Official Melges 24 Blog

Congratulations are in order for Rob Butler on CAN-177 Eager Beaver and his crew consisting of his wife Sandy, Jim Dickey and Larry Huibers! They are the 2009 Melges 24 Corinthian St. Petersburg NOOD Champions!

The Eager Beavers traveled all the way from Canada to race and it certainly was well worth the drive. Their best race was a seventh place finish in race 1 of the 6 race series.

TOP FIVE RESULTS
1. Rob Butler
2. Bob Kroetsch
3. J A Booker
4. George Haynie
5. Greg McCliment

A very special thanks to Melges Performance Sailboats for fully supporting the Corinthian Melges 24 division in St. Pete’s! Each team will take home some very cool Melges gear!

Congratulations to Dave Ullman aboard USA-515 and his crew of Doug Fisher, Andy Escourt, Scott Liebel and Dan Wittig! They are 2009 Melges 24 St. Pete’s NOOD champions.

The official awards ceremony will be taking place very shortly!

Maybe… The breeze just did a 180… First time ever that only for a moment kites were up in both directions…

Hutchinson drops his chute, Ullman follows suit, then the rest of the fleet.

RACE CALLED OFF… Fleet headed to the dock…

That’s a wrap…

The sun is shining at the top mark, dark clouds still loom over the leeward gate, more pressure on the right…

Breeze building as teams close in on the mark…

Michas
Ullman
Reid
Ansov
Hutchinson

all taking to the right for breeze…

With thunder clouds serving as the backdrop, the gun is two minutes out … Going to make for an interesting start…

Fleet batches at the committee boat end…

Hutchinson
Ullman
Goss
Mossman
Field
O’Reilly
Blouin
Campbell
Hulsey
Single
DuVal
Williamson
Butler
Willits
Kroetch

Hutchinson extends his lead coming up to the leeward gate, early take down taking the right gate… Course change to 200

Hutchinson
Ullman
Goss
All through the right gate…
O’Reilly moves up to fouth rounding on the left
Taking the right gate…
Blouin
Mossman
Field
Hulsey
Campbell
Single
Williamson
Butler
Willits

Hulsey, Ullman, Hutchinson and Blouin in the hunt…

Around first is Hutchinson
Blouin
Goss
Ullman
O’Reilly
Mossman
Hulsey
Field
Campbell
DuVal
Williamson
Single
Butler
Willits

Melges 24s in sequence…

Three minutes to the gun…

The sun has come out and breeze around 4-5 of breeze…

Hulsey blasts off the pin with some great speed, the port tacks taking an early lead…

Campbell looking great up the middle too, left side with some nice pressure filling in…

Fleet scattered across the course headed to the top-mark,

This race three legs…