International Melges 32 Class Blog

Andy Lovell’s Rougarou served up some some hot Cajun to today on the Berkeley Circle in conditions which left the competitors hoping for seconds, even thirds! Clear blue skies and fresh breeze in the 18 -25 knot range plus that lovely 3-4 foot square chop was presented in heaping portions. Warpath and Banshee collided in race one with Warpath protesting and Banshee retiring.

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See some great photos at Melges.com

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San Francisco, California – If Tuesday’s practice race gave any indication as to what is yet to come for the 2010 Melges 32 World Championship, hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club, then every team will get a full dose of classic San Francisco/Berkeley Circle conditions. It’s exactly what they signed-up for. An absolute perfect, 18-24 knots of breeze with slightly higher gusts, sunshine and an ebbing tide took to the course of the official practice race of the event.

Every team has now completed measurement, registration and all the other tasks that go along with getting prepared for a worlds, including trips to the wine country, professional baseball and football games, not to mention a monumental party presented by none other than owner Stuart Simpson and his Team Barbarians crew. The entire fleet gathered at CIRCA on Chestnut for the Barbarians at The Golden Gate featuring Treaty Oak Platinum Rum, rocking and dancing the night away to the tunes of Joe Bachman & the Crew featuring Courtney Jansen (a Key West Sloppy Joe’s favorite!). On behalf of the International Melges 32 Class Association, a very special and sincere thanks to Stuart! You are the BEST!

Championship racing begins on Wednesday, September 22 and completes Saturday, September 25. If you are unable to be with the fleet in San Francisco, then tune in with Sail Groove’s Chris Love and commentator, St. Francis Yacht Club Junior Director Mike Kalin for all the action. Watch LIVE from the course, presented by Velocitek. Updates will also be made available on the official Melges 32 Facebook and Twitter pages.

Full Entry List

1. Phil Lotz/Rick Merriman, Arethusa
2. Jason Carroll/John Baxter, ARGO
3. Derek Campbell/Dalton Bergan, Banshee
4. Martin Knetig/Martin Trcka, Black Mamba
5. Pieter Taselaar/Jeremy Wilmot, Bliksem
6. Luca Lalli/Lorenzo Bressani, B-lin Sailing
7. Michael Dominguez/Anthony Kotoun, Bronco
8. Naofumi Kamei/Kan Yamada, Bros.
9. Malcolm Gefter/John Mollicone, Celeritas
10. Ed Tillinghast/Charles Enright, Dark n’ Stormy
11. John Porter/Jonathan McKee, Full Throttle
12. Doug Douglass/Russell Coutts, Goombay Smash
13. Bob Hughes/Tovar Mirsky, Heartbreaker
14. Alex Jackson/Rob Greenhalgh, Leenabarca
15. John Taylor/Andrew Campbell, Ninkasi
16. Philippe Kahn/Mark Christensen, Pegasus-MotionX
17. Jim Swartz/Gavin Brady, Q
18. Rod Jabin/Chris Larson, Ramrod
19. Joe Woods/Paul Goodison, Red
20. Andy Lovell/Johnny Lovell, Rougarou
21. Kip Meadows/Andy Horton, roXanne
22. John Kilroy/Stu Bannatyne, Samba Pa Ti
23. Geoff Pierini/Brad Read, Shakedown
24. Takashi Okura/Francesco de Angeles, SLED
25. Jeff Ecklund/Nathan Wilmot, STAR
26. Stephen Pugh/Mark Ivey, Taboo
27. Stuart Simpson/Nigel Young, Team Barbarians
28. Jean Francois Cruette/Christian Ponthieu, Teasing Machine
29. Stefan Goldwater/Andrew Wills, Tirade
30. Don Jesberg/Zarko Draganic, Viva
31. Steve Howe/Morgan Larson, Warpath
32. Yukihiro Ishida/Hamish Pepper, Yasha Samurai

Full Entry List
Full Crew List

Visit the official website of the International Melges 32 Class Association. If you are unable to attend the 2010 Melges 32 World Championship, stay in touch by subscribing to the IM32CA RSS Feed or visiting the Official Melges 32 Blog. The Melges 32 can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

The Melges 32 fleet enjoyed a brisk 12-14 knots and overcast skies to complete two additional races. Macatawa Bay’s Bob Hughes and his Heartbreaker program punched a hole in their scoreline with an aggressive effort to win race one, which also happened to be his first victory ever in the Melges 32 class. “When you win a race in this fleet, you’ve sailed a really, really good race.” said Hughes once back at the docks. “We didn’t sail a perfect race, because I think we still made quite a few mistakes. What I really enjoyed most was slugging it out with Porter to the finish like we did back in our Melges 24 days.” His stiffest competition came from Luca Lalli’s B-lin Sailing. After finding a fast lane on the first upwind beat, Lalli lead around the top mark, Hughes in second and Stefan Goldwater on Tirade from New Zealand third. Hughes moved into first by the leeward gate. On the last run, John Porter’s Full Throttle overtook Lalli for second, Lalli finished third, Jeff Ecklund’s STAR was incredible fourth and Euro Champion Joe Woods on Red rounded out the top five.

