Buddy Melges, American sailing champion, dies at age 93

Buddy Melges, a Wisconsin native who became the first sailor to win both an Olympic gold medal and the sport’s top prize, the America’s Cup, died Thursday at his home in Fontana Wis., on the western shore of Lake Geneva. . He turned 93.

His daughter, Laura Melges, said his health had deteriorated over the past year. He had undergone quintuple bypass surgery in the 1990s and contracted Lyme disease, probably while hunting, she said.

The shores of Lake Geneva in the 1940s and 1950s were not considered a breeding ground for the world’s best sailors when Melges (pronounced with a hard “g”) learned to sail there under his father’s tutelage. But the skills and techniques he developed on the Midwestern lakes led him to dozens of national and world titles.

His 1983 book, “Sailing Smart,” filled with anecdotes from decades of competition and written in straightforward language, became a popular textbook for American racers. And his company, Melges Boatworks, produced the revolutionary Melges 24, the first of a genre of sport sailboats capable of doubling the speeds of its predecessors and which has become a favorite of top sailors.

The book, his boats, his rosy cheeks, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses, and signature faded navy flat-paneled cap with a simple gold emblem made Melges one of the most recognized sailors in the country, and his humility and generosity as a mentor to young sailors made him one of the most beloved.

Melges, who grew up in the small lakeside town of Zenda in southern Wisconsin, became known as “The Wizard of Zenda,” a title that once appeared on the town’s city limits sign.

In a dominant victory in the three-person Soling keelboat at the 1972 Olympics, Melges unseated the sport’s greatest sailor, Paul Elvstrom, who had won four Olympic gold medals.

“In my opinion, he was the Leonardo da Vinci of American sailing,” said John Bertrand, the Australian who won the 1983 America’s Cup. “He did everything in isolation. Before winning his gold in 1972, he developed his own sails, a new mast system and revolutionized the Soling class. He destroyed the competition at the Games.”

Despite the gold in 1972 and an earlier Olympic bronze medal, it was his victory in the America’s Cup in 1992 with Bill Kochthe billionaire investor and world champion sailor, aboard the America Cubed who placed Melges in the pantheon of the world’s best sailors.

Melges, a surprise choice for a Cup mate at age 62, shared driving duties with Koch and young racing champion David Dellenbaugh to send Italy’s Ill Moro di Venezia four races to one and win the silver America’s Cup trophy for the United States. defend states.

“Buddy was a giant in our sport,” said Gary Jobson, winner of the 1977 America’s Cup and advisor to Melges’ team in 1992. “What set him apart was his ability to overcome adversity. So often his first foray into things didn’t go well. He never regretted it and had incredible preparation.

Harry Clemons Melges Jr. was born on January 26, 1930 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin’s Southern Lake District, and grew up on Lake Delavan, where his father ran a chicken farm during the Depression. His mother, Louise (Richter) Melges, was a housewife. After the family moved to Zenda, near Lake Geneva, not far from the Illinois border, Melges senior started a business there building wooden canoes and rowboats.

In Zenda – which Melges often said was “not the end of the world, but you could see it from there” – he was indoctrinated into the worlds of duck hunting, sailing and ice boating, disciplines that shaped his approach to sport and business .

He worked and sailed with his father and was a talented basketball player and football player Badger High School in Lake Geneva. However, his studies at the University of Wisconsin were cut short when he was drafted into the Korean War.

After returning from the war, with a Bronze Star for meritorious service, he began to apply what he had learned in the woods of Wisconsin and Canada to sailboat racing.

“He was fascinated by the flight of birds,” says Bertrand, who spent a year in Wisconsin studying with Melges in the late 1970s. “He used this. He always talked about ‘applying our boats to nature’. It helped him with wind shifts. He was as one with nature as a man can be.”

Melges wrote that his training in Wisconsin gave him an edge. “Getting ready for all my ventures on Lake Geneva was something that helped me more than anything else,” he said in a 2011 interview with Bill Goggins, the CEO of Harken, a marine supply company. “We’ve put our minds before the boat.”

Melges made his first appearance in the America’s Cup in 1987, in Perth, Australia, with the Heart of America syndicate. His team lost, but he became a fan favorite for his theatrical performances and jokes at press conferences.

It was a phone call from Koch that gave him a shot at the 1992 Cup. The average age of a Cup skipper at the time was 38. Melges was 62.

“It took some effort to convince them both,” Jobson said. “The combination of Buddy’s genius with Koch’s scientific research. They both came from the farmlands of the country and competed on the world’s oceans. Those two were really good.”

His win against famed America’s Cup winner Dennis Conner in the 1992 defender trials catapulted Melges to the pinnacle of the sport, making him and Conner the top two sailors in the United States.

“Buddy was one of the best sailors the world has ever seen,” Conner said by phone Friday from his home in San Diego. “He will be unmatched.”

Melges is a three-time recipient of the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award and was inducted into the first class of the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011. documentary about his lifeMelges: The Wizard of Zenda was released in March.

Melges often went out of his way to escort American sailors. After his Cup win, Koch recruited him to coach the 1995 America’s Cup first women’s team, Mighty Mary.

“In 1992, Buddy fought for me to be part of the America Cubed team,” said Dawn Riley, the only female member of that year’s Cup-winning team and captain of the 1995 women’s team. to show me how the Cup boats work. He said, ‘Honey, I’ll show you how to drive one of these.’”

Melges is survived by his wife, Gloria Melges; three children, Laura, Hans and Harry Melges III; and seven grandchildren.

Today the family name is synonymous with competitive sailing. Harry III runs Melges Performance Sailboats, the successor to Buddy Melges’ boat building company in Wisconsin, and his grandson Harry IV is on the US Olympic sailing team.

Melges won his last championship, the Inland Lake Yachting Association A Scow Championship, at the age of 80.

His humble personality endeared him to the sailing community.

“He was respectful and interested in other people,” said Dellenbaugh, his teammate in the ’92 Cup race. “Not like the other top sailors of the time, who felt they had to have all the answers. He was very much on everyone’s level, although he was one level above.