killer kiss

Despite a fleet that included paid pros on the top 11 boats, the father/son/pro team of Michael and young Mitchell Kiss and Chris Rast smoked the fleet at the Holland, MI Melges 20 Nationals last weekend. With 5 bullets and 2 second places, Kiss’s Bacio (Italian for ‘kiss’) didn’t sail the last race, and beat the runner-up boat by 18 points.

The dominating win points out how much development the US fleet has ahead of it to stay competitive with the fast-growing European fleet – Bacio was 6th in the 39-boat Gold Cup in Lake Garda last month, while M24 vets Simon and Quentin Strauss and Nigel Young pulled a fourth in the 23-boat US Nationals after stepping on the boat for the first time just before the event.  The number of family teams and female competitors points out some nice trends too for the growing sporty fleet, and with Vipers, Opens, and the Melgi continuing to show growth across all events, it’s a good one to see.

For a full report on the event, check out Rast’s blog.  Joy Dunigan/Melges 20 Class photo and more here.