San Francisco Yacht Club and the San Francisco Melges 24 Fleet are preparing for an influx of Melges 24 teams from around the Globe as they ready themselves for the 2012 Melges 24 North American Championship, which takes place from 22-26 August.

The countdown for the start of the Melges 24 World Championship is quickly approaching zero. There are still few hours to go before the impressive organisational machine set up by Circolo Vela Torbole and the International Melges 24 Class Association will launch one of the most anticipated events of international sailing. To appreciate this, just give a look to the numbers: 130 boats entered - an absolute record for the Melges 24 Class - coming from 22 countries and 4 continents, 650 sailors who will eat 50 kilograms of pasta and drink at least 250 litres of beer each day.

Torbole, one of the venues most appreciated by the Melges 24's specialists, is preparing for what promises to be perhaps the most important event in the history of the one design produced by Melges Performance Sailboats. The World Championship, scheduled on the waters of tha Garda Lake between July 28 and August 4, will bring to the starting line 128+ crews: an unprecedented number for the class, which gathered 126 entrants for the 2006 World Championship in Hyeres, where the winner was Bete Bossini skippered by Nicola Celon.

Mr Antony Matusch of the ISAF Classification Commission will be attending the 2012 Melges 24 World Championship and will be conducting review interviews with selected Corinthian sailors during registration. Additional sailors can be added to his list for interview at any time but initially ISAF has sent us the following formal announcement about sailors who must attend for interview. Please be aware that attending these interviews is compulsory and failure to do so will result in your teams exclusion from the Corinthian Divison.