Melges 24 Worlds at Travemuende, Germany Overall

by Joy Dunigan 2 Aug 2002 19:35 BST

"FINALLY" HARRY MELGES (USA 409 "STAR") IS 2002 MELGES 24 WORLD CHAMPION

Photo © Pierrick Contin

After five consecutive trys (crewed three times, and driven twice) Harry Melges at the helm for Jeff Ecklund captured the top spot today overall to become the 2002 Melges 24 World Champion in Travemunde, Germany. Even though Harry scored a 9th place finish and took a DNS on the last race as his discard, Harry maintained the top position. When asked to comment on how it feels to have finally won a Melges 24 Championship he said, "Awesome. I had a great crew and just sat in back and drove the boat. Both Jeff and I would like to send a very special thank you to Kristian Nergaard from Norway who really went above and beyond the call of duty allowing us to use the boat. Kristian won the Norwegian Nationals in the boat. Before that it was "Full Throttle" crewed by John and Brian Porter in La Rochelle". Jeff Ecklund also commented that this was a lot of fun and from an owners's perspective was great. When asked if we will see "Star" back again, he commented that their are plenty of regattas such as Key West and there is the next worlds championship in San Francisco next year.

Race nine began with light wind and rain. With so much excitement and adrenaline pumping a general recall on the first race was unavoidable. Once the teams settled down for second start, the rain continued to fall but by no means put a damper on anyone's determination. Around the first mark were the Italians Andrea Racchelli (ITA 438 "Altea") and M. Ziliani driving for A. Preti (ITA 193 "Ale Ali 3"). Racchelli was unable to hold on to the top spot for long. The french had an astounding day with a first place finish from Philippe Legros (FRA 193 "Cotes D'Armor") followed by Francois Le Bourdais (FRA 375 "Voiles Performance") in second. Vittorio Strosek has a most incredible day with a third place finish. Second place position holder Jamie Lea at the helm for Richard Thompson (GBR 437 "Black Seal") finished with a dissappointing fifteenth.

At the start of the tenth and final race in the series, Andrea Racchelli (ITA 438 "Altea") put on a masterful display of his determination and ability by dominating the entire race. He and Kenneth Thelen (FIN 236 "Suunto") had a great match race to the third mark. Jamie Lea had another distinctive opportunity to show the strength and speed of his crew by moving up past Thelen to round the second to last mark in second place. Racchelli simply pulled away from the rest of the pack, leaving Lea to battle against Sebastien Col, helming for Philippe Ligot (FRA 475 "P & P Racing Team") and Bruno Jourdren (FRA 472 "Pokemon"). Jamie pulled away to almost catch Racchelli again but had to settle for second place, Col found himself in third place, followed by Thelen in fourth and Bruno in fifth.

Overall results leave us with Harry Melges as our champion, Sebastien Col in second place up from yesterdays fifth position, Jamie Lea fell from second place to third and Bruno Jourdren moved up from fifth position to fourth.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm/Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Pts
1	USA 409	Harry Melges/Jeff Ecklund	11	1	1	BFD/RDG	3	2	3	2	9	DNS	36
2	FRA 475	Sebastien Col/Philippe Ligot	22	9	13	BFD	6	7	9	4	6	3	64
3	GBR 437	Jamie Lea/Richard Thompson	18	7	14	1	4	3	2	18	15	2	66
4	FRA 472	Bruno Jourdren	33	23	11	BFD/RDG	7	1	1	8	10	5	75.5
5	FRA 173	Oliver Ponthieu	7	30	5	4	5	25	16	1	5	8	76
6	NOR 249	Kristopher Spone/Neils Hauff	9	15	3	2	1	20	24	11	26	54	111
7	GBR 484	Rob Smith/Stuart Simpson	10	5	4	14	BFD	8	11	3	44	25	124
8	FIN 236	Kenneth Thelen	4	31	17	8	11	9	28	23	23	4	126
9	FRA 370	Sylvain Mizzi/Demitri Nicolopoulos	32	14	2	22	22	5	41	12	25	6	140
10	MON 429	Antoine Fickley/Benjamin Cohen	28	21	8	18	12	6	20	45	12	141

Full results at www.travemuender-woche.net/teilnehmer.phtml?Klasse=45

Be sure to tune in again next year for the latest daily news and updates from San Francisco, California in the US - home for the 2003 Melges 24 World Championship hosted 9 - 17 October, 2003.