In what is quickly turning into an unofficial Irish ‘South Coast’ championships, eight Irish teams have signed up for the first Melges 15 Winter Series event in Cascais, March 1st-3rd.
The Irish lineup includes new Irish sailors to the Melges15 as well as sailors from the existing fleet. Teams from the USA, Sweden, Portugal and Australia have also signed up to the event so far.
Spaces are still available for the second Winter Series event in April 12th-14th for Irish sailors looking to avail of the double discount as part of the ‘Try before you buy in Cascais’ promotion as detailed previously on Afloat. With the boat being launched in the UK next month, it’s expected that some UK sailors will be part of the action in April.
There’s no doubt that the unending sequence of Winter Gales has helped motivate the Irish crews to warm weather Winter sailing in Club Navel de Cascais, a venue that has previously hosted ISAF worlds, Americas Cup events and more recently, the TP52 World championships.
SailCascais will run the series. With a fleet of 12 boats, they ran their very first Melges 15 event a few weeks back; ‘ The Portuguese Champion of Champions’. This competition saw classes represented from the Optimist to Racing Yachts, as well as some World (ORC & 420) and European Champions (Dragon & J70). After seven races, the Star Class representative Afonso Domingos took the win holding off Portuguese SB20 champion Henrique Brites.
Closer to home, Howth Yacht Club is preparing for the arrival of 12 boats this March.
A factory visit by Melges Ireland earlier in the month confirmed everything was in order as one by one the boats move through the production line. The boats are manufactured in Europe by Nelo, world leaders in composite boat construction.
The Melges15 demo boat is due to head South in February and should be spotted in Kinsale waters where some new faces will sail the boat for the first time.