Brenac & Celon Tied After First Day at the Worlds

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.---Two veterans and longtime rivals who learned to sail in the gentle zephyrs of Newport Beach, Calif. turned the tables on their roots Tuesday when they won the opening races of the Fullpower Melges 24 World Championship on a bright and breezy Monterey Bay.

But consistency paid larger dividends. As Bruce Ayers scored 1-7 finishes and Dave Ullman went 21-1, France’s Francois Brenac’s 2-4 at the helm of Benjamin Cohen’s entry left him atop the leader board in a tie with the defending champion, Italy’s Nicola Celon, driving for Ezio Amadori.

Ayres shares third place with Brian Porter of Winnetka, Ill., while Ullman shares seventh with Team Pegasus colleague Mark (Crusty) Christensen.

A day earlier Dave Ullman had assured doubters that the challenging venue would return to its reputation in time for the competition, and he proved not only a prophet but a winner in cool west winds blowing 10 to 15 knots. After Ayres won the first race, Ullman won the second, both leading at every mark.

What’s more, Ayres and his totally Corinthian (i.e. amateur) crew of Jon Pinckney, David Shelton and Don Smith momentarily stole the thunder of the high-profile performers in the fleet of 58 boats. A Corinthian team has never won a Melges 24 Worlds, and there are 24 competing here, but, of course, there are still four days and eight races renaming for the stallions to find their strides.

The racing started right on time at 12:30 p.m. with only one hiccup: a typical cavalry charge by overanxious competitors who for the past week had been fine-tuning their racing machines for the magic moment. Principal race officer Hank Stuart was forced to signal a general recall, followed by a second successful start under the warning of the “I” flag---any boat over early must go around one end of the very long end to re-start properly.

Still, a few paid that penalty---two of them painfully. Samuel (Shark) Kahn, who won the Worlds in 2003 at age 13, and Gabrio Zandona, driving Giovanni Maspero’s competitive Joe Fly, jumped the start in both races and, although all they had to do to re-start was to circle the committee boat in the middle of the long, the delay left them far back in the pack. Kahn wound up with a 22 and 47 for the day, Zandona with a 25 and 48. They can toss their worst scores after six races but will have to swallow the others.

The first race---two laps around a 2.0-nautical mile windward-leeward course set almost due west at a steady 260 degrees---started in 11 knots of wind and built to 15 at the windward mark, from where Ayres led the fleet down the offshore side to the gate, then back up the shore side where the breeze past the northern point of the bay offered a free lift.

The second race---three laps around---started in 10 knots and followed similar a similar tactical pattern.

Brenac said, “We tried to be very careful at the starts. There were a lot of OCS (on course side) starts, and it’s very difficult to make a good race because the right side [of the course] is good and there’s nothing to gain going left. On the right side, at the end the wind shifts [in a lift] to the left, and the sea is more flat.”

Overall, the seas were choppy but without the deep, queasy swells that marked the Pre-Worlds last weekend.

A love story wedded to the UK Olympics

Eamonn O’Nolan’s boat from the UK finished second overall to Chris Larson in the Pre-Worlds tune-up last weekend and tied with Bruce Ayres of Newport Beach, Calif. at the top of the Corinthian division. His fiancée, Michelle Brachet, placed fifth overall on another boat. But there’s more to the story.

Their boats are crewed by young British sailors ages 17 to 24 and driven by John Gimson and John Pink, respectively. Besides Brachet, another female member of the team is Holly Scott, 17. Three are members of Britain’s Olympic development squad, targeting the 2012 Olympic sailing in the UK at Weymouth.

“We wanted to give them experience in different boats,” O’Nolan said.

O’Nolan runs Unlimited Sailing, which specializes in racing, RYA courses and team building (http://www.unlimitedsailing.com/home/). He has a third Melges 24 in the UK for the same program.

It started, O’Nolan said, at Cork Week in Ireland when Brachet, racing on a Farr 45, met some of the young sailors in a pub after racing “and put a team together for the [Melges 24] Worlds.”

“She had never been on a Melges 24,” O’Nolan said.

The Santa Cruz YC hosts a full schedule of activities ashore. The hospitality includes on-site concessions run by local businesses offering specialty coffee and pastries by Java Junction, pre-ordered race lunches by Erik's DeliCafé and bottled water by Crystal Springs, available by the case.

There also are post-race social events, with complimentary beverage most evenings provided by sponsors like Sierra Nevada, Pusser's Rum and Seabright Brewery. Hors d'ouevres are available each night, with dinners on two nights.

There are daily prizes for top-place finishers, sponsored by Harken, and giveaways from Pusser's Rum, West Marine, Starbrite and New England Ropes. There also are raffle prizes, including a custom Melges 24 transport cover from Lohmann Sails and Covers. North Sails is providing skipper's bags, and all participants received discount tickets to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

FULL RESULTS and all regatta information is available at www.melges24worlds2007.com . Further information about the International Melges 24 Class is available from www.melges24.com

Information on Melges 24 events in the U.S. is available at http://www.usmelges24.com/

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Event Press Officer
Rich Roberts
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IMCA Press Officer
Fiona Brown
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US Class Press Officer
Joy Dunigan
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Joy.dunigan@melges24.com