Quinton Diaries - Final preparations for the 20th Melges24 Worlds in Helsinki

Posted by gill_admin on 2nd Aug 2017

We caught up with The Melges24 Gill Race team [led by sailors Miles Quinton and Geoff Carveth], who are in their final preparations for the World Championships in Helsinki hosted by Helsingfors Segelklubb (HSK). This will be the 20^th World Championship, in Helsinki.

Following a highly successful season in 2016: Winning the Corinthian title at the Europeans in Hyeres, coming 4^th overall, and winning the Corinthian division of the European Sailing Series, (which they won overall in 2015) and coming 2^nd overall, they have their sights set firmly on a Corinthian World title and retaining the Corinthian division of the European sailing series.

“We have a fight on our hands as some highly successful teams in the overall and Corinthian divisions will be competing at the Worlds. There are teams like Lucky Dog, Mikey, Slingshot and Monsoon from the US as well as previous World Champions Maidollis and Altea from Europe”.

In the Corinthian division, they are competing against two former Corinthian World Champions: The Toniste brothers on Lenny from Estonia who won the Corinthian division in Middlefart, Denmark in 2015 and Taki 4, who won in Miami in 2015.

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Melges 24 European Sailing Series Riva del Garda, 19-21 maggio 2017 © IM24CA/ZGN[/caption]

“Our preparations for the Worlds began in the winter with the boat in the Lake Garda boat builders; refurbishing the hull and the foils as well as a number of other changes to optimise the boat as much as possible

Then came the crew – our successful 2016 team were unavailable due to other sailing, work and family commitments so we were lucky to recruit Christian Birrell, Liam Gardner and Dan Schieber. Christian our tactician won silver in Kiel in 470s, is a former Fireball World Champion and UK National Champion in 470, Merlin Rocket, Fireball, Enterprise, and GP14. Liam our jib trimmer was the first under 16 Firefly champion and competed at the Laser Radial World Championships in Japan, jib trim and Dan Schieber our bowman competed high level in 420 and 470 class.

Geoff and I are pleased to have such talented young guys sailing with us, so the next thing was to build a team based on Geoff’s deep experience of winning three SB20 World Championships and numerous other titles starting with the European Sailing Series events in Portoruz -Slovenia, Lake Garda and Marstrand, Sweden.

Things have gone to plan with a steady series of results but with plenty of room for improvement in a highly competitive fleet. We started strong in Portoruz compromised by a protest on the last day which dropped us to second Corinthian behind Kesbeke and 5th overall. Lake Garda was another build with some unusual conditions but again we walked away within 2nd Corinthian to Taki4 and 7th overall.

Marstrand was our final preparation event where things started to come together and despite fierce competition from Taki 4 we were 1st and 2nd overall ahead of Slingshot and Mikey.

So, going into the Worlds we are second overall in the European Sailing Series to Taki 4 by only 8 points after 3 regattas so there is everything to play for at the Worlds and the European Sailing Series”.

So, what about the kit, what part does this play and does it affect your performance?

“The gear we wear plays an integral part in our performance; being warm and dry but also combined with function and fit.

We are using the KB1 Race Trousers and the lightweight Race Smock as we do most of our sailing in relatively warm conditions. This is layered with a mid layer of the Race Softshell Smock, which we have worn for two seasons now and are a firm favourite with the team; they are warm, flexible and water repellent so worn with salopettes or shorts they are perfect. Additionally, we wear the Race T-shirts (short sleeve or long sleeve), Race Shorts and Race Caps because protection from high intensity sunlight for a long day on the water is essential. Base layers are the Pro Impact Shorts, thermals and another team favourite: Hot Socks with our Race Trainers.

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How easy is it to get time to practice?

Since we all work full time in other professions getting time to practice is a challenge but we will be in Helsinki on Saturday 28th July preparing the boat, for the practice race on Sunday.