Ullman day

But Luna Rossa are still the run-away leaders at the Corum Melges 24 World Championship, reports Keith Taylor

On Wednesday December 14 here the 2005 Corum Melges 24 World Championship at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, the International Melges Class Association hosted a press conference featuring eight former Melges 24 World Champions including Vince Brun, Flavio Favini, Harry Melges III, Jeff Ecklund, Shark Kahn, and Philippe Ligot. All eight former world champions are racing in this year's event and they all agreed that this was a very deep fleet of talented sailors. Vince Brun who is the only two time World
Champion in the Melges fleet stated that "at each Melges world championship there is always one team that seems to have things figured out more than the rest and they just have that extra speed and knowledge of what is going on tactically". In this year's World Championship there are two skippers that have emerged who seem to have that extra edge, and they are James Spithill and Dave Ullman.

While the not-so-Italian Luna Rossa sailing team captained by Australia's James Spithill continued its domination the today, Newport Beach's David Ullman posted two on board Pegasus 505.

In the first race of the day (race 9 overall) the winds were around 16-18 knots with 1-3 waves in the shallow water north of John Pennekamp Reef. The course that posted was the long course with seven legs. The fleet once again pushed the line and we had a general recall. On the subsequent restart things got a bit dicey for a couple of boats as things got tight on the line. One unfortunate casualty today was John O'Driscoll on GBR 554 Black Seal who had his boat holed at the start and is probably done for the series. After the chaos on the starting line sorted itself out, the boats that worked the right side of the course got a bit of a lift about half way up the beat and closed the door on a few of the regatta leaders that were looking to play the middle to left side of the course. One of those that got caught was Gabreile Benussi who was near Dave Ullman and James Spithill at the top of the beat but couldn't get quite in front of a large pack of starboard tackers on the starboard layline and rounded in the low 20s around the first mark. Ullman and Spithill had just enough room to get past the wall of starboard tackers and rounded first and second respectively. From there Dave Ullman and his team walked away from the fleet. At the finish, Ullman had over a 90 second lead on Spithill and a two and a half minute lead on the third place finisher John Bertrand. Francois Brenac wound up forth and Flavio Favini finished up in fifth.

Race 10 started after a bit of a delay as a rain squall was hanging over the fleet. The Race Committee having had nine good races so far decided to postpone for about an hour until the squall passed. At the start of this five leg race, the wind direction was around 155 degrees and winds were in the 12-15 knot range with a little bit less chop on the water. The fleet once again got tagged with a general recall and had to start over again. On the restart the majority of the fleet split up the first beat. Early on the right looked favored but a lefty came in at the top of the first beat and Flavio Favini rounded the windward mark first followed by Morgan Reeser, Gabrio Zandona on Joe Fly, Dave Ullman, and James Spithill. At the leeward mark the standings hadn't changed much, but on the second beat to windward Ullman and Spithill had that extra gear that Vince Brun alluded to in the press conference and Ullman Rounded first followed by Spithill. On the rounding Spithill almost faced disaster as his spinnaker disintegrated after the set leaving only the luff and leach tapes flying in the wind. This was fortunate for them as they were able to retrieve the masthead halyard by pulling on the tapes that were left flogging in the wind and launch their backup spinnaker in relatively short order allowing only four boats to pass them. Ullman on the other hand just continued to sail flawlessly and wound up with his second bullet of the day. Rounding out the top five for Race 10 was John Bertrand in second, Brian Porter in third, Gabrio Zandona in fourth, and Francois Brenac in fifth.

With two races remaining in tomorrow's final of the six-day series Spithill's Italian entry from the Yacht Club d'Italiano in Genoa, Italy, enjoys a 20-point advantage over second-placed Ullman. Ullman, the engaging sailmaker whose list of championship victories fills pages, has never won a Melges 24 championship. Now the third boat in the Pegasus Team of father-and-son Philippe and Shark Kahn, the time Ullman has invested in sail development and tuning for the team was apparent in today's racing.

