Since the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) commissioned this new class, it has sparked interest from amateur teams the world over. Now that the first 20 boats have been built and delivered to the NYYC, the Melges IC37 Class is hoping to attract international teams that can also reap the rewards of this stand-out design.

The Melges IC37 Class has been developed to redefine the joy of racing for Corinthian owners and crews. The class and the boat were synergistically designed with the goal of a level playing field where a successful performance is based on skill and teamwork rather than a leg up in financial resources or expertise in tuning. It is the “Joy of Racing Reimagined.”

Working from the NYYC’s concept and the potent Mark Mills design, the Melges IC37 Class is looking to build on this foundation by bringing regattas to the European, and specifically the UK, stage.

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Dates for the new FAST40+ Race Circuit 2018 have been announced. Kicking off in April, the season has been extended to six scoring events, and will conclude in October. With a mixture of long weekends and four day regattas, the calendar includes the FAST40+ Championship, Poole Regatta, Lendy Cowes Week and the prestigious One Ton Cup. Over a dozen teams are expected to be racing on the FAST40+ Race Circuit this year with a few new teams getting involved with the fun.

Racing in the FAST40+ Class can be incredibly close; last year’s championship was contested over 28 races and after six months of racing, it all came down to the last round of the series to decide the winner, with four teams in contention for the title of overall champion. In the end, it was Sir Keith Mills’ Ker40+ ‘Invictus’ which topped the podium, but with ‘Invictus’ taking a year out, a new FAST40+ champion will be crowned in 2018.

FAST40+ Race Director, Stuart Childerley, commented on the provisional format for the season ahead: “The objective for the events is to provide good quality and fair racing, allowing all the teams to reach their full potential through boat handling, sail handling and boat speed. Most of the events will be held over long weekends, typically with eight races, which will be a mixture of windward / leeward and round the cans races. Every event will have a social occasion during the regatta.”