Melges 32 US Nationals at Sail Newport - Overall
by International Melges 32 Class Association 30 Jul 2012 06:51 BST
27-29 July 2012
Jason Carroll's 'Argo' wins second consecutive Melges 32 U.S. National Championship title
Two final races on Sunday deliver intense competition as teams prepare for Worlds, hosted by the New York Yacht Club in late September 2012.
Newport, RI - Congratulations to 2012 Melges 32 U.S. National Champion Jason Carroll (New York, NY) and the Argo Team comprised of tactician Cameron Appleton and crew members Peter Crawford, Scott Norris, Andy Koch, Charles Swanson and Lindsay Bartel. With this win, Carroll becomes the first owner to hold the coveted U.S. National Championship title for a second consecutive time. "This was not easy. It was light and the conditions were tricky. Cameron was scratching his head all three days," Carroll commented just before the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon. "It was not until the very last race, that we finally got ahead."
"We are very happy to be in Newport now and will be doing a lot of sailing here in August, especially with Pre-Worlds and Worlds coming up in September," says Carroll. "We have a lot of people on the boat that know the area and the waters well, so with this we feel pretty good. Now, we just have to keep our nose to the grindstone, continue to work very hard and hopefully, we can come up with a nice result at Worlds."
Despite the light air conditions and overcast skies, it was an exciting day of yacht racing in Newport. The day commenced with second-runner up Ryan DeVos (Macatawa Bay, MI) on Volpe leading the overalls, tied with Steve Howe (San Diego, CA) on Warpath in points. Carroll was seated third just a shy three points behind.
Spectators were firmly poised on the edge of their seats for the last two races of the eight-part series. Carroll came on strong early, taking the lead at the top mark chased by John Kilroy's (Los Angeles, CA) Samba Pa Ti. Kilroy remained strong overtaking the lead position about a hundred yards from the finish line. Carroll slipped to finish second, Pieter Taselaar (Scarsdale, NY) on Bliksem came third, Lanfranco Cirillo's (Roncadelle, Brescia, Italy) Fantastica was fourth, while DeVos remained close finishing fifth.
Going into the final race, teams were on edge. At this stage, DeVos was still leading the event yet tied in points with Carroll in second, Howe third. The first start resulted in a general recall, with PRO Bruce Golison announcing an I-Flag start for the next warning. Alec Cutler's (Pembroke, Bermuda) Hedgehog battled into the mark, fighting off Mark Plaxton's (Tortola, BVI) INTAC and Phil Lotz's (Newport, RI) Arethusa. As the race progressed, Plaxton eventually took the lead with Cutler following. At the final weather mark, with an awesome F-16 fighter jet giving the fleet a little fly-by action (afterburners and all), INTAC proceeded to extend their lead for the win, leaving Cutler in second. Taselaar pulled up to finish third just ahead of Carroll in fourth. DeVos finished tenth, while Howe scored a disappointing eighteenth.
The 2012 Melges 32 U.S. National Championship, hosted by Sail Newport can easily be categorized as one of the greatest Nationals ever. By far it delivered some of the most competitive, performance yacht racing the fleet has ever seen. With the World Championship, hosted by the New York Yacht Club on September 20-29, surely many of the rivalries won and lost at this event will carry over.
A very special thanks
The International Melges 32 Class Association would like to thank PRO Bruce Golison and his entire racing support team that includes his wife Margo, Bruce Bingham, Taran Teague and scorer Steve Washburn; and to Sail Newport — in particular Brad Read and Anderson Reggio, their staff and most especially their volunteers who so generously gave their time and energy to make this event the very best. The IM32CA wishes to also thank and recognize the great event support supplied by the Newport Shipyard, supporting sponsor Sentient Jet for an amazing Friday afternoon cocktail party, to the INTAC Team and all their sponsors from the BVI and UVI for the Saturday afternoon 2013 Virgin Islands Sailing Series Party. And last, but certainly not least, many gracious thanks to Melges USA for their outstanding customer service and product support while on site, pre- and post-event.
Melges within reach
Full race reports, interviews and photo galleries will be posted each day at the official website of the International Melges 32 Class Association (IM32CA). Racing updates from the course will be posted online at the Official Melges 32 Blog, Facebook and Twitter.
Overall Results: (top ten, 8 races, 1 discard)
1.) Jason Carroll/Cameron Appleton, Argo; 11-4-5-[17]-3-4-2-4 = 33pts
2.) Ryan DeVos/Ed Baird, Volpe; 5-2-10-2-5-[15]-5-10 = 39pts
3.) Steve Howe/Morgan Larson, Warpath; 8-10-4-4-6-2-6-[18] = 40pts
4.) Pieter Taselaar/Nick Thompson, Bliksem; 1-1-[13]-10-13-8-3-5 = 41pts
5.) Benjamin Schwartz/Mike Buckley, Pisces; 6-7-9-8-7-9-[12]-6 = 52pts
6.) Phil Lotz/Brad Read, Arethusa; 10-6-6-7-11-[18]-14-2 = 56pts
7.) Joel Ronning/Bill Hardesty, Catapult; 13-9-11-1-1-[20]-16-7 = 58pts
8.) Dalton DeVos/Jonathan McKee, Delta; 12-14-[18]-11-2-5-8-8 = 60pts
9.) John Kilroy/Jeremy Wilmot, Samba Pa Ti; 7-11-7-9-15-[16]-1-13 = 63pts
10.) Mark Plaxton, INTAC; 4-16-[20]-14-12-11-11-1 = 69pts
View Full Results here