Mike and his team participate in the "Anarchy in the D", a Melges 24 regatta held at Detroit's Bayview Yacht Club.

Even though we are not known for racing, Gozzard Yachts has built quite a few successful racing boats during the 1980s. For Mike and Liz, racing was a passion that was taken very seriously. After actively racing at some of the highest levels for over 20 years, eventually business and family took center stage and they retired from racing altogether in 1988. Well apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with Robin (Mike’s son) now wanting to try and establish himself as a top level sailor.

And where better to do that than on a crowded race coarse sailing one of the world’s top one design sport boat’s - the Melges 24. Recently we acquired an older, pretty beaten up Melges 24 which we ran through our refit shop to restored it to its former glory. Now fully repaired and sporting a full Awlgrip paint job with a bright red hull, the plan is to campaign the boat both locally and internationally to enable Robin to build his sailing skills to a very high level. The lure of once again sailing something like a Melges 24 was too much to resist and Mike agreed to lead Team Gozzard Racing (albeit at a much more laid back pace) after nearly 19 year in retirement.

After spending the summer learning some of this “rather intense” little boat’s characteristics, the team plucked up enough nerve to participate in the "Anarchy in the D" in Detroit, a Melges 24 class race.  The racing was intense and the team was pleased with their first effort having managed to finish within the same “zip code”… which is apparently not that easy to achieve at your first M24 class event! Obviously more training and some new sails are in the plans for this coming winter.

Check back soon for more race news and great pictures!

Team Gozzard Racing - Melges 24 - USA31