Sailing legend Buddy Melges won Olympic medals and world championships, but sailing’s biggest prize eluded him, the America’s Cup. Follow Buddy’s extraordinary journey as seen through unprecedented access to over 200 hours of archival footage and interviews with the icons of sailing.

MELGES: The Wizard of Zenda takes you beyond the headlines to explore Buddy’s extraordinary life. With interviews, archival film footage, and video gathered across five decades, you’ll learn about a sailor from a working-class family in southern Wisconsin who built a resume of winning that made him one of the greatest sailors of all time.

Discover the driving force behind Buddy’s continuous quest to challenge himself by moving from class to class, testing himself against the greatest sailors in the world. Competitors and historians explain how Buddy sailed not like an engineer, but as an artist. His sailing was less about science – and more about artistic expression.

Whether art or science, Buddy was a fierce competitor who shared what he learned with anyone willing to take the time to ask. His legendary career seems almost mystical and earned him the well-deserved nickname: The Wizard of Zenda.

MELGES: The Wizard of Zenda is a documentary about one of the greatest sailors you’ve never heard of. With unlimited access to behind-the-scenes archival footage, this sports biography captures the UNTOLD story of Buddy Melges, a tenacious competitor with a fiery attitude and the winning record to back it up.

You’ll hear from fellow world-class sailors and competitors, like America’s Cup champion and former ESPN sailing analyst Gary Jobson; three-time champion Dennis Conner, the sailor they call ‘Mr. America’s Cup’; John Bertrand, the Australian skipper who shocked the world by breaking the 132-year U.S. winning streak; and Bill Koch, the billionaire yachtsman who partnered with Buddy to chase the cup in 1992.

This feature-length documentary takes you beyond the headlines to explore Buddy’s extraordinary life. With interviews, archival film footage, and video gathered across five decades, you’ll learn about a sailor from a working-class family in southern Wisconsin who built a resume of winning that made him one of the greatest sailors of all time.