Porter by a point

Final day wash out, but a popular winner at Melges 24 North Americans

The final day of racing at the Melges 24 North American Championship was, quite literally, a wash out with torrential rain and light cyclonic winds. The race committee, jury and 31 Melges 24 crews left the dock ready to attempt a 1230 start as scheduled but it was not to be. Periodically the rain stopped and everyone's hopes were raised as the wind did its best to fill in, but it never became stable enough to actually get underway so the championship comes to a close with only six of the ten scheduled races completed.

Fortunately six races is sufficient to constitute a championship and so Brian Porter from Winnetka, IL, and his Full Throttle crew of Harry Melges III, Dave Navin and John Porter are declared the 2006 Melges 24 North American Champions by just one point from Newport Beach's Dave Ullman sailing Pegasus 505 with Bill Hardesty, Brian Hutchinson, Casey Smith and Shana Phelan. Dave Ullman was extremely gracious in defeat - "It was a shame not to race today but those guys did a great job and really deserved to win. When your worst finish is a fourth you deserve to win." Third place goes to Seadon Wijsen from San Francisco sailing Pareto Optimal with Bruce Ayres from Newport Beach aboard Monsoon fourth overall.

For the Full Throttle team this win is long overdue. They have been stalwarts of the Melges 24 class since its introduction in 1993 and have won many national events but an international title constantly eluded them. Finally their run as bridesmaids has been broken. Porter commented: "I just love Santa Cruz and its hospitality. Brett Gripenstraw and his team who ran the regatta did a great job as did Hank Stuart and the Race Committee. There was some wonderful sailing despite the fact that we didn't get the typical Santa Cruz conditions and I really love racing against Dave Ullman - he's such a great competitor and to win against him feels real good. We're really looking forward to being back here for the Worlds next year and we're also hoping to be in Hyeres for the 06 Worlds too."

Bruce Ayres and his crew of Dave Shelton, Don Smith and Jon Pinckney win the 2006 Corinthian Melges 24 North American Championship for all amateur crews. Second place in the Corinthian Division went to Stephen Pugh of Sausolito and his team aboard Taboo with Germany's Alba Batzill, helming Courage X for Eddy Eich in third. "We need to sail more!" joked Bruce Ayres "It's too bad that we couldn't race the last two days but that's just Mother Nature for you. I think next year will be different as this is very unusual for sailing here. Despite the conditions we really enjoyed the racing. We were sailing with the same four guys we've had for the last four years and that makes a big difference."

Despite extremely unusual local conditions and the loss of two day's sailing the competitors all agreed it had been an excellent event with some very demanding and exciting sailing. Ashore the Santa Cruz Yacht Club's hospitality was fantastic and thanks to sponsors Pusser's Rum, Red Bull, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co and New England Ropes the party's all went with a swing. Particular thanks must go to PRO Hank Stuart and his Race Committee, to the jury headed by Chairman Leo Reise and to everyone at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club who worked so hard to make the event a success.

The class will be back in Santa Cruz for its 2007 World Championship from 1-10 April next year and will be hoping for a return to the classic Santa Cruz sunshine and strong sea breeze for their next visit! However, Dave Ullman, who regularly trains here as part of Philippe Kahn's Pegasus Team, pointed out that - "It's good to have a week like this because it's such a notoriously heavy airs place and people forget that anything can happen in a championship so this was a good wake-up call." The 2006 Melges 24 World Championship takes place in Hyeres, France from August.

	Boat	Owner	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6
1	Full Throttle	Porter, Brian	13	2	3	2	4	3	3
2	Pegasus 505	Ullman, Dave	14	12	1	1	7	4	1
3	Pareto Optimal	Wijsen, Seadon	26	15	4	7	5	5	5
4	Monsoon	Ayres, Bruce	29	11	2	3	12	1	20
5	Pegasus 575	Kahn, Philippe	32	3	18	5	8	12	4
6	Go Dogs Go	Hawkins, Tim	40	7	7	9	25	11	6
7	Taboo	Pugn, Stephen	41	5	10	11	15	6	9
8	Rock n Roll	Campbell, Argyle	46	17	14	13	15	2	2
9	Courage X	Eich, Eddy	48	1	32	32	1	7	7
10	USA 49	Bennett, Shawn	48	9	6	4	23	15	14
11	Grinder	Littfin, Jeff	50	4	5	8	25	20	13
12	Smokin	Clark, Kevin	51	13	11	6	19	9	12
13	Enigma	Guy, Hubert	58	10	19	10	9	32	10
14	Pegasus 492	Kahn, Samuel	60	8	9	18	17	23	8
15	Sofa King Fast	Grippenstraw; Bassano	64	16	27	19	8	10	11
16	Breakn Wind	MacGregor, Matt	71	14	19	15	32	8	15
17	Brick House	Barkow, Jim	75	12	32	17	10	19	17
18	Pro Spirit	Eriksson, Stan	77	18	8	14	21	21	16
19	Tinseltown Rebellion	Lewis, Cam	82	24	15	18	12	16	21
20	Regazzoni	Donnelly, Nigel	90	21	17	29	16	14	22
21	Tropical Storm	Forster, Douglas	98	20	12	20	30	22	24
22	Personal Puff	Hauserman, Dan	98	23	20	21	20	18	19
23	Goose N' Duck	Bennett, D Paul	110	19	26	26	32	13	26
24	O Positive	Pritchard, Orion	110	22	16	24	32	25	23
25	White Lightning	Stoll, Bob	112	32	28	16	20	23	25
26	Trophy Wife	Klute, Glenn	112	25	23	22	32	24	18
27	Aqua Nut	Ashwanden, Peter	123	28	25	25	18	27	30
28	Fired Up	Kamins, Gary	135	30	27	28	23	29	28
29	Jam Jam	Ruxton, Neal	141	29	28	32	27	28	29
30	Flying Circus	Joyner, David	147	27	30	32	32	26	32
31	Nothing Ventured	Klenke, Tom	153	32	32	32	32	30	27