The final two races tomorrow will decide who will walk away with the 2005 Corum Melges World Championship.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Sail	Owner	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot
1	Luna Rossa	USA 515	Spithill,James	Spithill,James	5	12	25*	7	1	1	8	1	2	6	43
2	Pegasus 505	USA505	Ullman,David	Ullman,David	6	41*	7	1	5	3	28	11	1	1	63
3	MARRACHECH EXPRESS	ITA 636	Mrvcic,Vladimiro	Benussi,Gabriele	35*	1	3	2	4	9	7	10	15	24	75
4	MFATIC	USA 566	Sullivan,Neil	Reeser,Morgan	2	8	1	17	20*	8	11	16	12	7	82
5	FULL THROTTLE	USA 600	Porter,Brian	Porter,Brian	26	2	11	4	7	18	47*ZFP	3	8	12	91
6	JOE FLY	ITA 633	Maspero,Giovanni	Zandona,Gabrio	11	35*	22	5	3	5	32 ZFP	2	13	4	97
7	PARTNER & PARTNERS	FRA 571	Ligot,Philippe	Brenac,Francois	22	14	18	3	11	11	59*ZFP	19	4	5	107
8	Pegasus 492	USA 492	Kahn,SamuelShark	Kahn,Samuel	19	3	4	48*	30	6	5	9	26	11	113
9	Fusion M	USA 542	Devos,Doug	Bertrand,John	9	15	46*	22	22	4	36 ZFP	5	3	2	118
10	BLU MOON	SUI 596	Rossini,Franco	Favini,Flavio	24	37	2	21	10	28	82*ZFP	8	5	3	138
11	ALE ALI	ITA 139	Amadori,Ezio	Celon,Nicola	1	22	16	15	29	10	9	66*ZFP	21	32	155
12	TEAM GILL	GBR 592	Strauss,Simon	Mansfield,Mark	12	59*	14	8	9	33	23	20	17	28	164
13	ROSEBUD	USA 631	Brun,Vince	Holmgren,Scott	23	45*	30	30	8	26	6	6	22	18	169
14	NAUTICA/FRATELLI GIACOMEL AUDI	ITA 572	Simoneschi,Riccardo	Simoneschi,Riccardo	39	48*	15	10	23	21	17	38	9	9	181
15	LIZARD	ITA 594	Paolacci,Massimo	Montefusco,Sandro	7	55 DPI	20	61	6	16	1	70*ZFP	11	13	190
16	TEAM BARBARIANS	GBR 569	Simpson,Stuart	Lea,Jamie	40	43	26	44*	13	14	2	31	7	15	191
17	XCELLENT	GBR 593	Pollard,John	Pollard,John	17	7	5	12	15	32	63*ZFP	33	37	43	201
18	Monsoon	USA 540	Ayres,Bruce	Ayres,Bruce	13	55*DPI	34	25	12	39	37	15	24	8	207
19	DREAM TEAM	ITA490	Giordo,Gianni	Ivaldi,Matteo	37	34	12	28	2	99*DSQ	33	32	6	33	217
20	GILL	GBR 431	Strauss,Quentin	Rix,Stuart	46	25	27	63*	24	19	14	12	10	42	219
21	NEW WAVE	USA 544	Kullman,Martin	Kullman,Martin	18	11	32	9	36	35	23 ZFP	22	45*	35	221
22	COURAGE X	GER582	Eich,Eddy	Batzill,Alba	47	5	44	11	21	7	10	42	58*	37	224
23	Derivative	USA 052	Surber,Mark	Hunt,Steve	8	60*DPI	33	32	28	2	20	37	35	30	225
24	Running With Scissors	USA 617	Baron,Peter	Baron,Peter	21	61*	40	27	14	46	13	21	23	20	225
