Uka Uka runaway leader

Two more bullets for Lorenzo Bressani at the Melges 24 Worlds

Wednesday May 18th 2011, Author: Justin Chisholm, Location: United States

The 2011 Melges 24 World Championship in Corpus Christi, Texas reached its mid-point today, with races five and six being completed in overcast but breezy conditions. Despite the fresh conditions, the racing was characteristically tight throughout the fleet with each start and every mark rounding fiercely fought.

Overnight leader Lorenzo Bressani at the helm of Uka Uka Racing, won both of today's races to establish a 15 point lead and an effective stranglehold on the championship. A fourth and a seventh for American Kristen Lane on Brick House 812, sees her retain her second place overall, tied on points now with Flavio Favini helming Swiss entry Blu Moon in third. Also tied just one point adrift of Favini, in fourth and fifth respectively are American Brian Porter on Full Throttle and Nathan Wilmot with the Irish on Embarr.

Race 5 started bang on time on in a solid 15 knots of breeze. The fleet got away to a clean start at the first time of asking, with the boats quickly splitting into two distinct groups on either side of the first beat. Uka Uka Racing soon established an advantage in the group on the left, while Brick House 812 led the pack on the right. When the fleet converged on the approach to the first windward mark it was Bressani who led around the buoy, with Lane close behind in second and Norwegian Eivind Melleby on Full Medal Jacket and Brian Porter overlapped in third and fourth. Alec Cutler on Hedgehog was hot on their heels in fifth.

Down the first run Bressani showed some remarkable off-wind pace to extend his lead considerably by the leeward gate. With the breeze ratcheting up to around 17 knots, behind Bressani there was a real scrap on for second place. Alan Field, who had rounded the previous mark in seventh place, sailed a remarkable leg to move up to second at the gate, just ahead of a large gaggle of boats who arrived at the buoys en masse. Alec Cutler led the group into the left hand buoy but broached in the process of dropping his chute, causing Nathan Wilmot, who was right on his transom, to do the same. The ensuing chaos allowed Andrea Racchelli on Altea, Porter and Favini , to sneak through inside them at the buoy. Meanwhile, almost simultaneously at the other gate mark, Melleby, Lane and Bora Gulari on New England Ropes/West Marine were rounding three abreast.

With Bressani leading comfortably at the second top mark, and Field also looking relaxed in second, attention turned to the street fight for third place between Lane and Melleby. These two converged right at the mark with Melleby coming in on port and tacking in closely in front of Lane on starboard, forcing her to throw her bow up to avoid a collision and subsequently fly a protest flag. Despite Lane pushing Melleby hard down the final run there were no changes to the top four positions at the finish, with Bressani taking the gun, Field second, Melleby third and Lane fourth. Cutler came home fifth with Favini in sixth. Later in the day Lane's protest against Melleby for the incident at the top mark was upheld by the protest committee, resulting in the Norwegian receiving his second disqualification of the championship.

The second race of the series also got away cleanly with the fleet once again splitting left and right in the early stages of the beat. Bressani made another good start and initially led the group on the left before choosing to work his way to the middle soon after the half way point. A significant left shift in the second half of the beat rewarded Wilmot and Favini, who had been working that side of the beat and they rounded in first and second at the first windward mark. Bressani rounded a couple of lengths behind in third, with Porter, Guy Mossman on Battle Rhythm, and Melleby rounding in quick succession behind. With the breeze now up at 18 knots plus, the first run was a high speed affair which saw Wilmot holding off Favini right up until the final approach to the leeward gate. As the two boats gybed together, Favini's slicker execution enabled him to roll over the top of Wilmot and lead around the left buoy. Wilmot peeled off to the right buoy and rounded just ahead off Bressani.

On the second beat, despite Bressani and Wilmot appearing to be engaged in a private match race on the right, they arrived at the top mark ahead of Favini who had been sailing his own race on the left. In the final few boat lengths, Wilmot led Bressani in on the port layline, with the Italian close enough behind to prevent the Irish boat from tacking. Rounding the top mark locked together, they continued their match race down the run, with Bressani eventually prevailing to take another race win and Wilmot closing out the rapidly advancing Favini just before the finish line to take second.

