INTERNATIONAL TEAMS PREPARE TO GO HEAD TO HEAD

The Italian home fleet is not only the largest at 44 boats but also fields some of the strongest competitors. Perhaps the most favored Italian contender is America’s Cup veteran Flavio Favini, who will be sailing for Switzerland’s Franco Rossini aboard SUI521 Blu Moon. Favini won his first Melges 24 World title in 2001, is the current European champion and clearly has his sights set on a second world title. With Tiziano Nava on tactics, plus fellow America’s Cup veteran Stefano Rizzi and Olympic 470 representative Federica Salva in the crew, this extremely well-prepared team will be hard to beat.

Close behind is Lorenzo Bressani sailing Lorenzo Santini’s UkaUka. Bressani is a J/24 World Champion and has regularly topped the International Melges 24 fleet in the past two seasons. His team includes fellow America’s Cup veteran and 49er sailor Francesco Bruni, legendary Melges 24 crews Federico Michetti and Francesca Prina and owner and Mumm 30 World Champion Lorenzo Santini.

2006 Melges 24 World Champion Nicola Celon and his crew aboard Giorgio Marchi’s ITA638 Marchingenio hope to claim their second Melges 24 World title. Celon, an Italian Olympic representative in the Soling, retains two of his world championship winning crew: Manuel Giubellini and Raimondo Tonelli. This well-established threesome has joined forces with Giorgio Colato, making them a force to be reckoned with.

Gabrio Zandona, driving ITA633 Joe Fly for Giovanni Maspero, is already an Optimist European Champion and hopes to add a Melges 24 World Trophy to his mantelpiece. He joined the team in 2005 winning that year’s European Championship in Torquay along with other major events in the class. Maspero has pulled together a strong team which also includes tactician Andrea Felci, Andrea Bussani and bowman Federico Insabato.

Another veteran determined to make it onto the podium this time around is double Mumm 30 World Champion Luca Valerio sailing Maurizio Abba’s ITA722 Alina Helly Hansen. Tactician Daniele Cassinari, Nicholas Del Ferrio and Roberta de Paoli will round out this team.

Britain’s John Pollard, who ran Lorenzo Bressani a close second in the 2007 Melges 24 World Ranking, is GBR’s leading contender for the title aboard GBR690 A-Team Westaway. A regular top-ten finisher on the international circuit, Pollard has Rob Smith on tactics plus regular crew members Mickey Schwarz, Jimmy Wall and Kate Pollard giving him an experienced team.

Another Brit to watch is Jamie Lea, sailing GBR691 Team Barbarians for Stuart Simpson. Lea has won the Melges 24 World Ranking twice and holds multiple national and international class titles, although a world or continental title has eluded him to date. This is another well-established team with the addition of tactician Nigel Young and trimmer Justin Chisholm.

Sailing for Britain but based in the USA, Simon Strauss could surprise a few people at this regatta. A familiar face on the Melges 24 circuit, Strauss has upped the ante for this event and will be sailing with double Melges 24 World Champion Bill Hardesty (San Diego, Calif.), who called the winning shots for Dave Ullman in 2007 and Vince Brun in 1999. Also on board for the first time is Simon’s brother, Quentin Strauss, who ran his own extremely successful Melges 24 campaign for many years. James Hill rounds out this team.

Brian Porter (Lake Geneva, Wisc.) with his infamous USA649 Full Throttle crew of tactician Harry Melges and Andy Burdick (both Zenda, Wisc.), as well as brother John Porter (Lake Geneva) are without doubt the most experienced team taking part in this event. Melges -- who took the title in 2002- and Burdick were part of the team responsible for developing the Melges 24 and the Porters were among the first owners. In 2006 Brian Porter won the Melges 24 North American Championship, and despite podium finishes at virtually every Melges 24 Worlds he has attended – including finishing second to Dave Ullman last year – has seen overall victory evade his grasp thus far.

