#melges24 – Ireland's only Melges 24 'Embarr' is campaigning in San Francisco bay racing for North American honours. Skipper Conor Clarke reports.

Today was very hard work, hiking these boats is really tough and when it's blowing 25 knots there is no relief downwind when you still have to hike and trim hard.

San Francisco Bay is tricky too with tides and currents part tide borne and part wind borne. We went the wrong side of the course in the first race but we still made it round the top mark second. However some poor handling left us struggling by the time we reached the first leeward mark. We finished 7th in that race, very unhappy with ourselves and some frank discussions took place.

We went the right way in the second race and had a battle with the Aussies all the way. Our helmsman is Nathan Wilmot and his brother Jeremy is calling tactics for The Aussies on Bandit so we are super keen not to allow them get ahead. They won the first race though and now we were battling with them from behind in the second race. It was AUS 1st and IRL 2nd in this one.

In the third race we got to the top well ahead of them and with just one of the US boats in contention with us. We managed to extend our lead after that so that by the finish we were well clear of the fleet. That 1st in the 3rd race left us 2nd place in the Championship overall but a tough 6 points behind the Aussies and only 1 point ahead of the 3rd placed boat.

Two more days to go. The forecast is lighter tomorrow but we're not sure if that will suit us or not but we'll just have to take what is given to us. If we can stay at the front consistently and not screw up as much as we did today then we can still do it.

SF is an amazing place to sail, everywhere you look there is an amazing sight, Golden Gate, Alcatraz, SF skyline and beautiful scenery everywhere. Prof is entertaining us with lewd jokes and tales of goings on in his youth back during the famine, Dave's persistent positiveness has shown a few cracks, Nathan is still the pushiest man on the planet and poor Kate, who is with us for the first time after Shona pulled out blaming pregnancy, seems sometimes overwhelmed by the intensity of the whole scene and some of Profs jokes.

More news tomorrow when we will be trying very hard to wipe out that 6 point deficit.

#melges24 – Ireland's only Melges, "Embarr "  ( IRL607) is back competing in the USA again. Having finished a disappointing third in Bacardi week in Miami earlier this year the crew led by Dun Laoghaire's Conor Clarke are keen to prove they can do better this week in the North American Championships in San Francisco. Clarke reports:

We've been here since Saturday and been out sailing practicing every day. It's very hard work, the hiking on these boats is a killer and San Francisco is really windy so everything is physical. We haven't sailed together for a few months and that presents some real challenges as we try to get ourselves back together as a team again for the event.

Our helm is Nathan Wilmot and he is completely uncompromising and demands absolute perfection from everyone sailing the boat. It makes for some interesting conversations on board sometimes.

Practice has been tough but we are moving through the water quickly and held our own well today against some of the main competitors in practice. The sailing area is amazing. We can see the Golden Gate and the San Francisco skyline as well as the AC45 boats out every day. We had a close encounter with one on Monday just before sailing under the Golden Gate. Coming back into SF bay under it again this time downwind at 18 knots was a thrill.

#MELGES24 – There was no change in the top-five positions in the 21-boat Melges 24 class on the final day of racing for Bacardi Miami Sailing Week. Franco Rossini (Switzerland) won the final race of the series to cement his position as fleet leader with 11 points, while increasing his lead from three to seven points over Riccardo Simoneschi (Milan, Italy) who finished 11th in the final race. Conor Clarke (Ireland), with 24 points, Kristen Lane (Tiburon, Calif.), with 33, and Alan Field (Los Angeles, Calif.), with 37, complete the final top-five.

Maurice O'Connell reports: So we did what we had to do today, protected our 3rd overall by starting near Kristin Lane in "Brickhouse" and shepherding her around the race course.

And, as often happens in these situations, we actually led the race after the first run and watched as the fleet behind us split off to the left side of Biscayne Bay. We stayed right because "Brickhouse" had a poor first run and went hard right looking to try to get past us.

We eventually finished 4th in the race and our 1,2,2,4,4,5,6,6 gave us third overall and reflected how we sailed. We sailed some good races and let a few points drift away from us here and there...

Congratulations to "Blu Moon" for a fantastic series. They made some big changes to their boat set up since they had some poor results in 2011 and in Key West 2012 and it looks to have worked. Well done guys and welcome back!

The "Embarr" crew for Bacardi this week was:-

Nathan Wilmot (Australia) - Helm

David Hughes (USA) - Tactician

Prof (Ireland) - Spi trim

Conor Clarke (Ireland) - Pit

Shona Wilmot (Australia) - Bow

"Embarr's" next event will be the US Nationals in June in Seattle followed by the North Americans in San Francisco in September.

Off to the Bacardi party now folks - don't wait up!

#MIAMI SAILING WEEK – Ireland's Conor Clarke won the first race of the day of the 21-boat Melges 24 class at Miami sailing week yesterday while Franco Rossini (Switzerland) placed second. Rossini then took the bullet in the second and third races of the day, not to mention the lead of the overall standings which he now holds with four points. Clarke is second overall with seven points, followed by Riccardo Simoneschi (Milan, Italy) who has 10 points after finishes of 3-5-2. One point back is Kristen Lane (Tiburon, Calif.) after placing 5-3-3, followed by Alan Field (Los Angeles, Calif.) who placed 4-11-5 for 20 points.

Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell blogs from Conor Clarke's entry: "NEVER AGAIN!!!!" are the words all of the 'Embarr' crew used when we finally made the weight limit of 360kgs yesterday. Four days of dieting, running and malnutrition do not a successful regatta make.

And so it was that on the opening day today in 20 knots of breeze, I had to hand over the spinnaker sheet to my team-mates and my arms went into cramp and spasm - not good - but entirely due to the previous crazy few days. Next event - we WILL be on the weight - end of story.

