In our previous column in these pages, outlining the extensive refit project of my father and his boat partner’s 1990s-vintage Melges 30, we went in depth about the deck hardware and running rigging choices we made with the help of Harken and Marlow. The next and final phase involved slightly more sophisticated steps: the electronics and then the deck detailing, which brought the boat to its current status as one fine handicap race yacht.

We decided not to invest in the older instruments that came with the boat. It was an opportunity for new technology.  Not an inexpensive proposition but a necessary one. Our goal as a 30-foot sportboat is mainly local PHRF racing with some traveling in the future. As such, we wanted good instruments, but we didn’t need a TP52 set up. Matt Fries, the go-to at B&G and Navico instruments worked with us closely to help develop a system that provided the information we wanted without breaking the bank.

First, the hidden items. We chose the Triton Edge Sailing processor. This unit is small and light, but more importantly it quickly and accurately processes input from multiple components. And there are plenty of other components feeding into it and the ‘backbone’. One thing I like about these new systems is the NMEA 2000 connections. It makes it very easy to add components or change out parts.

First into the backbone is the knot meter. We chose the DST-810. This is a wired paddlewheel with depth built in. As we sail in shallow water often, we thought depth would be very helpful. It is a “triducer,” meaning it is a paddle wheel, depth sensor and temperature sensor all in one. It saves us another hole in the bottom of the boat.

Second is the wind. We opted for the WS710 Wind Sensor package. We chose a wired set up as I thought it would be less prone to issues on a rig that was rarely taken down. It’s on a vertical carbon wand to get the instrument above the upwash of the rig. Along with this package you need the WS700 Wired interface. This small box converts wind data coming down from the wand into NMEA2000 so it can be plugged into the backbone.

Third is the GPS. Just as I use on the J/70, the ZG100 GPS feeds all of our GPS info to the system. It also has a compass and can provide heel and trim. However, there is an upgraded compass that I also use on the J/70 and that brings us to the fourth item into the backbone. The Precision 9 Compass is more accurate and faster than the compass that is in the ZG100. We’ve mounted both of these low in the boat under the cockpit. We’ve also tried to keep them away from any metals or magnetic items.

Also plugged into the backbone are three displays. Down below we have a chart plotter. We needed something small and chose the Zeus 7 Chartplotter. With a 7-inch color display it does everything we need. I had some issues getting the charts to populate but Paul Wilson at B&G got me sorted and up and running.

Outside on the mast we chose two different displays. The first is an amazing bright display that will show just about anything in any color that we want. It is the Nemesis 9 Sailing Display. We’ve set it up with bigger numbers that are visible from the back of the boat. Boatspeed, heading, and true wind direction, along with true wind angle and heel is our current pick. But we can set up pages with various information that is easily toggled through. This display is so customizable, I can even set the displayed numbers to change colors if they get to a certain number. For example, I can set the heel number as green and have it turn red if the boat heels more than 24 degrees.

Underneath the Nemesis 9 display is the H5000 Graphic display. This has many functions as well. We can display navigational information, set the start timer, ping the start line ends, see distance to the line. We can display all wind information, cross track info, and a graphic display of true wind angles, apparent wind angles and see set and drift which is helpful on areas of current. I find this unit intuitive and easy to learn.

As is the case with all instruments, good input equals good output. In order to calibrate them we took the time to find a place with flat water and little to no wind or current. First is the compass swing, which consists of around a 400-degree turn, not exceeding 3.5 degrees per second. Second is the boatspeed calibration. We do multiple runs and fine tune the boatspeed to match the speed over ground from the GPS. We do this in two opposite directions to ensure that there is no current impacting the calibration. Once we are happy with the boatspeed we make sure that the compass offset is matching the Course over Ground. Often, the heading needs to be offset a few degrees to make up for small installation errors. Later, we had to go in and adjust the angle of the wind instrument for similar reasons. All in all, however, it’s a robust package with seemingly endless options and possibilities.

