Sailing champ Buddy Melges dies at 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, Wisconsin, on the western shore of Geneva Lake. He was 93.

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

The shores of Geneva Lake in the 1940s and `50s were not considered a breeding ground for the world's top 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 lakes of the Midwest carried him to dozens of national and world titles.

His 1983 book, “Sailing Smart,” filled with anecdotes from decades of competition and written in uncomplicated 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 that could double the speeds of its predecessors and which has become a favorite of top sailors.

The book, his boats, his red cheeks, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses and signature faded flat-paneled navy blue cap with a simple gold crest 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 tiny 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 dominating 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 America's Cup in 1983. “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 1972 gold and an earlier Olympic bronze medal, it was his 1992 America's Cup win with Bill Koch, a billionaire investor and world champion sailor, aboard the America Cubed that placed Melges in the pantheon of the world's best sailors.

Melges, a surprise choice for a Cup helmsman at 62, split the driving duties with Koch and young racing champion David Dellenbaugh to dispatch Italy's Ill Moro di Venezia four races to one, defending the silver America's Cup trophy for the United States.

“Buddy was a giant in our sport,” said Gary Jobson, a 1977 America's Cup winner and an adviser to Melges' 1992 team. “What set him apart was his ability to overcome adversity. So many times his first foray into things didn't go well. He never got bummed and had incredible preparation.”

Harry Clemons Melges Jr. was born Jan. 26, 1930, in Elkhorn, in the southern Wisconsin lake region, and grew up on Lake Delavan, where his father managed a chicken farm during the Depression. His mother, Louise (Richter) Melges, was a homemaker. After the family moved to Zenda, near Geneva Lake, not far from the Illinois border, the elder Melges began 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 world 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 and football player for Badger High School in Geneva Lake. His studies at the University of Wisconsin, however, were cut short when he was drafted into the Korean War.

After his return from the war, carrying 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 with the flight of birds,” said Bertrand, who spent a year in Wisconsin studying with Melges in the late 1970s. “He used this. He always talked of `applying our boats to nature.' It helped him with wind shifts. He was as at one with nature as a human could be.”

Melges credited his Wisconsin training with giving him an edge. “Preparing all of my ventures on Lake Geneva was something that helped me more than anything,” he said in a 2011 interview with Bill Goggins, the CEO of Harken, a marine supply company. “We brought our mind way in front of the boat.”

Melges made his first run at 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 appearances and jokes at news conferences.

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

“It took a little work convincing both,” said Jobson. “The combo of Buddy's brilliance with Koch's scientific research. They were both from the farmlands of the country competing on the oceans of the world. The two of them were really good.”