Local skipper Alec Cutler is leading the fleet at the Melges 32 World Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) sailor currently holds a one-point lead over nearest rival Edoardo Lupi of Italy after three races.Cutler finished second in the only race sailed yesterday to climb from fifth to first in the record 34-boat fleet.“So far so good,” was the way the local skipper summed up his showing at the championships thus far.“Knowing the first two days would be right at the high end wind range, our goal was to sail very conservatively and avoid any big numbers. Had we taken more risks, we could have scored better, but also could have lost big.“These are very overpowered boats and spectacular wipe-outs were numerous. This probably cost us the race as we opted to do a conservative leeward gate roundings and (rival boat) Samba Pa Ti successfully pulled off rounding the favoured but very tough right gate and passed us on the second beat. With one drop race in the ten-race series, we really want to keep that so that we can take more risks later in the event.”Racing was postponed yesterday morning due to winds being consistently over 25 knots which is the limit for the One -Design Melges 32 class. Once winds slightly diminished the race committee held a single race.Winds are forecast to be moderate today and will continue to decrease heading into the final two days of the regatta.“Looks like it will be a great Worlds with enough windy days to eliminate the light air specialists and light air days to eliminate the heavy weather studs, resulting in the best team emerging as the world champion,” Cutler said.He got off to a superb start in the event earlier this week, posting impressive finishes of fifth and seventh during the opening two races.Cutler is competing on board his one-design Melges 32, Hedgehog, with North American crew members Sarah Callahan, Eric Dorman, Alan Nakanishi, Charlie Pucciariello, Max Skelley, Mike Wolfs and Richard Clarke.The championships are being hosted by New York Yacht Club.n Olympic sailor Jesse Kirkland will take part in this year’s Argo Group Gold Cup, The Royal Gazette can reveal.The past All -American college sailor, who competed with elder brother Zander in the 49er Skiff at this summer’s Games in the UK, has agreed to sail as crew for Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) skipper Lance Fraser in the Alpari World Match Racing Tour regatta.And his experience from sailing in world class events could prove to be a valuable asset once racing in the International One Design (IOD) classic racing sloop gets underway next Tuesday in Hamilton Harbour.Also sailing with skipper Fraser this year are brothers Jason and Jordan Saints.Fraser is one of two local skippers in this year’s Gold Cup fleet, the other being the more seasoned Blythe Walker.This year will see a new Gold Cup champion crowned as last year’s winner Torvar Mirsky will not be back to defend his title.The Australian skipper lifted the coveted King Edward VII Gold Cup after besting Johnie Berntsson in the best-of-three final.Gold Cup organisers yesterday unveiled a modified schedule and format to accommodate a reduced field at this year’s event.The field of entries has dwindled from 24 to 21 teams and the format of the qualifying stage has been changed from three groups and a repechage to two groups with the top four in each moving into the quarter-finals.The changes came about as a result of two post-deadline team cancellations and difficulty with travel schedules from Europe.Last week Gold Cup chairman Brian Billings admitted that the global recession had taken a toll on this year’s event.“The reasons why some of the skippers aren’t coming is more economic driven this year,” he said.In recent years the first stage of the event saw three groups of eight teams fighting for the first six slots in the quarter-finals and the final two quarter-final slots being filled through a six-boat round robin sail-off (repechage).But this year the teams will be divided into two groups of 10 and 11 teams determined by Alpari World Match Racing Tour officials and the organisers at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club based on international rankings and other performance factors. Each group will sail a round-robin with their top four teams moving directly to the quarter-finals.This year’s fleet includes nine of the top 20 ISAF ranked teams and the two leading Alpari World Match Tour skippers, Bjorn Hansen of Sweden and England’s Ian Williams.Hansen currently leads Williams on the 2012 Tour leaderboard by six points and it’s likely that the pair will be the top seeds at the Gold Cup and fall into different groups.Three of the nine Tour Card Holders that were invited to compete for the $100,000 in prize earnings have committed to the 2012 Gold Cup to be held October 2-7.