Drew Freides wins Melges 20 Nationals

Newport, RI (August 19, 2017) – Drew Freides’ Pacific Yankee with crew Morgan Reeser and Charlie Smythe won the 2017 Melges 20 US National Championship, holding off the charge by 2014 and 2015 Class World Champ John Kilroy and his team of Paul Goodison and Jeff Reynolds.

As yesterday’s rain gave way to a hot sun and blue skies, the wind went with it and this morning looked like the perfect day for water skiing instead of sailboat racing. But after a brief delay, PRO Anderson Reggio sent the fleet to the outside ocean race course to take advantage of a slowly filling seabreeze.

As teams made their way past infamous Castle Hill, they were greeted with 6-7 ft swell, confused seas and no wind, leaving a portion of the fleet questioning the decision to enjoy Thames Street the night prior.

After a brief postponement to let the breeze continue to build and settle, Race Seven got underway with 6-7 kts out of the Southwest. Making no mistake about his intentions to seal the win, Freides started at the boat, tacked, legged it out into the right corner and took advantage of a nice starboard tack angle and pressure.

The only boat besting Freides was James Wilson who nailed the first beat on the right side, leading wire-to-wire for the win. Freides followed in second, and Daniel Thielman was third. Kilroy had a tough time getting back from the left side of the course, but fought hard to grab eighth. The spread in points gave Freides the overall win with a race to spare.

In the final race of the day, Kilroy showed that his first race today was a fluke and took his fourth bullet of the series, cementing a second place finish overall. Capping off a stellar day, Wilson grabbed second, moving him up to finish the event fifth overall. Liam Kilroy slipped from third to fourth as Jason Michas and his team of Stu McNay, Alec Anderson, and Elisabeth Whitener posted a 4-5 today to finish third overall.

Racing was held August 17 to 20.

The fleet returns to Newport for the 2017 World Championship hosted by the New York Yacht Club on October 4-7.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Final Results (8 races, 1 discard)
1. PACIFIC YANKEE, USA300, Drew Freides – [4] -1 -3 -2 -2 -1 -2 -4 ; 15
2. Samba Pa Ti, USA13131, John Kilroy – 5 -2 -1 -1 -1 -5 -[8] -1 ; 16
3. Midnight Blue, USA228, Jason Michas – 3 -5 -4 -[7] -3 -3 -4 -5 ; 27
4. WILDMAN, USA311, Liam Kilroy – 2 -8 -2 -3 -6 -2 -[15] -6 ; 29
5. OLEANDER, USA250, James Wilson – 6 -9 -6 -5 -[19] -10 -1 -2 ; 39
6. CINGHIALE, USA414, Rob Wilber – 8 -4 -7 -4 -4 -9 -7 -[19] ; 43
7. KUAI, USA7676, Daniel Thielman – 9 -3 -10 -[12] -5 -7 -3 -8 ; 45
8. Midnight Sun, USA305, Alexis Michas – 7 -6 -5 -8 -8 -[16] -9 -3 ; 46
9. RUSSIAN BOGATYRS, RUS898, Vladimir Prosikhin – 1 -7 -11 -6 -7 -6 -[13] -11 ; 49
10. TALISMAN, USA306, John Bailey – [14] -10 -9 -14 -10 -8 -5 -7 ; 63
11. CRUZAN RHODE , ISV1315, Timothy Pitts – 12 -11 -8 -[13] -13 -11 -6 -12 ; 73
12. RUSSOTRANS, RUS265, Yurii Morozov – 13 -13 -13 -15 -[16] -4 -12 -10 ; 80
13. BOBSLED, USA280, Bob Moran – [16] -14 -14 -10 -11 -12 -11 -9 ; 81
14. Flygfisk, USA225, Tom Kassberg – 10 -[16] -12 -9 -9 -14 -14 -14 ; 82
15. Gimlet, JPN271, Tamotsu Aritomo – 11 -[15] -15 -11 -12 -15 -10 -13 ; 87
16. Dark Star, AUS308, John Bacon – 15 -12 -16 -[17] -15 -17 -16 -15 ; 106
17. TEMPUS, JPN224, Koji Matsumoto – 18 -18 -[19] -16 -14 -13 -17 -16 ; 112
18. KINETIC, USA227, Bob Hayward – 17 -17 -[19] -19 -19 -19 -19 -19 ; 129

Source: Melges 20 class