Diversified Melges 24 World Championship 2024 - San Francisco is Calling
by International Melges 24 Class Association 6 Aug 2024 23:15 BST
17-24 August 2024
Melges 24 US National Championship 2024 - Santa Barbara © Sharon Green
Ahoy! Ahoy! Ahoy! The San Francisco Yacht Club calls Melges 24 sailors from around the globe to join the Diversified Melges 24 World Championship, scheduled in the San Francisco Bay Area between August 17 and 24. The winner will succeed Drew Freides' Pacific Yankee in the International Melges 24 Class Association's Hall of Fame and become the twenty-fifth World Champion of this iconic one-design class, designed by Reichel&Pugh at the beginning of the 1990s.
Since its first editions, the Melges 24 World Championship has been one of the most anticipated one-design regattas of the international sailing season: in thirty years of history, great names in sailing have never failed to sail on the Melges 24 in the regatta that best highlights its excellence.
The best interpreters in the class have answered the call. This past weekend, on the regatta field that will award the 2024 Melges 24 World Champions, they faced each other between the buoys of the Richmond Yacht Club in a six-race series during the Melges 24 Pacific Coast Championship, which was valid as the Pre-Worlds.
The favourites certainly didn't hold back: Raza Mixta by Peter Duncan, already 2022 World Champion, in SF accompanied by such names as Federico Michetti and Victor Diaz de Leon, beating Kingspoke by one point, the boat of another great protagonist of the class, two-time U.S. National champion Bora Gulari, and by two Don Wilson's Convexity, another top player announced for the Worlds.
Three big names will have to compete with other American specialists who are no strangers to collecting important successes between the buoys of the International Melges 24 Class Association: crews like Brian Porter's Full Throttle, one of the most experienced owner/helmsmen of the class, ten-time US National champion and 2013 World Champion right in San Francisco; 2024 Charleston Race Week Champ Anthony Kotoun on Stepping Razor, 2024 US Melges 24 National Champion Geoff Fargo on Sentinel, and Michael Goldfarb's War Canoe, capable of top performance.
Not to be underestimated is the European representative, composed of the reigning Corinthian World Champion of Mataran 24 from Croatia, led by Ante Botica, who was as strong as third overall at the 2023 Worlds; Andrea Pozzi's Bombarda, with former Melges 24 European Champion and Italian olympian Matteo Ivaldi calling tactics, and the German entry Nefeli, with Peter Karrie at the helm and a very experienced crew ready to assist him.
The Corinthian lineup will be strong, too: aforementioned reigning World Champion Mataran 24 will challenge the crews of Dan Berezin's Surprise, 2023 North-American and U.S. National Corinthian Champion from Canada; Looper of Duane Yoslov and Average of Kent Pierce, if to name only a few.
Apart from the 2013 edition, which was won by Brian Porter and Full Throttle, this is the third time that the Melges 24 Worlds have taken place in San Francisco: the first time here was in 2003 for the sixth overall edition of the Melges 24 World Championship, and the winner was Samuel "Shark" Kahn with its Pegasus 24. Fourteen-year-old Kahn sailed into the record books, becoming the youngest to win a Melges 24 World title. In 2005, this record was beaten by eleven-year-old Mac Agnese from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, who was crewing for Italy's Luna Rossa with Jimmy Spithill at the helm, winning the Melges 24 Worlds title.
Laura Grondin, IM24CA Chair and owner/helm of Dark Energy, sends her best wishes to all sailors competing: "On the eve of the 2024 Worlds, the Melges 24 class is grateful to our hosts who patiently waited through the pandemic and several delays to welcome us. We are delighted to have the opportunity to race on the famous windy and wavy San Francisco Bay. My best wishes to all of the competitors for great sailing!"
The teams from Canada, Croatia, Germany, Italy, and the USA will gather in San Francisco to compete for the coveted Melges Performance Sailboats Trophy and the Challenge Henri Samuel Corinthian World Championship Trophy.