With thunderstorms looming, the fleet headed out for an early start, squeezing in five races in 12-15 knots of the northerly Peler wind. On the final day, Rated X, led by skipper Jake Julien and tactician Keith Swinton, demonstrated why they are the defending champions. In outstanding style, they secured the World Championship with a race to spare. While the rest of the fleet battled fiercely for silver and bronze, the prosecco flowed on Rated X. “It feels incredible, couldn’t have asked for anything better,” said back-to-back champion Jake Julien.
Just behind the winner there were four boats fighting for the remaining medals, all decided in the last race. Extreme2 with Dan Cheresh, Youngblood with Miles Julien, Surge with Ryan McKillen and Dingbat with Bobby Julien for all within three points of each other. And what a race it was. Lead changes, finding a good shift and passing a boat in a gate made the audience, coaches and spectators stand on their toes watching how the race played out. In the end it was YoungBlood with Miles getting the silver medal and standing next to his brother at the podium. The Bronze went to Surge, tied on points with Extreme2 but beating them in the last race.
Somewhat further down the leaderboard, an equally intense fight unfolded for the title of best European team. It all came down to the final race, where Cape Crow Vikings, led by Håkan Svensson, recovered from a poor start to secure European bragging rights ahead of Denmark’s Warrer Racing and Italy’s Vitamina. Håkan, one of the M32 fleet’s founders, reflected: “If you look at how we developed sailing the boats from the beginning and where it is today it’s really awesome to see it’s been such an improvement”.
In the 4 days of the championship one day was lost to thunderstorms. 15 races were completed and the fleet got to try three different race areas in as many days. The sometimes static course setup was mixed up by the race officers shifting between mid-lake and mountain-side areas and morning and afternoon breeze.
The season is now over for the M32 class and the preparations begin for 2025. Next stop is Miami where the 10 year running winter series will kick off in January. For the North American summer Newport Ri will be the fleet hub going back to Miami in November for the 2025 Worlds. The European fleet is planning for a return to its Lake Garda home as well as visiting some of the home ports of the North European owners.
FINAL RESULTS – M32 World Championship 2024
1. Rated X USA #69
Jake Julien USA
Keith Swinton AUS
Rhys Mara AUS
Julius Hallström SWE
Jeff McCoey USA
2. Youngblood USA #71
Miles Julien, USA
Carlos Robles ESP
Bernardo Freitas POR
Dan Morris USA
Moritz Spitzhauer AUT
3. Surge USA #63
Ryan McKillen USA
Taylor Canfield USA
Sam Loughborough USA
Ted Hackney USA
Luke Payne AUS
4. Extreme2 USA #52
Dan Cheresh USA
Morgan Larson USA
Luke Muller USA
Scott Ewing USA
Mac Agnese USA
5. Dingbat USA #70
Bobby Julian USA
Tom Burton AUS
Ed Powys GBR
Will Tiller NZL
Lewis Brake AUS
6. Pursuit USA #65
William Ruh USA
Charlie Smythe USA
Rome Kirby USA
Chris Steel NZL
Cooper Dressler USA
7. Gravedigger USA #42
James Prendergast USA
Nick Hutton GBR
Mark Spearman AUS
Martin Kirketerp DEN
Nicholas Heiner NED
8. Lucky Dog USA #54
Travis Weisleder USA
Jeremy Wilmot USA
John Bowden USA
Mark Bulkley GBR
Stewart Dodson NZL
9. Cape Crow Vikings Sweden #77
Hakan Svensson SWE
Dave Doucett USA
Andre Henriksson SWE
Hans Wallen SWE
Jakob Wilson SWE
10. Warrer Racing DEN #47
Peter Warrer DEN
Jonas Warrer DEN
Daniel Bjørnholt DEN
Gustav Schwennesen DEN
Mads Fuglbjerg DEN
11. Vitamina ITA #51
Andrea LaCorte ITA
Matteo De Luca ITA
Federico Benini ITA
Andrea Spagnoli ITA
Matteo Ferraglia ITA
Facebook: @m32world
Instagram: @m32official
Issued by M32 International Class Association
More information about the M32 can be found at www.m32world.com