The next item I love is the soft deck. We use these on the cockpit floors of nearly every boat I sail. Maybe I am lucky to sail in warmer climates, but I sail the small boats like the J/70 barefoot when I can. For the Melges 30, Dan Kaseler and our friends at Raptor Deck up in the Pacific Northwest helped us out. As there was no template for a Melges 30 cockpit, we had to improvise. They sent us a mylar template from a Melges 32 and I was able to cut it and tape it back together in the pattern we desired. Raptor Deck then took the template and scanned it. Voila, they were able to cut us a beautiful soft deck that matched the nonskid color of the deck above it. And if that wasn’t helpful enough, I was able to make a template of our damaged keel plate under the hull and they were able to scan it and create a proper Delrin keel plate.

For our metal work, we are blessed to have Steve Harrison in San Diego. When in need of high-end custom metal work on a racing sailboat, Harrison is a friend indeed. We wanted to beef up the stern pulpits with more support connecting to the cockpit floor like the Melges 32s. Steve was able modify them so they feel very strong when you grab them our hike against them. We also added knees to the stanchions to keep them from bending and flexing.

My father and his boat partner, Robert Plant, have had a long relationship with the folks at Ullman Sails Newport Beach. Kenny Cooper who runs the plotter at the loft also sails with them regularly as the primary upwind trimmer so it made sense to get a couple of sails from Ullman. The boat came with a new running kite but the reaching kites needed to be replaced. We got a 1.5A for light air VMG sailing and a 3A for the windier reaching. In addition, we got a couple of staysails to help that random leg reach speed.

Another area with a lot of clever thinking was the outboard storage. Like many small raceboats, we have an outboard that needs to be stored below when not on the transom. We didn’t like the idea of cutting a hole on the cockpit floor and adding a hatch. The solution was to splice a Dyneema bridle around the engine so we could hook a halyard to it and pick the engine up off the stern. This system also makes it incredibly easy to lower the outboard into the interior. My father and his partner also built a trolley of sorts under the companionway that the outboard lays on. Recycling boat parts is a favorite pastime of my father, so the trolley consists of a pair of old Harken sheaves from an old IOR 50-footer. When stowing the outboard, the halyard is eased until the head of the engine rests in a mesh basket. The system works well and saves the crew from that back breaking agony of moving a 40-pound engine around down below.

After sailing the boat a half-dozen times, it was a relief to not experience any major issues. My father and Robert have really enjoyed getting back out on the water with their friends as well as being competitive. They have enjoyed the process of the rebuild, the creativity required to mess around and develop systems, and the friendship they’ve shared over the years. It certainly helps to have great friends in the industry. We were able to ask a lot of questions and gather ideas from all over. As it was a labor of love, there was no real timeline and time could be taken to “measure twice and cut once.” This is a pace I highly recommend to anyone embarking on an extensive refit. It can be tempting to rush a project in order to be ready for the next season, but it’s better to have it done right come race day than troubleshooting mistakes mid-season.

The icing on the cake was qualifying for and then winning our local 2025 Dana Point Harbor Championships. The boat performed great and all systems worked as designed. Proof again that the hard work is worth the rewards, and more importantly, that old raceboats can definitely enjoy a second life and we have a great industry with all the tools and solutions to make it happen one way or the other.

The post <i>Still Crazy</i>’s Sportboat Rehab: The Final Touches appeared first on Sailing World.

It has been blowing 30 to 40-plus knots all night, and we can finally see the sea state at first light. It was a wild night bombing down massive waves in the pitch-black under a full main and a heavy-air running spinnaker. Without instruments, our only guides were a flashlight taped to the backstay, so we could barely make out a masthead fly and the dim glow of the running lights. I vividly remember passing waves at such a velocity that we flew off the front of one wave and slammed violently into the back the next. This happened two or three times in succession.

