Full shuffle at Melges 24 Worlds

Ft. Lauderdale, FL (May 14, 2022) – Day Four at the 2022 Melges 24 World Championship was tricky and challenging both to sailors and Race Committee, shuffling the cards in top rankings. Thirty-one teams from five nations got two races posted to the scoreboard seeing Peter Duncan’s Raza Mixta (USA, 3-3) taking overall lead from Bora Gulari’s New England Ropes (USA, 15-9) now lying on fifth position.

Harry Melges IV on Zenda Express (USA, 1-4) jumped to the second, six points behind the leader and tied on points with Bruce Ayres’ Monsoon (USA, 5-2), now completing the provisional podium. Taki 4 steered by Niccoló Bertola (ITA, 16-19) holds the leading position in Corinthian division.

Due to the lack of wind, the first warning signal, planned for 11:00am, was postponed ashore for no earlier than 12:30pm to wait for the afternoon breeze to develop. The fleet docked out around 11:00am to wait the conditions to improve on the water, however, AP was hoisted on the signal boat at 11:00am again. Finally, before 2:00pm the breeze started to fill in and with South-Eastern winds up to 7 knots the racing got started with Warning Signal played at 2:10pm.

It was a good day for Harry Melges IV, taking the win in the first race of the day for his Zenda Express followed by Andrea Racchelli’s Altea (ITA, 2-23) and Peter Duncan’s Raza Mixta. Bora Gulari on New England Ropes finished in the middle of the fleet posting fifteen points to his scoreboard, equal with the points of the discard already in his score.

With these results in the scoreline, Raza Mizta took the lead with two points margin over New England Ropes and Zenda Express moving third, three points separating him from the second. Fourth and fifth were respectively posted by Lucky Dog of Travis Weisleder (USA, 4-22) and Monsoon.

The conditions in Race Eleven remained similar – tricky and challenging, changing the scores and standings even more. It was a very close finish for Laura Grondin’s Dark Energy, taking a win in the penultimate race of the championship side by side with Bruce Ayres’ Monsoon and Peter Duncan’s Raza Mixta just after them finishing third. Harry Melges IV crossed the finishing line in a fourth and John Bailey’s Talisman (USA, 13-5) in a fifth position.

In the Corinthian division the win of the first race went to Taki 4 of Niccoló Bertola ahead of Steve Suddath’ 3 ½ Men (USA, 17-24) and Decorum of Megan Ratliff (USA, 19-25). In the tricky second race the best Corinthian team was surprisingly team Surprise of Canadian Melges 24 Class Chair Dan Berezin (CAN, 26-10) followed by Fraser McMillan’s Sunnyvale (CAN, 25-14) and Taki 4 (ITA, 16-19).

With only one final race to be sailed tomorrow, the overall leader Raza Mixta of Peter Duncan, with Victor Diaz de Leon calling the tactics and Erik Shampain, Matt Pistay and Morgan Trubovich in the crew, has a strong six-points margin ahead of team Zenda Express of Harry Melges IV and Bruce Ayres’ Monsoon.

Warning signal is scheduled for 11:00am, however, the forecast looks even more challenging than today. No warning signal will occur after 2:00pm.

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

Top 10 of 31 after 11 races (1 discard):
1. USA856 Raza Mixta – Peter Duncan (13)-13-3-1-5-1-4-2-9-3-3 46 pts
2. USA866 Zenda Express – Harry Melges IV 1-5-5-SCP11-2-11-12-7-3-1-4 50 pts
3. USA851 Monsoon – Bruce Ayres 5-3-(12)-2-3-7-8-8-7-5-2 50 pts
4. USA864 Dark Energy – Laura Grondin 6-2-10-7-4-12-2-1-6-(18)-1 51 pts
5. USA820 New England Ropes – Bora Gulari 4-1-2-(15)-7-2 16-5-5-2-15-9 52 pts
6. USA849 Full Throttle – Brian Porter 10-6-6-8-9-(15)-3-10-1-11-12 76pts
7. USA858 Lucky Dog – Travis Weisleder 3-8-9-4-(22)-9-7-6-5-4-22 77 pts
8. USA865 Pacific Yankee – Drew Freides 2-(17)-7-17-15-4-1-3-10-9-15 83 pts
9. GER859 Nefeli – Peter Karrie 8-4-14-(21)-12-5-6-9-12-10-6 86 pts
10. CAN853 Zingara – Richard Reid 15-15-11-10-1-(18)-14-12-8-8-8 102 pts

Race details – Results – Facebook

Source: Piret Salmistu