Bruce Ayres (Newport Beach, California) and his Monsoon team of John Pinkney (Newport Beach), Don Smith (Long Beach, Calif.) and James Malm (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) are regularly found at the forefront of international racing fleets. This will be the first Melges 24 Worlds that Ayres has raced outside North American boundaries and while having an eye on the main competition he also leads the contenders for the Corinthian (all amateur crew) World Championship. Ayres is the only back-to-back ACURA Key West Melges 24 Corinthian winner and is also the reigning Corinthian Melges 24 North American Champion.

Aboard USA551 Gazoo the combination of helm Doug Clark (Mystic, Conn.) and owner Geoffery Pierini (Bernardsville, N.J.) has proven to be successful so far with strategic wins and a blast of potential at the 2008 Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD this past February. Clark has been a long-time figure in the Melges 24 class but only joined Pierini’s team this year. Also aboard Gazoo will be J/24 North American and World Champions Anthony Kotoun (Newport, R.I.) and Scott Norris (Portsmouth, R.I.). The first time this pair competed in the class was at the 2005 worlds in Ocean Reef. Since then Kotoun has appeared sporadically, while Norris has maintained firm positions with teams such as David Ford’s Lightwave Micro and Lightwave Macro and Scott Holmgren’s Rosebud.

Although fielding a smaller team than usual there are still some wily sailors to watch out for in the French contingent. Bruno Jourdren is taking time out from his latest adventures in the Transat Jacques Vabre to step into a Melges 24. With Olivier Lair, Julien Breteleme and Merle Fabrice supporting him aboard Profil, he will definitely be among the contenders.

Leading the French challenge for the Corinthian title will be Jean Francois Cruette helming Cedric de Kervenoael’s FRA621 Bouygues Telecom. The winners of the 2006 Melges 24 World Corinthian Championship, they want to see their name on that trophy again.

Equally determined to get his name on the Corinthian Trophy for a second time will be Tonu Toniste, Estonia’s 470 Olympic Bronze Medallist who shared that 2006 Corinthian World title with Cruette and Kervenoael. Always a strong team, this year his crew consists of fellow 470 sailors Ants Haavel, Maiki Saaring, Andres Rohtla plus Kalev Tanner.

From Germany, Eddy Eich’s GER582 No Woman No Cry has new helmsman Christian “Kicker” Schafer onboard. In joining this very experienced Melges 24 crew, winners of the 2005 Corinthian European Championship, Schafer has the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes of German sailing legend Alba Batzil. However, with no less than eight Tempest World Championship wins to his name Schafer certainly looks man enough for the job.

Kristin Wagner, who represented Germany in the Yngling at the 2004 Olympic Games will helm Christof Weiland’s GER320 Unsponsored, whilst Anna Hoell, who crewed for Wagner in Athens, joins Peter Goeckel’s GER672 Pearl.

Although relatively new to the Melges 24 scene, the Czech crews are already starting to make a name for themselves on the international circuit. World and double European Fireball Champion Tomas Musil heads up the teams from the Czech Republic aboard CZE698 Capirina and is definitely a podium contender. Zdenek Jirkovec will call the shots, with Jiri Martinka and Martin Svihlik rounding out this team.

Also new to the class is Hungary, which took delivery of its first Melges 24 just a couple of months ago. Lack of experience, however, does not seem to have held back Hungarian Olympic Tornado sailor Arpad Litkey and his crew of Zsombor Berecz, Zsolt Litkey and Gaszton Pal aboard HUN728 Proximo – they won their first event on the international Melges 24 circuit just a couple of weeks ago and could well surprise a few of the more established teams in Porto Cervo.

Although the Melges 24 class is infamous for attracting Olympians to its ranks, we normally expect them to be sailors. The Norwegian team, however, has a surprise for us with legendary Alpine skier Lasse Kjus who has multiple Olympic medals and three world championships to his credit. Not content with success in just one sport, two years ago Kjus purchased a Melges 24 when he retired from world class ski competition. He will make his first challenge for a sailing world title at this event.

The Melges 24 teams have already begun arriving in Porto Cervo in preparation the Pre-Worlds which will take place on Thursday May 29 and Friday May 30 with Volvo Melges 24 World Championship racing from June 1-6.