In the amateur-only Corinthian Division, Japan's Eiichiro Hamazaki on Esprit continues to dominate with two more wins today to maintain his perfect score so far. By way of two third places today, German Christof Wieland on Unsponsored moves up to second overall ahead of Scot Holmgren on Rosebud, whose pair of second places today sees him ease into the Corinthian top three.

Racing at the 2011 Melges 24 World Championship in Corpus Christi, Texas continues tomorrow Thursday 19 May and runs through until Saturday 21 May, with six more races scheduled.

Full results:

Pos	Bow/Sail	Boat	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	21 / ITA 817	UkaUka Racing	Lorenzo Bressani	[6]	2	1	2	1	1	7
2	02 / USA 812	Brick House 812	Kristen Lane	8	1	[10]	3	3	7	22T
3	20 / SUI 596	Blu Moon	Flavio Favini	3	6	[8]	5	5	3	22T
4	29 / USA-749	FULL THROTTLE	Brian Porter	[16]	9	2	1	7	4	23T
5	04 / IRL 607	Embarr	Conor Clarke	2	5	5	[11]	9	2	23T
6	17 / BER655	hedgehog	Alec Cutler	[9]	8	3	7	4	5	27
7	01 / USA 811	WTF	Alan Field	1	[11]	11	8	2	9	31
8	15 / ITA 735	ALTEA	Andrea Racchelli	4	7	7	4	10	[13]	32
9	16 / ITA 819	AUDI	Riccardo Simoneschi	7	[12]	4	9	12	10	42
10	32 / JPN 783	Esprit	Eiichiro Hamazaki	11	4	9	[15]	11	11	46
11	25 / USA 820	New England Ropes/West Marine	Bora Gulari	15	10	12	6	8	[18]	51
12	06 / USA 623	Brick House 623	Peter Lane	[18]	18	6	10	6	12	52
13	27 / NOR 804	Full Medal Jacket	Eivind Melleby	5	3	[33/DSQ]	12	33/DSQ	6	59
14	08 / AUS 553	Bandit	Warwick Rooklyn	14	13	13	13	14	[17]	67
15	24 / USA 786	BATTLE RHYTHM	Guy Mossman	[22]	15	17	14	16	8	70
16	22 / FRA 644	ZIG ZAG 18	Henri Samuel	12	16	15	17	[23]	23	83
17	31 / USA 379	Team Velocitek	Daniel Kaseler	20	[21]	20	18	13	16	87T
18	28 / GER 635	Unsponsored	Christof Wieland	[33/RAF]	19	18	16	19	15	87T
19	07 / AUS 686	Coco	Heath Walters	13	17	19	[26]	22	20	91
20	05 / USA 700	ARDOR/C.R.E.A.M.	David O'Reilly	19	20	[23]	20	15	19	93
21	10 / USA 533	High Voltage	August Hernandez	[28]	14	14	19	24	25	96
22	26 / USA 604	Tom Slick	Jeff Wittenberg	10	23	16	22	[26]	26	97
23	03 / USA 674	Rosebud	Scott Holmgren	23	[26]	22	23	17	14	99
24	13 / USA 615	Funtech Racing	Charlie Hess	24	[27]	21	21	20	22	108
25	12 / USA675	12happythoughts	David Brede	[25]	25	24	25	18	21	113
26	14 / USA 24	Smokin	Kevin Clark	21	24	[28]	24	21	24	114
27	09 / USA 344	Cold Shot	Steve Eller	17	28	25	[29]	29	28	127
28	11 / CAN 121	Black Dog	Dave Black	27	22	27	28	28	[30]	132
29	18 / USA 494	Wee Jaggie	Andrew Walford	30	[31]	29	27	25	27	138
30	33 / USA 480	Monsoon II	Mark Hulings	26	30	26	[31]	27	31	140
31	23 / USA 15	Abordage	Erwan le Gall	29	29	[30]	30	30	29	147
32	30 / USA 201	Mako	Stephen McMillan	31	[32]	31	32	31	32	157