Porter favourite

Rich Roberts previews the imminent 2007 FullPower Melges 24 World Championship

Perhaps nobody has been sailing a Melges 24 longer than Brian Porter and few have sailed one as well, which may mean he is overdue approaching the 2007 Fullpower Melges 24 World Championship May 3-12, hosted by the Santa Cruz Yacht Club.

Porter, from the boat's backwoods birthplace in Lake Geneva, WI, has finished as high as second with "a couple of thirds," he said, in the class's nine previous global events, and he blew away the competition in the Pacific Coast Championship with four first-place finishes in six races on nearby San Francisco Bay last month.

Not all of the major international players he'll see at Santa Cruz were there, but the event was more intense than the norm in its position as a springboard to the Worlds, where there will be 60 boats from seven countries. But Porter's confidence has never been higher and his boat, Full Throttle, is living up to its name.

"We started really well and had great speed," he said. "I've played with a lot of different sails over the last couple of years trying to get an edge, and I've gone back to what I know. Now we have good speed with just our standard sails and setup."

A better test will be the Pre-Worlds tune-up regatta Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, at Santa Cruz preceding the Worlds May 8-12. Porter will be sailing with a crew of Harry Melges III, the 2002 world champion; Andy Burdick and his brother, John Porter.

Other strong contenders will include veteran Dave Ullman, current U.S. national champion Chris Larson, driving for Scott Holmgren; Italy's Gabrio Zandona, driving Joe Fly for owner Giovanni Maspero; Riccardo Simoneschi, the recent Key West winner, and past world champions Vince Brun (1998 and '99) and Samuel (Shark) Kahn (2003).

Porter, who turned 49 last weekend, is bouncing back from what he called "my worst event ever" at Key West in January when he finished 14th overall.

Now, he said, "All the top guys are equally fast. I always feel like we have an edge downwind . . . [and] "the windier the better for me."

At 6-7 and 225 pounds, Porter said, "I should be the guy hiking out in the middle of the boat," and he looks forward to a typically windy Monterey Bay - which it wasn't when he won the North Americans there a year ago. "We were all excited about planing downwind all weekend, but we had light air and rain," he said. "Lately they've had pretty good breeze. It makes it a lot easier in the big, tough fleets when there's breeze so you can extricate yourself from the pack."

The pack will include 'the gang of four' boats from the Pegasus fleet of Philippe Kahn, the creator of the camera phone whose Fullpower company is the title sponsor. But Kahn is emphatic that nobody will be team racing, not even him with his 17-year-old son, Shark. In the PCC where Ullman placed second, Shark was third and Philippe finished ninth.

"We are racing each other," Kahn said. "He tacked on me twice at the PCC...and you know the story of the Mumm 30 Worlds [in 2004] and how my protest cost him the championship."

The entry list also includes 27 Corinthians - boats without pros on board - led by German legend Alba Batzill driving for Eddy Eich as the current European Corinthian champions; 2002 U.S. national champion Bruce Ayres of Newport Beach, and St. Petersburg NOOD winner Othmar Mueller von Blumencron, a Swiss national living in Great Falls, Va.

The Santa Cruz YC hosts have a full schedule of activities planned ashore. The hospitality will include 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 will be post-race social events, with complimentary beverage most evenings provided by sponsors like Sierra Nevada, Pusser's Rum and Seabright Brewery. Hors d'ouevres will be available each night, with dinners on two nights, featuring Polynesian specialties from Aloha Grill and BBQ'd tri-tip by club member/restaurateur Walter Oliveri of Aldo's.

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

Full information, including Notice of Race, entry form and media info and registration, will be available at www.melges24worlds2007.com . Further information about the International Melges 24 Class is available from www.melges24.com .

Entries

Sail no	Name	Skipper	Corinthian
USA-558	Sofa King Fast	Bret Gripenstraw /   Dennis Bassano	YES
USA-617	All or None	Chris   Doubek	NO
USA-555	Ego	Donald   Jesberg	YES
ITA-643	BETE BOSSINI	AMADORI   EZIO	NO
USA-077	BONES	Robert   Harf	YES
USA-184	TAMARACK RACING	Jeff Lindheim   Sam Vasquez	YES
USA-540	BACON	Matt   MacGregor	YES
USA-347	Cool Beans	Gary   Stuntz	NO
USA-331	Go, Dogs. Go!	Tim   Hawkins	NO
USA-551	gazoo	Geoffrey   Pierini	NO
USA-637	Monsoon	Bruce   Ayres	YES
ITA-438	Altea	Andrea   Racchelli	NO
USA-206	O-Positive	Orion   Pritchard	NO
AUS-019	Matilda	Richard   Leslie	NO
USA-678	Pegasus 678	Pegasus   Racing	NO
USA-492	Pegasus 492	Pegasus   Racing	NO
USA-575	Pegasus 575	Pegasus   Racing	NO
USA-505	Pegasus 505	David   Ullman	NO
ITA-693	Giacomel Audi Q8	Riccardo   Simoneschi	NO
ITA-550	Joe Fly	Giovanni   Maspero	NO
USA-052	Derivative	Mark   Surber	YES
USA-024	Smokin	Kevin   Clark	YES
USA-679	gannet	Othmar   Mueller von Blumencron	YES
USA-498	Personal Puff	Dan   Hauserman	YES
USA-595	taboo	Stephen   Pugh	YES
GER-582	Courage X	Edwin   Eich	YES
GBR-592	Team Gill	Simon   Strauss	NO
USA-539	Brick House	Kristen   Lane	NO
USA-631	West Marine Rigging	Scott   Holmgren	NO
GBR-694	Mojo	Miles   Quinton	NO
USA-525	Flygfisk	Tom   Kassberg	YES
GBR-569	Team Barbarians	Stuart   Simpson	NO
USA-140	Wuuf Daddy	Dean   Daniels	YES
USA-397	Grinder	Jeff   Littfin	YES
USA-570	AIRIS	cesare   bressan	NO
USA-556	Lounge Act	Loren   Colahan	YES
USA-330	Trailblazer	Dave   Emberson	YES
GBR-676	Bateauneuf	Eamonn   ONolan	YES
GBR-435	Jam Jam	Michelle   Brachet	NO
USA-649	Full Throttle	Brian   Porter	NO
USA-456	Wiggle Room	Chris   Johnson	NO
USA-248	Nothing Ventured	Thomas   Klenke	NO
USA-131	Karma	George   Roland	YES
GBR-690	excellent	john   pollard	NO
USA-066	Goose n Duck	Paul   Bennett	NO
USA-520	Flexi Flyer 2	Mitchell   Wells	YES
USA-606	chillout	Jim Golden   /Brad Jungels	YES
FRA-571	Groupe Partouche Casinos	Benjamin   Cohen	NO
USA-630	Rock n Roll	Argyle   Campbell	NO
USA-587	WTF	Alan   Field	NO
GBR-685	Black Seal	Richard   Thompson	YES
USA-221	Twisted Mister	Keith   Grzelak	YES
USA-553	553	Vincent   Brun	NO
USA-181	Partygirl	Ryan   Mitchell	YES
USA-044	BRD	Paul   Clifford	YES
USA-219	Pullen Realty Group	Jim   Granger	YES
USA-675	12happythoughts	DAVID   BREDE	NO
USA-TDB	tbd	bora   gulari	NO
USA-680	680	Douglas   Forster	NO
USA-614	Wheres Bob	Robert   Tennant	NO