25	Pegasus 575	USA 575	Kahn,Philippe	Kahn,Philippe	10	6	21	13	31	58*	45	49	14	40	229
26	STAR	USA 595	Ecklund,Jeff	Ecklund,Jeff	62*	17	13	46	27	27	46 ZFP	28	16	10	230
27	ALTEA	ITA 438	Racchelli,Andrea	Racchelli,Andrea	25	57*	17	40	34	24	25	18	25	29	237
28	Pareto Optimal	USA 525	Wijsen,Seadon	Wijsen,Seadon	34	46	10	20	19	43	22	29	54*	17	240
29	Ego	USA 555	Jesberg,Don	Jesberg,Don	3	38	36	53*	45 ZFP	13	44 ZFP	7	29	26	241
30	Ricochet	CAN 629	Sherlock,John	Rey,Tony	4	33	29	49*	37	29	31	17	44	21	245
31	Grins	USA 526	Burke,Shawn	Burke,Shawn	27	18	6	34	35	23	46*	34	46	34	257
32	FRUEN MAREN	NOR 249	Hauff,Nils	Spone,Kristoffer	29	27	8	55*	26	25	41	44	39	22	261
33	RED	GBR616	Woods,Joe	Scott,Ruairidh	38	39	48	29	63*ZFP	30	36	4	20	19	263
34	PANIC ATTACK	USA 522	DaMore,Justin	Filter,Henry	32	4	42	16	16	31	21	75*ZFP	55	70 ZFP	287
35	Barracuda	USA 549	Dockery,Bob	Dockery,Bob	53	58*	31	14	47	12	49 ZFP	24	41	27	298
36	MJ2 BORGO SCOPETO	ITA 621	Angelini,Igino	Fornaro,Andrea	30	24	43	68*	49	17	32	30	43	31	299
37	BAGHDAD	NOR 400	Nergaard,Kristian	Nergaard,Kristian	14	74*	39	23	17	22	48	43	48	53	307
38	Rock N Roll	USA 630	Campbell,Argyle	Campbell,Argyle	20	19	65	37	73*ZFP	20	15	67	32	41	316
39	FLYER 02	USA 520	Holzman,Chuck	Gulari,Bora	16	42	77	56	38	99*OCS	4	48	28	16	325
40	Flying Toaster	USA613	Dow,Mike	Dow,Mike	51	10	9	33	48	36	66*	27	52	60	326
41	ZIG ZAG 17	FRA 625	Samuel,Henri	Samuel,Henri	48	16	55*	38	44	42	35	47	31	36	337
42	BLING BLING	USA 513	Jahn,Evan	Jahn,Evan	42	20	24	19	54	51	39 ZFP	77*ZFP	57	38	344
43	TEAM SBAB	SWE 532	Sundstedt,Ingemar	Lindquist,Mikael	28	99*OCS	41	18	32	99 DSQ	44	14	49	23	348
44	Rhino	USA 541	Scarborough,Sean	Scarborough,Sean	78	23	37	6	18	38	99*ZFP	71	47	44	362
45	SISTE STEIN	NOR 366	Stenhagen,Anders	Melleby,Eivind	59	65	47	39	76 ZFP	15	89*ZFP	13	27	48	389
46	Eric	GBR620	Wedge,Martin	Wedge,Martin	15	88*	35	36	46	37	52	79.0 ARB	61	39	400
47	GAZOO !	USA 551	Pierini,Geoffrey	Pierini,Geoffrey	45	32	61	26	33	48	75*ZFP	25	65	66	401
48	Carloan.com	USA 605	Weisleder,Travis	Weisleder,Travis	33	64	28	43	65	44	18	61	67*	47	403
49	ENGO GARD	NOR560	David-Andersen,Arne	Toll,Carolina	52	56	56	54.7 RDGb	50	49	99*ZFP	45	18	25	405.7
50	KLEINE RAINBOW	GER 624	Dietrich,Bent	Dietrich,Bent	99*DSQ	14 DPI	23	99 DSQ	51	53	42	35	40	59	416