Gold Water

Snowbound sailing fans rejoice!  Thanks to Latis Yachting Solutions, SLAM, and Point Loma Outfitting, we’re extremely happy to announce that the On-The-Water Anarchy team will be bringing you all the live action from the Melges 32 Gold Cup in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this Friday through Sunday.

With the death knell ringing for the Farr 40 class, it looks like the smaller, cheaper, and faster Melges 32 Class is taking up the reigns as the world’s top inshore Grand Prix fleet.  The Class just received International Class status from ISAF, and 21 of the little rockets will be battle for bragging rights off Florida’s East coast all weekend long.  Despite losing top European entrants like Pinta and Mescalzone Latino to the financial crisis, the 21-boat entry list is still fat and full of talent, and we’ll be there to pester folks like Terry Hutchinson, Dave Ullman, Richard Clarke, Max Skelley, Jeremy Wilmot, John Dane, Gavin Brady, Morgan Reeser, and many more. There are also a few more Corinthian programs, and we hope to see guys like New Wave and Argo hang with the big boys.

M32 Class President Jeff Ecklund and the junior sailing-oriented LYC are also trying something new with this event – a mandatory requirement that each team take a junior sailor aboard on Saturday.  We support this move wholeheartedly, and encourage other classes to look at Ecklund’s method of inspiring a new generation of sailors.

For those of you that are tired of Clean’s ugly mug, we’ve also got a couple of guests to help him with commentating on at least one day’s racing.  Melges VP Andy Burdick and Melges Europe President (and current M24 world champ) Federico Michetti will be on hand for color commentary at this next great OTW event.

Look for our picks and predictions for Gold Cup on Thursday morning, and be sure to tune in to On-The-Water Anarchy on Friday for the best sailing you can do behind a computer.