke/SIKA/Gill, Ronald Veraar, NED – 6 -2 -1 -[38] -3 -18 -10 -8 -3 -5 -3 -9 ; 68

Overall Results (Top 5 of 74; 12 races, 1 discard)
1. Embarr, Conor Clarke, IRL – 2 -1 -1 -3 -4 -5 -2 -1 -2 -15 -2 -[75] ; 38
2. Maidollis 3, Gian Luca Perego, ITA – 3 -5 -3 -9 -6 -2 -13 -3 -10 -10 -5 -[15] ; 69
3. Full Throttle, Brian Porter, USA – 9 -15 -18 -6 -1 -1 -7 -6 -[20] -2 -8 -2 ; 75
4. Monsoon, Bruce Ayres, USA – 10 -4 -13 -7 -3 -[20] -10 -4 -5 -9 -3 -7 ; 75
5. West Marine Rigging, Bora Gulari, USA – 1 -2 -2 -16 -5 -26 -12 -10 -1 -3 -1 -[75] ; 79

Event details – Scoreboard – Tracker – Facebook

Source: M24 class, Scuttlebutt