Porter went on to win the final race of the day, placing him fifth overall. “I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday.” said a smiling Porter after submitting a 2-1 scorecard. “Everyone was far more focused today on their jobs. At the last mark, I was so excited to be rounding in the top five. Yesterday we finished eighth and my guys said to me ‘we’re ahead of a lot of really good boats.’ That’s the level of competition we are up against here.” Porter continued. “Today, the boat was good, the attitude was good. You just have to maintain that all the time. Which is tough.”

Image by Sergei Zavarin – Ultimate Yachtshots

Gennakers In The Mist….

Despite classic San Francisco foggy conditions prevailing for the first day of the 2010 Rolex Big Boat Series, the action on the Melges 32 racecourse was no less spectacular than normal. The thick fog which descended just prior to the fleet leaving the dock made finding the marks a real struggle for the crews in both races. There was no lack of breeze however with winds peaking at around eighteen knots during the two race day.

Race One saw reigning European Champion Joe Woods from the UK give the fleet an indication of just what his team are capable of with a comprehensive victory. Over the length of the five leg race, the defending World Champion Pieter Taselaar (USA) on Bliksem had to reel in Japan’s Naofumi Kamei on Bros in order to take second place at the finish.

In race two the fog came down even more thickly, with the Melges 32 teams having to dodge ferries, Alcatraz Island and each other in order to survive. Bliksem consolidated on thier first race with a solid win ahead of Jeff Ecklund on Star (USA) in second and Italy’s Luca Lalli on B-Lin Sailing in third.

Two races in to the series, Bliksem lead from B-Lin, with American Donal Jesberg on Viva in third.

Offshore Rules was out on the water for the day and you can see the best of what we saw in our daily video compilation:

1.) Pieter Taselaar/Jeremy Wilmot, Bliksem; 2-1 = 3
2.) Luca Lalli/Lorenzo Bressani, B-lin Sailing; 5-3 = 8
3.) Don Jesberg/Zarko Draganic, Viva; 4-7 = 11
4.) Joe Woods/Paul Goodison, Red; 1-12 = 13
5.) Phil Lotz/Rick Merriman, Arethusa; 7-6 = 13

Visit the Official Website of the Rolex Big Boat Series/Melges 32 Pre-Worlds.

The press room at the St. Francis Yacht Club is hoppin’ with loads of journalists, photographers and such, pumping out the news. Here are some items regarding the RBBS/Melges 32 Pre-Worlds you should be checking out.

Stay close to the Official Website of The Rolex Big Boat Series
-There are lots of goodies here that should keep everyone plenty occupied for hours. Video, photos, and lots more…

The latest update from Justin Chisholm at Offshore Rules

“It was the first time out on the boat for Dougie ever.” says Marco Constant, Goombay Smash crew member. “It was a plain and simple, we were on starboard and Stuart Simpson’s Team Barbarians were on port. You can see by the damage who was where.” Repair work is in full action on the dock as fiberglassing in progress as well as the replacement of some severely bent stantions.

The International Melges 32 Class Association (IM32CA) christened a fleet of 27 to commence competition at the world famous Rolex Big Boat Series, also the fleets Pre-World Championship. Here is the list of competitors:

1.) Phil Lotz, Arethusa
2.) Jason Carroll, ARGO
3.) Derek Campbell, Banshee
4.) Martin Knetig, Black Mamba
5.) Pieter Taselaar, Bliksem
6.) Luca Lalli, B-lin Sailing
7.) Naofumi Kamei, Bros.
8.) Edward Tillinghast, Dark n’ Stormy
9.) John Porter, Full Throttle
10.) William Douglass, Goombay Smash
11.) Bob Hughes, Heartbreaker
12.) Alex Jackson, Leenabarca
13.) Philippe Kahn, Pegasus-MotionX
14.) Jim Swartz, Q
15.) Rod Jabin, Ramrod
16.) Joe Woods, Red
17.) Andy Lovell, Rougarou
18.) Kip Meadows, roXanne
19.) John Kilroy, Samba Pa Ti
20.) Takashi Okura, SLED
21.) Jeff Ecklund, STAR
22.) Stephen Pugh, Taboo
23.) Stuart Simpson, Team Barbarians
24.) Stefan Goldwater, Tirade
25.) Don Jesberg, Viva
26.) Steve Howe, Warpath
27.) Yukihiro Ishida, Yasha Samurai

Pressure Drop in conjunction with Point Loma Outfitting and Dryshirt are happy to announce back to back pick and win contests for the 2010 Rolex Big Boat Series and the 2010 Melges 32 Worlds in San Francisco

The Prizes are as follows:

1st place $100.00 Point Loma Outfitting Gift Certificate
2nd Place a Custom Dry Shirt, Pro Wik or Pro Fit Shirt from Dryshirt Inc with artwork from www.h2oshots.com
3rd Place A Pressure-Drop.us Tee

Contest rules:

Rolex Big Boat Series Contest
Entries must be posted no later than 10:00 AM PDST Thursday September 16th
1 entry per person.
Choose one winner for each class.
Points are awarded as 1st place 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, 3rd place 1 point
Winners will be based on the highest total point cumulative for entire regatta
Tiebreakers will be based on most bullets by class winners

Melges 32 Worlds Contest
Entries must be posted no later than 10:00 AM PDST Wenesday September 22nd
1 entry per person
Choose your top 3 boats
Points are awarded as place 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, 3rd place 1 point tallied daily.
Tiebreaker will be decided by which boat gets the most bullets

Make your picks RIGHT HERE!