Pollard leads British fleet

In the build-up to December's Melges 24 World Championship in Florida.

With just three more events to go in the Melges 24 world rankings, Devon’s John Pollard is leading the British fleet.

Pollard, who heads up the Xcellent sailing team of Westaway Sails, based in Ivybridge, is tied in third place with Ireland’s Mark Mansfield who helms Team Gill for Quentin Strauss on 377 points.

The next regatta to count in the rankings takes place in Hyeres in France which takes place from 29 October to 1 November in which all the top Melges 24 sailors from across the world will be competing. And as well as aiming to improve the team’s European ranking, Pollard will also be trying out a revolutionary spinnaker design

“We’re predominantly going to work on our starting techniques in readiness for the world championship in Florida in December," said Pollard. “Several America’s Cup helmsmen have decided to join us so the starts will be a lot more critical. Up to 50 per cent of the race is in the start.

"We’re also going to be testing a revolutionary spinnaker design. We’ve used it in club races on a few occasions with great success. It’s a different cloth and shape from the norm. We can’t say too much about it at the moment because otherwise other teams may well want to copy our ideas. We hope it will improve our downwind speed enormously.”

In first and second place respectively in the world rankings are two Italians - Gabrio Zandona who helms Joe Fly for Giovanni Maspero and Andrea Racchelli who helms Altea.