U.S. Melges 24 Class Tops St. Pete's NOOD at 43 Entered

It's no surprise the that the sportboat that stole the hearts of Sailing World Magazine's 1994 Boat of the Year panel is the largest fleet in attendance at their 2009 Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD Regatta happening this weekend February 13-15, hosted by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. Fifteen years later and more than 800 boats strong internationally, the Melges 24 aims to please an impressive 43 teams with entries from over 15 states and Canada.

The Southeast district leads the charge with almost 20 entries on its own with two-thirds of them streaming in from all parts of south Florida including a huge influx from the St. Petersburg and Tampa areas. Kia Cox on USA-98 Free Range Lobster, J A Booker on USA-119 Carmelita, Bob Kroetsch on USA-457 Rogue, Joe Blouin on USA-719 Wicked Witch and George Haynie on USA-687 Firewater all call the vicinity home. Traveling from further south, from Naples is Jim Gunderson on USA-274 BIG SKY and Gary Schwarting on USA-622 Obsession. Other exceptional Southeast competitors include the regions District Governor Steve Kopf (Charleston, SC) on USA-773 Blur and Peter Commette (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) helming Henry Colie's USA-736 Babs.

The next largest representation flows from the Northeast district where the likes of USMCA NE District Governor JC Raby (Bennington, N.H.) on USA-514 No Decorum, 2008 North American Champion Tactician Scott Nixon (Annapolis, Md.) on board USA-751 Quantum Racing and Stuart McNay (Lincoln, Mass.) on USA-620 Erica will be focused on winning.

The Midwest, Gulf Coast and West Coast regions will be striking out with some outstanding talent. Greg McCliment (Novi, Mich.) on USA-570 Cujo, Debbie Willits (Kemah, Tx.) on USA-657 Black Widow, 2007 Melges 24 World Champion Dave Ullman (Newport Beach, Calif.) on USA-515, 2008 Detroit NOOD Champion Alan Field (Los Angeles, Calif.) on USA-587 WTF will race as well as Argyle Campbell (Newport Beach, Calif.) on USA-630 Rock n' Roll is stepping up his program with Melges' Andy Burdick calling tactics.

The contention doesn't stop at the U.S. borders. Canadians Rob Butler (Ontario) on CAN-177 Eager Beaver and Richard Reid (Port Credit) on USA-446 Zingara have traveled the distance to experience some Melges 24 speed, not to mention some warm Florida sunshine.

St. Petersburg could quite easily be considered the ultimate Corinthian Challenge. More commonly referred to as weekend warriors and an invaluable part of the USMCA, they come out of the woodwork for this event. With new USMCA Corinthian deadline and challenge period policies in place, potentially as many as 13 of the 43 entries will compete in this highly contested amateur division.

This event carries a lot of weight — it is the first of the very exciting, brand new 2009 SLAM USMCA National Championship Series.

2009 SPERRY TOP-SIDER ST. PETERSBURG NOOD FULL ENTRY LIST

2009 MELGES 24 CORINTHIAN CREW LIST

Each day the USMCA will be offering all the latest news, photo galleries and video. Also be sure to check out the Blog and Melges 24 YouTube Channel. We will be on the water and bringing you updates as it happens.

Also see the official event website, sailingworld.com.