Melges still leads

But pressure coming from 14 year old in second place at Melges 24 Worlds

After two more tough races at the Audi Melges 24 World Championships in San Francisco Harry Melges, helming for Jeff Ecklund, is still hanging onto his overall lead although fourteen year old Shark Kahn is giving him plenty to worry about and is now only 3 points behind him. "It was a good day but we missed a few opportunities and I don't think we were quite as fast. I think some of the others found some speed today so it was tough." commented Harry Melges after racing.

Racing was delayed until midday to allow the breeze to build and the fleet started on the last of the flood tide with some individual recalls in 8-10 knots from 210 degrees. The right hand end of the line was definitely favourite and the wind clocked about 15 degrees up the first beat. Shark Kahn lead round the first mark from Bruce Ayres, Egidio Babbi and Kenneth Kaan. Behind them a number of boats misjudged the strength of tide and understood the mark. Benoit Charon just managed to shoot the mark for fifth but Kerry Poe, along with a number of others, was forced to bail out and was left battling for a way back in through the starboard tack wall.

By the first leeward mark Shark had opened up a 30 second lead from the pack whilst Kaan had pulled up to second from Babbi. Paul Brotherton sailed a very smart run to come from the teens up to fourth whilst Ayres dropped to fifth in front of Harry Melges who'd also pulled up from the teens.

Shark pulled out his lead to a minute and ten seconds on the second beat whilst Babbi moved up to second with Melges third, Kaan fourth, Brotherton fifth and Ayres sixth. Shark covered to the finish whilst behind him Melges got past Babbi as Kahn and Ayres held fourth and fifth respectively with Brotherton sixth.

By race four the wind was up to 14-16 knots and the tide had turned bringing up the chop. The fleet got underway at the second attempt and again they like the right hand end of the line. Shark Kahn yet again got the measure of the first beat and this time it was Luca Santella, helming Giovani Maspero's Joe Fly Team, who was hot on his heels at the weather mark with Ayres third, Melges fourth, Hubert Guy fifth, Doug Weitz sixth and Sheldon Ecklunk seventh. Brian Porter rounded eighth but having forced his way in was forced to do a turn on the spreader leg and dropped back to thirteenth.

Santella and Shark Kahn had a humdinger of a battle down the first run with Santella just in the lead by the bottom mark. Both of them opted for the right gate with Melges following in at the head of the pack. First to opt for the left was Dave Ullman who'd come from tenth to fourth down the run. Weitz had pulled up to fifth with Porter sixth, Rob Greenhalgh seventh and Brotherton ninth.

Up the second beat Santella opened up 30 seconds on Shark while Porter moved up to third. Melges had a lousy beat and dropped back to tenth leaving Weitz in fourth, Greenhalgh fifth, Ullman sixth and Ayres seventh.

The final lap saw no change in the top three but Melges showed that he might be down but he sure wasn't out and managed to pull back up to fourth with Ullman fifth and Weitz sixth. Greenhalgh had to be content with seventh from Ayres.

Overall Harry Melges, Shark Kahn and Luca Santella remain in the top three slots, while Brian Porter has moved up to fourth. After racing Porter's crew member Vince Brun, who already holds two Melges 24 World titles as helmsman, commented on his new role as trimmer "I’m really enjoying the sailing but it’s very hard work to be trimming instead of helming. I think I’m getting to old!"

A disapointing 17, 13 score line was still enough to leave Philippe Kahn, father of the fourteen year old Shark, in fourth place with Ullman sixth, Greenhalgh seventh, Babbi eighth and Ayres ninth. Local boy Seadon Wijsen rounds out the top ten.

With his 1, 2 score line Shark Kahn, the teenage surprise from Hawaii, was definitely today's most consistent performer. After racing Shark acknowledged that his crew of Richard Clark (Illbruck Volvo Race, three times Canadian Olympic Finn representative), Mark Christensen (multiple Volvo race veteran), Brian Hutchenson (Melges 24 sailing guru) and Brian Lee (Shark's 20 year old cousin) are playing a vital role in his success at this event along with a huge amount of practise. "In the past 8 months we’ve done about 60 days sailing. We’ve done a lot of smaller regattas, we did San Diego Regatta, a lot of regattas up here, two on the Berkeley Circle and four on the City front and we’ve done a lot of training in Hawaii with Dave Ullman and my Dad." said Shark, who also paid tribute to his Dad's support of his campaign. "I’m just really lucky to be able to do this because of my Dad who offered me the opportunity and I just want to keep doing it."
With good weather forcast again tomorrow the sixty eight strong fleet from ten nations is looking forward to two more good races. Ten races total are scheduled with the Championship closing on Friday.