Anyway, after three awesome races on Biscayne Bay today, we are sitting in 2nd overall, three points off the leaders, former world champions "Blu Moon" from Switzerland. We had a 1,2,4 to their 2,1,1.

We have three races tomorrow and two races on Saturday.

Great day for the Irish too over here where Peter and David had a 1,4 to climb to second overall in the Stars. Well done lads.

All the results and news are http://www.miamisailingweek.com/ - wish us luck folks.

After a week of strong winds and demanding races Ireland can be in the medals at the Melges 24 World Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas today.  Here, Spi trimmer on the sole Irish entry, Maurice O'Connell, give an insight into one of the longest, toughest sailing events events he has ever done.

Another great start for Ireland

"We have just finished races 9 & 10 and there are more tomorrow which will concludes this mammoth 2011 Melges 24 worlds.

It's going to go right down to the wire for places 2,3,4,5 & 6 overall. Here is the points status after 10 races...............

1. ITA817 - Uka Uka Racing - Lorenzo Bressani - (6),2,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,5 - 15
2. USA749 - Full Throttle - Brian Porter - (16),9,2,1,7,4,6,4,4,4 - 41
3. BER655 - hedgehog - Alec Cutler 9,8,3,7,4,5,4,2,(11),1 - 43
4. IRL607 - Embarr - Conor Clarke - 2,5,5,11,9,2,8,3,5,(26) - 50
5. USA812 - Brick House 812 - Kristen Lane - 8,1,10,3,3,7,5,7,(14),7 - 51
6. SUI596 - Blu Moon - Flavio Favini - 3,6,8,5,5,3,10,(11),8,3 - 51

Our day today was once again one of missed opportunities. On the positive side, we climbed from 5th to 4th overall after a steady 5th in Race 9, but we had been as high as 2nd in that race at one point.

On the minus side, in Race 10, we again won the start line pin but at a price. We were possibly a little close to the pin boat, and that combined some spectator boat wash, slammed our bow to leeward and we hooked the anchor line of the pin boat. There is only 20 feet depth of water here and the boat had 150 feet of anchor line out. This led to a messy entanglement which by the time we had unhooked ourselves, done our 360 degree turn, we were a long long way behind.

The resulting 26th place is our discard (for now!) but some of our competitors had really good results in that race.

So, two more breezy races tomorrow - we can get into the medals but we will require a spectacular day and will need a little good fortune - wish us luck folks.

To view all our coverage of Ireland at the Melges 24 Worlds Click here.

Ireland's sole entry in the  Pre-Worlds Regatta at the 2011 Melges 24 World Championship in Corpus Christi, Texas  has finished third overall. 

A seventh and a sixth score yesterday saw Nathan Wilmot at the helm of Conor Clarke's IRL 607 Embarr take the final Pre-Worlds podium position.

Yesterday saw an unexpected return to the breezier conditions with which the venue is more synonymous, with the final two races being completed in 15 - 18 knots.

A 6,2 scoreline today for overnight leader Eivind Melleby on NOR 804 Full Medal Jacket, was enough to seal an overall win in the Pre Worlds Regatta.

Melleby finished the two day series tied on points with second placed Lorenzo Bressani on ITA 817 Uka Uka Racing, who chalked up a win in the first race today before finishing fourth in the second race.

The winning Corinthian, all amateur team was USA 15 Abordage owned and helmed by Erwan Le Gall from San Francisco.

With racing in the main World Championship series scheduled to start in the morning, most teams spent the afternoon after racing today on boat preparation, final sail selection and planning for the week of racing ahead. Soling Olympian and America's Cup sailor Espen Stokkeland, tactician aboard Full Medal Jacket, said that the Norwegian team were looking forward to the coming week. "There are so many great teams here this week. The racing is going to be intense, with all of the top guys battling it out against each other. We expect the racing to be really close. It's going to be great."

470 Olympic Gold Medalist Nathan Wilmot (NZL) seemed content with his team's preparation in the lead up to the championship. "This is my first Melges 24 regatta. It's been interesting so far. I think I need to learn to stay behind the line a bit more as we have managed two recalls in three races. The boats are great though - great fun to sail and close racing, a pretty similar style to the 470, other than you also have a backstay to deal with. All in all the Melges 24 experience has been really nice and we are looking forward to the week".

AUDI helmsman Ricardo Simoneschi (ITA) appeared confident and relaxed on the eve of the main championship. "As a team we are happy with the job we have done up to now. In terms of the venue, I think it is a very interesting place. We were told that the winds were generally very strong and quite steady here, but in the last few days we have already seen a variety of conditions and some quite big windshifts. So I think there will be plenty of tactical options and the racing will actually be quite open." Simoneschi also noted that the steep chop which prevails in Corpus Christi presented it's own challenges. "For sure the wave patterns here make life very challenging for the helmsman upwind in particular. It is very easy to let the boat slow down and you have to do lots of work with the mainsheet and the tuning of the boat to counter this."

With so many strong teams competing, there is little doubt that this year's championship will be one of the most closely fought ever, and picking a clear favourite at this point is virtually impossible. The general consensus amongst the competitors at this evening's Opening Ceremony held at the Corpus Christi Yacht Club, was that consistency, starting ability and downwind speed were likely to be the key factors in determining the overall winner. There was also a general anticipation of some spectacular sailing ahead when the inevitable classic big breeze Corpus Christi conditions make an appearance.

Racing in the 2011 Melges 24 World Championship main series begins today and runs through until Saturday May 21, with two races per day scheduled.

Full Melges Pre-worlds results here