M32 World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy

M32 World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy - Overall

by M32 Class 8 Sep 17:37 BST 2-8 September 2024

With thunderstorms looming, the fleet headed out for an early start, squeezing in five races in 12-15 knots of the northerly Peler wind.

On the final day, Rated X, led by skipper Jake Julien and tactician Keith Swinton, demonstrated why they are the defending champions. In outstanding style, they secured the World Championship with a race to spare. While the rest of the fleet battled fiercely for silver and bronze, the prosecco flowed on Rated X.

"It feels incredible, couldn't have asked for anything better," said back-to-back champion Jake Julien.

M32 World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy - photo © M32 Class

Just behind the winner there were four boats fighting for the remaining medals, all decided in the last race. Extreme2 with Dan Cheresh, Youngblood with Miles Julien, Surge with Ryan McKillen and Dingbat with Bobby Julien for all within three points of each other. And what a race it was. Lead changes, finding a good shift and passing a boat in a gate made the audience, coaches and spectators stand on their toes watching how the race played out. In the end it was YoungBlood with Miles getting the silver medal and standing next to his brother at the podium. The Bronze went to Surge, tied on points with Extreme2 but beating them in the last race.

Somewhat further down the leaderboard, an equally intense fight unfolded for the title of best European team. It all came down to the final race, where Cape Crow Vikings, led by Håkan Svensson, recovered from a poor start to secure European bragging rights ahead of Denmark's Warrer Racing and Italy's Vitamina. Håkan, one of the M32 fleet's founders, reflected: "If you look at how we developed sailing the boats from the beginning and where it is today it's really awesome to see it's been such an improvement"

M32 World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy - photo © M32 Class

In the 4 days of the championship one day was lost to thunderstorms. 15 races were completed and the fleet got to try three different race areas in as many days. The sometimes static course setup was mixed up by the race officers shifting between mid-lake and mountain-side areas and morning and afternoon breeze.

M32 World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy - photo © M32 Class

The season is now over for the M32 class and the preparations begin for 2025. Next stop is Miami where the 10 year running winter series will kick off in January. For the North American summer Newport Ri will be the fleet hub going back to Miami in November for the 2025 Worlds. The European fleet is planning for a return to its Lake Garda home as well as visiting some of the home ports of the North European owners.