	Boat	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1	STAR	Harry Melges	1	1	2	4	8
2	PEGASUS 24-1	Samuel "Shark" Kahn	5	3	1	2	11
3	JOE FLY	Luca Santella	3	6	14	1	24
4	FULL THROTTLE	Brian Porter	8	8	12	3	31
5	PEGASUS 24-3	Philippe Kahn	7	5	17	13	42
6		Dave Ullman	19	7	13	5	44
7	UNPROTECTED	Robert Greenhalgh	2	9	28	7	46
8	EBREX LOGISTIC	Babbi Egidio	10	13	3	22	48
9	MONSOON	Bruce Ayres	13	30	5	8	56
10	HOME SLICE	Seadon Wijsen	6	16	18	16	56
11	HARD CORE	Charon Benoit	15	14	10	17	56
12	BLU MOON	Flavio Favini	14	2	23	23	62
13	BACKBREAKER	Kenneth Kaan	31	15	4	15	65
14	GROUPE LUNCIEN BARRIERE	Olivier Ponthieu	4	33	8	21	66
15	GILL	Stuart Rix	12	4	22	28	66
16	P&P SAILING TEAM	Phillipe Ligot	22	10	20	14	66
17	CAVALLINO	Hank Lemmens, Jr.	30	21	7	12	70
18	BLACK SEAL	Jamie Lea	17	18	29	9	73
19	BARBARIANS	Rob Smith	16	24	15	19	74
20	WICHARD	Le Moign Damien	29	17	9	24	79
21	EGO	Don Jesberg	33	19	16	11	79
22	AVERAGE WHITE BOAT	Doug Weitz / Matt McQueen	11	27	38	6	82
23	WINDQUEST	John Bertrand	9	11	45	18	83
24	SOUTHERN SPARS	James Spithill	21	14	26	30	91
25	SABOTAGE	Jeff Thorpe	24	28	21	29	102
26		Ian Cleaver	18	69.00D	6	10	103
27	ROCK N ROLL	Argyle Campbell	23	23	27	33	106
28	TICKLER	Sheldon Ecklund	26	20	41	20	107
29	WICKED FEET	Tom Freytag	34	22	35	26	117
30	MINOR THREAT	Peter Dalton	25	32	33	32	122
31		Martin Wedge	32	12	42	39	125
32	MASUI M	Dietrich Scheder	37	37	25	27	126
33	FLYER 02	Chuck Holtzman	43	25	30	31	129
34	GRINDER	Jeff Littfin	28	31	31	42	132
35		Jeffrey Brizes	27	43	19	54	143
36	TEAM MOSELEY	Rick Moseley	46	29	24	47	146
37	STRYK	Kerry Poe	40	38	32	43	153
38	SOFA KING FAST	Dennis Bassano	20	26	69	44	159
39	SMOKIN	Kevin Clark	36	35	65	25	161
40	ABRACADABRA III	Dennis Surtees	35	42	49	37	163
41	SURFEIT	Peter Vessella	49	69	11	35	164
42	RHINO	Sean Scarborough	38	39	52	49	178
43	BANDIT	Andy Mack	39	34	51	55	179
44	SITTING DUCK	Claes Rojining	42	36	53	48	179
45	SILVER	Joe Woods	47	69	34	36	186
46	TWISTED MISTER	Keith Grzelak	57	44	36	51	188
47	NIKITA	Krak Arntson	62	48	40	38	188
48	TAPE THAT	Coco & Carlos Vroon	45	40	62	41	188
49	LIGHT BRIGADE	Warren Davidson	48	46	61	34	189
50	SMOKESHOW	Scott Dale	41	69	43	40	193
51	ENIGMA	Hubert Guy	44	51	54	45	194
52	JOLLY TAR	Bill Wright	69	41	39	46	195
53	PERSONAL PUFF	Dan Hauserman	55	55	37	50	197
54	DANGEROUS WHEN WET	Chris Winnard	52	47	58	58	215
55	GO DOGS GO	Pepe Parsons	54	54	55	53	216
56	CARPE CERVISIAM	Dean Daniels	69	53	50	56	228
57	BLINGBLING	Evan Jahn	53	69	46	61	229
58	USA 183	Doug Du Bois	56	69.00D	47	60	232
59	PUTTANESCA	Marv Toland	64	57	60	52	233
60	TIKANGA	Charles Guildner	59	58	48	69	234
61	DONT BE NO DREAD	Rob Arrand	65	69	44	57	235
62	VA VA VOOM	Nigel Donnelly	60	45	69.00D	62	236
63	TROPHY WIFE	Glenn Klute	61	49	63	63	236
64	ROCKET WIDGET	Darrel Lager	58	50	59	69	236
65	ATOMIC DOG	Team Atomic Dog	51	59	66	69	245
66	BONES	Robert Harff	69	52	56	69.00D	246
67	GOOSE N'DUCK	Paul Bennett	63	56	64	64	247
68	SEA YA	Patricio Sly	69	69.00D	57	59	254