2022 Melges 24 World Championship at Lauderdale Yacht Club – Overall
After two full years of hiatus in the schedule of the World Championships, the International Melges 24 Class returned to assign a most coveted World Title: it was October 2019 when in Villasimius Luca Perego’s Maidollis was crowned World Champion for the second time, and, after that moment the pandemic blocked everything, preventing the dispute of the 2020 and 2021 World Championship and the 2020 European Championship.
Sadly, the final day of the third 2022 Melges 24 World Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. was to be dogged by light winds. After long wait, first ashore and then on the water, the final possible Race Twelve of the championship was started twice – first at 12:15 but was abandoned in three minutes. The second attempt was successful, but due to the major wind shift, PRO Tom Lihan had to abandon the race again. Now past the deadline for starting a race, the victory and World Title were sealed to Peter Duncan’s team Raza Mixta (USA) with Victor Diaz de Leon calling the tactics and Erik Shampain, Matt Pistay and Morgan Trubovich in crew. In the Corinthian division, victory goes to Taki 4 (ITA), claiming their fourth Corinthian World Title with Niccolo Bertola, Giacomo Fossati, Giovanni Bannetta, Pietro Seghezza, and Marco Zammarchi.
Peter Duncan, who’s first run for the Melges 24 World Title finished with eighth place in Miami Worlds in 2016, was posting nine times out of eleven only one-digit results to the scoreboard, securing its victory with a six-point lead getting his name on the Melges Performance Sailboats Trophy.
Harry Melges IV with Finn Rowe, Ripley Shelley, Carlos Robles and Patrick Wilson on Zenda Express finished his first ever Melges 24 World Championship on the second place, tied on points with Monsoon of Bruce Ayres sailing with Jeremy Wilmot, Chelsea Simms, Edward Hackney and Tomas Dietrich, now completing the overall podium.
Fourth place went to IM24CA Chair Laura Grondin with her team of Taylor Canfield, Scott Ewing, Cole Brauer and Rich Peale on Dark Energy followed by Bora Gulari along with Kyle Navin, Norman Berge, Ian Liberty and Michael Menninger on New England Ropes on the fifth
Melges 24 World Championship 2022 was hosted by Lauderdale Yacht Club (LYC) and organized along with the International Melges 24 Class Association (IM24CA) and U.S. Melges 24 Class Association (USM24CA) on May 7-15.
Overall Results: (top ten out of 31, 11 races, 1 discard)
1. USA856 Raza Mixta – Peter Duncan (13)-13-3-1-5-1-4-2-9-3-3 46 pts
2. USA866 Zenda Express – Harry Melges IV 1-5-5-SCP11-2-11-12-7-3-1-4 50 pts
3. USA851 Monsoon – Bruce Ayres 5-3-(12)-2-3-7-8-8-7-5-2 50 pts
4. USA864 Dark Energy – Laura Grondin 6-2-10-7-4-12-2-1-6-(18)-1 51 pts
5. USA820 New England Ropes – Bora Gulari 4-1-2-(15)-7-2 16-5-5-2-15-9 52 pts
6. USA858 Lucky Dog – Travis Weisleder 3-8-9-4-(22)-9-7-6-5-4-22 77 pts
7. USA849 Full Throttle – Brian Porter 10-6-6-8-9-15-3-10-1-11-(18SCP) 79pts
8. USA865 Pacific Yankee – Drew Freides 2-(17)-7-17-15-4-1-3-10-9-15 83 pts
9. GER859 Nefeli – Peter Karrie 8-4-14-(21)-12-5-6-9-12-10-6 86 pts
10. CAN853 Zingara – Richard Reid 15-15-11-10-1-(18)-14-12-8-8-8 102 pts
