Sailing Blog
UP NEXT- Melges 24 World Championships »
May 15, 2011
Cowboys, country music and George W Bush are a few things synonymous with the biggest state in the lower 48, and for Melges 24 sailors across the globe, we will be gettin’ our fixin’ of good ‘ol Texas hospitality as the 2011 Melges 24 World Championships begin on Monday in Corpus Christi. While Corpus Christi may not have all the comforts of familiar places like Newport or Miami, and the some of local restaurants have the Italian teams perplexed as to what type of food we eat here in America, this venue was selected for a world championship for one reason, big breeze. From the handful of teams that have been training down here a month in advance, the word we received was bring plenty of spare parts for breakdowns, and get ready hang on downwind.
Just like a bad movie preview, sometimes the hype of a venue does not live up to expecations. For the 5 days we have been sailing in Corpus thus far for practice and the Pre-Worlds, we have had only 1 solid day of sailing due to t-storms and lack of wind. Not exactly what we were anticipating and many of the teams who have their boats set up for big breeze have been scrambling to get back to medium breeze settings. Despite the poor conditions however, the forecast is for a more typical weather pattern to emerge this week and provide for the 20-25 mph SE Seabreeze that Corpus Christi is known for.
While a Melges 24 World Championship continues to draw the best sailing talent in the world, the numbers of the fleet are down from what they have been in previous years to a paltry 32 teams. There are thoughts that maybe a venue in the middle of the west and east coasts is to blame for the low numbers, or the length of the regatta which is an exhausting six days making it very difficult for the weekend warrior sailors to take the time off. Whatever the reason, when the gun goes off on Monday morning, the teams here will be giving it there max effort and taking in the special feeling of competing in a World Championship.
The team on Brian Porter’s USA-749 Full Throttle has a different make-up than they have had in previous World Championships with Brian’s brother John (Owner of the Melges 32 Full Throttle), and longtime tactician Harry Melges both stepping off for this event. Andy Burdick will be calling tactics, and I will be doing my best to replace John trimming the spinnaker. Matt Woodworth, who does bow on the FT 32, will also serve the same role for us here. We have a good team, we are a little short on sailing time together as a unit, but if the big breeze does come as predicted, we should be able stretch our legs and hang in the front of the fleet.
Racing starts Monday morning with 2 long, 8 mile races schedule each day. Several sites are posting live results…
Overall Results here. Sailing Updates here.
Stay tuned for daily reports, and some good onboard footage from USA-749. Here is a clip from a light air day on the first day of Pre-Worlds…
M24 PreWorlds Race 1 – USA 749 Full Throttle
No Comments »
No comments yet.
TrackBack URL