Consistency is key to the long game

by Sarah Morgan Watters, Sailing World
The 65-boat fleet at the 2023 Melges 15 Winter Series was an impressive turnout for a one-design class that’s only three years old. But that was nothing. This year, 90 boats showed up at each of the three series’ events in over three months in Jensen Beach, Florida.

The class has subscoring categories for women, youth, master, grand master, mega master, and even a “couples” division, but this year’s winter series was won by a pair of recent college-sailing alumni. The transferable dinghy skills and emphasis on strong sailing fundamentals from college sailing paid off for skipper Luke Arnone and crew Cameron Giblin, from Mantoloking YC, New Jersey. The pair won two of three events, including the final Midwinter Championship, to earn the series title. Luke Arnone and Cameron Giblin prevailed at the Melges 15 Winter Series, proving again that consistency is key to the long game.

What was your strategy for winning the 90-boat Midwinter Championship?
Giblin: Consistency is really important, especially in the big fleet. You can see people put up some big numbers. We got off to a bit of a slow start ourselves, with a 14 and a 20. The racing was pretty tricky early on, but when we got settled on the second day, rattling off a couple of top-five finishes helped settle the score line. Sometimes you’d rather be chasing than being chased, so it was nice going into the last day with something to fight for. – Full story