Photo by Mike Cleveland

The International Melges Association of Australia (IMAA) in conjunction with Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQYS) is holding its 2010 National Titles at RQYS in the week of the 4-7 May. Thanks to the assistance of generous supporters of the class, Ullman Sails (Sunshine Coast), Gill Clothing and Balgownie Estate Wines the class is able host its first stand alone National Titles.

A national fleet of 13 boats, nine on the east coast and four in WA, has grown from nothing over the last three years. All nine east coast boats are assembling in Brisbane for the four day event with crews coming from as far away as Busselton in WA and Geelong in Victoria. There are now over 800 Melges 24 boats in the world making it the biggest sports boat class in the world.

This will be the third National Title for the class in Australia with both previous national champions, Geoff Masters (Jolt) in 2009 and Heath Townsend (Kaito) in 2008 lining up again in 2010. The fleet is also boosted by the presence of Cameron Miles and crew on Roger That who won the Sports Boat division at Victoria Week in January 2010 in their first regatta.

Cameron and his crew have a very successful record in one design and yacht racing over many years and have now taken on the challenge of racing these high performance one design sports boats with gusto.

Previous winner of the 2009 National Sports Boat Title, Heath Walters is also heading north. He’ll be hoping that while his boat Matilda may be the oldest racing (sail no. 19), it still remains one of the quickest in the fleet.

Heath is also the class builder in Australia, and reports that another two new boats are expected out of the factory by the end of July to new owners. The latest new boat was recently sent to Howard Knight in Perth who joins well respected one design and Sharpie sailor Peter Chappell in the growing WA fleet.

Racing in the fleet will also be local Qld boats Business Time (Nick Moriarty) who finished 2nd in the Qld Sports Boat Titles over the same course in December, Dirty Girl ( Ian Barr) and another new member to the class from the Gold Coast, Malcolm Wood and crew on Anarchy.

With such a quality fleet, the racing is going to be tight and the result going down to the last of the 10 races scheduled.

The IMAA is also bidding this year to host the 2013 Melges 24 World Titles. This decision will be made by the international body in September 2010 and it is expected that the Australian bid will be a front runner to win the rights to host this event.

For more information please go to http://sailing.rqys.com.au or www.melges24association.yachting.org.au.

The Melges 24 Australian Championship is proudly hosted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.

RQYS is currently celebrating 125 Years of Sailing.

By Darren Spence