As darkness fell over Miami last night the 27 strong Melges 24 fleet finally made it back to the dock after the first two races in the 60th Acura SORC. The day started with a 3 hour postponement waiting for breeze which eventually began to fill in mid afternoon.
26 top Melges 24 teams including Harry Melges, Brian Porter and Morgan Reeser will be doing battle for the honours at the ACURA SORC Regatta 2001 commencing 1 March.
Following a two day visit to Ft Lauderdale in January Im delighted to report that the Lauderdale Yacht Club is working flat out to ensure that the Melges 24 Worlds 2001 (November 8-17) will be the biggest and best Melges 24 event in the US to date.
In line with the 2001 changes to Class Rules C.1.2 and G.1.4 the IMCA is introducing a new register of official measurers. All registered measurers will be issued with an individually numbered class stamp.
In our final report from Key West we incorrectly stated that Paul Zubrycki was the first woman helm. In fact Paula's boat was helmed by Doug Clark and the first woman helm was in fact Karen Gottwald. Our apologies for this error and for any confusion it may have caused.
Melges 24 competitors at the Acura Southern Ocean Racing Conference 2001 should note that for the first time all racing will take place on ocean courses off Miami Beach and that all shoreside activities will be headquartered at the Miami Beach Marina.
The Strictly Sail Boat Show, which takes place from 1 - 4 February in Chicago, will feature Melges 24 number 500 on the Melges Performance Sailboats stand. "This is a special show for us because we will be showing off Melges 24 500", says Melges President Harry Melges.
The final day of Yachting Key West Race Week did not bring the hoped for increase in breeze but there was a change in the wind which swung round to the South East for the first time and came in at a steady 10-12 knots.
Conditions today were very trying on the Melges 24 course as we were racing in 5-10 knots with a lot of chop. Many times the crew was inside the boat while pounding through large swell.
Conditions today were very trying on the Melges 24 course as we were racing in 5-10 knots with a lot of chop. Many times the crew was inside the boat while pounding through large swell.
