A ninth and discarded DNS in the last two races of the Melges 24 World Championships in Travemünde, Germany were enough to give Harry Melges an overall win at the fifth time of asking.

Melges was this year helming Jeff Eklund’s USA 409 and had previously crewed twice and driven twice in his bid to capture the world championship. His reaction? “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 to provide this Norwegian Nationals-winning boat.”

Race nine began with light wind and rain ? and a general recall. Once the teams settled down for second start, the rain continued to fall but did little to damage the competitive edge. Taking pole around the first mark were the Italians Andrea Racchelli (ITA 438) and M. Ziliani (ITA 193). But the French were to assert themselves with Philippe Legros (FRA 193) taking first and Francois Le Bourdais (FRA 375) second. Overall second in the championship became a lost cause for Jamie Lea at the helm for Richard Thompson in GBR 437 when he finished with a dissappointing 15th place.

Andrea Racchelli (ITA 438) dominated the final race in the series, pulling away from the rest of the pack after match racing with Kenneth Thelen (FIN 236) up to the third mark. Jamie Lea was trying to make up for the previous race and moved up past Thelen, Sebastien Col (FRA 475) and Bruno Jourdren (FRA 472)to round the penultimate mark in second place, but couldn’t quite haul in Racchelli . Col finished in third, a placing good enough to give him second overall in the championship, albeit 28 points off Harry Melges’ emphatic 36 point total. Next year the Melges World Championship moves to San Fransisco, USA and will be held on 9-17 October.

Overall Results
1USA 409Harry Melges, 36 points
2FRA 475Sebastien Col, 64 points
3GBR 437Jamie Lea, 66 points
4FRA 472Bruno Jourdren, 75.5 points
5FRA 173Oliver Ponthieu, 76 points
6NOR 249Kristopher Spone, 111 points
7GBR 484Rob Smith, 124 points
8FIN 236Kenneth Thelen, 126 points
9FRA 370Sylvain Mizzi, 140 points
10MON 429Antoine Fickley, 140 points