The Italians came, saw and conquered over the last few days in the Melges 24 Worlds held in Victoria. You might be forgiven for not realizing this was going on – quite a few 24s were parked unmoving around on trailers around Puget Sound. But for those who made it to the rarefied field of largely professional crews, the light air regatta ended on a windy note which made for some great photos. Alyosha Strum-Palerm, who seems to race about 9 days per week, was aboard 12HappyThoughts, which finished 9th overall out of 41 boats. Alyosha was kind enough to provide this report.
The Melges 24 Worlds Aboard 12HappyThoughts
By Alyosha Strum-Palerm
Longtime 505 and M24 sailor, Mats Elfs, first contacted me sometime in early April. He asked whether I wanted to join him, Gavin Brackett, Nick Andrewes and owner Dave Brede on the first CYC Wednesday night race of the season aboard USA 675, 12 Happy Thoughts. I said yes, and had my very first sail on a Melges 24 in a classic cold, rainy and light air Seattle southerly. Over the next few months we sailed as much as possible given all of our complex sailing schedules and prior commitments. Gavin and I were preparing for Hawaii crossings in the summer, and Mats is preparing for 505 PCC’s in Bellingham as well as 505 Worlds down in Fremantle Australia this coming December.
With that being said, we got in a few good regattas as a team (winning both) and felt good about our light-medium air boatspeed and boat-handling. What we hadn’t gotten was the opportunity to sail the boat as a group in more than 15 knots of breeze, something that luckily was not a factor at the Worlds. So there we were at the Worlds, Brede on the helm, Elfs doing tactics and jib trim, me as the spinnaker trimmer, Brackett as the floater and strategist and Andrewes as the forward hand. Somewhat blasphemously, we collectively wished for a light and shifty regatta where we could best utilize all of our extensive dinghy experience and general comfort with sailing in wildly unstable and variable conditions. Much to our delight (and many others’ horror) the 2018 worlds were primarily sailed in 6-12 knots of breeze, with races 9 and 10 being the only exceptions. Quietly, some of us on the boat had made a goal of finishing in the top ten. An ambitious goal when you looked at the depth and quality of the fleet. From Olympian Richard Clarke on one of the MiKEY boats, to 2013 World Champion Brian Porter and the Full Throttle team, to Alan Field’s WTF with Steve Hunt calling tactics, to the Italian entry Altea, and perennial contenders Monsoon and War Canoe. Finishing anywhere near any of these tried and tested teams would be considered a victory for us as very new team in the M24 at our first Worlds together.
Days 1 and 2: Light breeze graced the opening two days of the regatta, with race organizers only able to complete two races. It was a classic PNW convergence with the westerly in western Straits fighting a south easterly in the east entrance to the Straits. It made for tight and tricky racing, with current being a deciding factor in whether you were gaining or losing. WTF had an impressive win in the first race after being OCS, while the Italians showed an impressive light air upwind mode than no one was seemingly able to replicate, leading them to victory in race two. We were content with a 15th and 11th even after making some key errors while racing (double tacking at a windward mark due to current is slow). Regardless, it was a nice and consistent way to start an extremely competitive regatta.
Day 3: After a discombobulated race three where we finished 16th and never felt in phase upwind, we finally found some excellent light air pace and good clean starts that led us to a 3rd and 7th place in races four and five. We were over the moon, and likewise was the Italian boat Altea who scored an impressive 5,1,1. Altea was our dock neighbor and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to tune up against them almost every morning. Helping them out with a simple boom repair certainly had its perks!
Day 4: Although we could never again replicate our day three form, we had made a collective jump as a team in terms of our upwind boat speed and ability to get off the line. We had a couple killer starts on day 4 that lead us to some high placings around the weather mark. This only heightened our collective excitement about this group’s potential, especially considering many of the crew’s relative inexperience in the M24 (this being my third regatta ever in the boat). We kept high number off the board and stayed in the low to mid teens for much of the remainder of the regatta.
Click to enlarge photos.
Day 5: Finally a day that was on the brochure, 3 races were completed in a ripper of a breeze from 14-22 knots and we finally got to uncork some of the speed potential of the Melges. Never quite finding a quick upwind mode, we resorted to grinding down boats on the downwind legs (something we had come to excel at) and in the regatta’s final race we managed to pass 15 boats over two downwind legs to finish 23rd in race 10, after having what can only be labeled as a tragic start. Personally, our sail back into Victoria Harbor was one tinged with regret. Thinking that we had slipped out of the top 10 with that final race. But much to our relief, and in some ways surprise, we finished 9th overall.
My biggest takeaway from the 2018 Worlds was not the end result, but rather the experience of sailing at such a high level with four other people who have all become such a tight knit group. Achieving a collective goal was made all the more sweet while sailing with one of the best groups I have had the pleasure of being a part of, I am both humbled and grateful to have been given the opportunity to sail with this competitive, funky, and fun loving group of guys. Stay tuned for more exploits from team 12 Happy Thoughts, this adventure may be just getting started.
PS. Huge shoutout to Steve Corcoran for being our awesome coach and cheerleader all weekend. Your support was invaluable to us and you always managed to give us some perspective on our each and every result. Steve, you rock.
Thanks, Alyosha.
I asked how the Italians were as neighbors and Alyosha reported they were “chill and very open to us.” That’s one of the best things about sailing big international regattas, one never knows who you’ll raft up next to. Alyosha’s Pacific Cup ride is Freja. We’ll keep an eye on them as we will the other PNW entries.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.