USMCA NEWS

NEWS

2006 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP NOR NOW AVAILABLE, NOVEMBER 16-18

23 OCTOBER 2006 • The 2006 Melges 24 United States National Championship is being sailed out of Florida Yacht Club (FYC), Jacksonville, Florida on November 16-18th. The FYC has hosted the Melges 24 fleet in November for the past 14 years as the highly successful, Kings Day Regatta. Pat Lambert, Regatta Chairman, and Rick Preston, Principal Race Officer, have been managing the highly successful Kings Day event at FYC for the past fourteen (14) years. According to Pat, “the race committee and staff are extremely excited to host and run the Melges 24 Nationals as part of our Kings Day event. I promise the red carpet will be rolled out for the racers and the Florida Yacht Club is prepared to pull out all the stops. The oyster roast on Wednesday night has been a favorite for this event. The Club is ready for the racers to start rolling in on Tuesday to rig the boats. A practice race will be held on Wednesday with racing getting under way on Thursday through Saturday. If you need anything, do not hesitate to contact me.”

The majority of the top programs and sailors in the United States are planning on attending the event to lay claim to a National Championship. In addition, several of the top European programs will be there to compete and begin preparations for 2007 Key West Race Week and the 2007Melges 24 World Championship in Santa Cruz, California. The list of past winners for the Jacksonville event and the Melges 24 Championship reads like a “who’s who” of sailing. Long time participant Brian Porter and 2005 North American Champion is looking forward to the competition. “My team always enjoys the hospitality of the Florida Yacht Club and the top level competition and sailors the event draws. We have been coming to this event since day one and I love the venue, atmosphere and people. It is a great opportunity to hang out with the fleet and compete at the highest level.” Top sailing programs from around the US will be focused on keeping the Full Throttle team from adding to their list of victories including, but not limited to, Dave Ullman, Dave Ford with Scott Nixon and Mark Ivey onboard, Dave Chapin with brothers Shawn and Steve Burke on Grins, Kelly Gough, Max Skelley, and Argyll Campbell. Further, Melges Performance Sailboats is scheduled to deliver four (4) new Megles 24s to owners for the event and will be sending a support team of Andy Burdick, Sam Rogers and Jamie Kimball to assure everything runs smoothly.

Registration and NOR can be found at: thefloridayachtclub.org; questions or comments to Pat Lambert: patrick@diller-brown.com.

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Make plans now to participate in the best competition of the year for the Melges 24 Class.