Gulari holds lead at Melges 24 Worlds

Ft. Lauderdale, FL (May 12, 2022) – With winds in the teens, Bora Gulari and his crew of Kyle Navin, Norman Berge, Ian Liberty, and Michael Menninger retained their lead on day two of the 2022 Melges 24 World Championships. With scores of 15-7-2, and a discard now after six races, they hold a four point lead on Bruce Ayres’ Monsoon team. However, after meager scores yesterday, Peter Duncan won the day with a 1-5-1 to leap up to third, seven points off the lead.

Melges 24 Worlds Event Chair and PRO Tom Lihan explained how today was a perfect example of the conditions in Fort Lauderdale. “There was a predicted shift from the North-West to the North-East and we had many competitors, who wanted to wait at the dock, but I said no,” reports Lihan. “This shift happened exactly between 10:30 and 11am, so we went out and had our first warning signal exactly as planned at 11 am. Wind built up all day long up to perfect for the Melges 24 boats.”

While some teams mastered the day, consistency was generally hard to come by as eight teams out of the top ten boats are counting at least one double digit score from today’s races. Event leader Gulari earned his by fouling the I-flag in race one today.

The discard was certainly friendly for Duncan’s Raza Mixta team who dropped a 13th place from yesterday to jump from ninth place overall yesterday to third today.

“We got well off the line, we were going well, had a few lucky breaks and ended up with a great day,” noted Victor Diaz de Leon, tactician of Raza Mixta. “We are especially happy, because there is a strong competition and a lot of great sailors at the event and there’s a lot to looking forward to yet!”

Harry Melges IV, who was keeping his second position in overall after six races for his Zenda Express (USA, SCP11-2-11), added a 20% scoring penalty to his score from a protest which Raza Mixta logged in for Zenda Express tacking in front of it in Race 4, where Raza Mixta had to the head up to avoid contact and was overlapped by two meters to Zenda Express’s weather side once she completed her tack.

This penalty drops Zenda Express to fourth place, one point behind the Top 3, and five-point margin ahead of Laura Grondin’s Dark Energy, lying in fifth overall now.

In the Corinthian division, Italian team Taki 4 steered by Niccoló Bertola is keeping its leading position (ITA, 6-6-19) completing the overall Top 10 today. Sunnyvale of Fraser McMillan (CAN,22-14-13) is in second and 3 ½ Men of Steve Suddath follows as third (USA, 12-17-14).

Twelve races are planned for May 11-15, 2022.

Race details – Results – Facebook