An hour before the sunrise, the boom broke. We thought that the competitive part of the race was over for us, so we took the opportunity to rest and hobble down the racecourse. But we were still in contact with the leaders, so we decided to try inserting the reaching strut into the boom and “grinding” the boom back together. One rusty hacksaw blade and—voilà!—a short time later, we were back in the race with a reefed main.

This was Robert Plant’s (no, not that one) Hobie 33, then named Ballistic, and the year was 2001. Unfortunately, along with the sunrise came the realization that we could see daylight through the hull-to-deck joint most of the way around the boat, and after finishing the race, we thought that was the end of the Hobie 33.

Instead, Plant and my father, Jon Shampain, decided to rebuild the boat, stiffen it back to its previous glory, and add an open transom.

Plant, a longtime sailor and architect by trade, is well-versed in construction techniques and design. My father is a ­long-time boat captain, navigator, and delivery captain around Southern California who is well-versed in what makes a good sailboat. Between the two of them, and with my prowess for deck layouts and rigging systems, we were sure that we would have a great platform.

My father became a boat partner with Plant, and Still Crazy was born. Years later, another full retrofit was done, and I became a third partner.

By 2019, however, we were feeling like we had “been there, done that” with Still Crazy. We all were busy and didn’t have much time to sail it, so we let it go to another owner, who now races it shorthanded on the Great Lakes. By early 2023, Plant and my father got that itch again and started a dialog. “Maybe we should get a boat again.” These guys sure do like a project.

They preferred the 30-foot sportboat range but wanted a boat that was a bit easier to get around and easier to sail. They ended up with specific criteria: an inboard engine, non-overlapping jibs, no runners, fixed keel, and economical. And, of course, it had to be fast and fun to sail.

We considered a Farr30, a Flying Tiger, Melges 32, Columbia Sport 30, Henderson 30, and other similar boats. But when a local Melges 30 with an outboard engine came to them for a song, they couldn’t say no. I couldn’t even attempt to talk them out of it. It was a proven boat with a good track record but hadn’t been sailed in nearly 10 years. And it showed. They got their project boat, and it needed everything except for some seemingly decent unused sails that came in a questionably soggy box. 

First built in 1995, the Melges 30 started out as a supersize Melges 24. Piggybacking on America’s Cup technology at the time, the design was jazzed up and pushed to another level. The first boat actually had a trim tab on the keel, which was pretty cool and really fast but cost-prohibitive, Harry Melges III says. Later, they learned that the boat was too fast for the articulating bowsprit in most conditions. Eventually ­simplicity won out, and the Melges 32 One Design was born using the same molds. All in all, it was a short production run, with only 16 of them ever built.

While Plant and my father started stripping hardware, they found moisture and elongated holes just about everywhere in the deck and bulkheads. The decision was made to remove every piece of hardware, every fastener, and fill every single hole inside and out. Delaminating gelcoat also needed repair, then everything faired and prepped for paint.

Time was also taken to attempt to stiffen the boat close to its original build. Knees, which are basically mini bulkheads between the deck and the hull, were put under the stanchions. These are a great addition to older boats because, as a boat ages and gets softer, the deck starts flexing. Years of pushing and pulling loads have been applied to the tops of the stanchions, causing the deck to soften. Mast steps of these older boats can get soft and can sag into the boat. This can make it harder to keep proper rig and headstay tension, so to combat that, we applied carbon cloth around the mast step area to prevent any future sagging. Other questionable areas received extra layers of cloth as well.

It was also important to Plant and my father to be on the drier side when sailing, especially down below. And neither has much interest in nonstop bailing in windy conditions. The Melges 30 was designed with runners on a purchase system that lead below deck through openings in the cockpit floor. We structurally sealed these and will add an above-deck system with winches. It will add a little weight, but the added safety and peace of mind using winches to hold high loads, combined with less water intrusion into the interior, will be a net gain. The original design had the mainsheet fine-tune down below as well. We’ll move that above deck like the Melges 32 and seal up an additional hole. My father intends to lead the articulating pole control into the companionway, which will remove two or three more holes in the cockpit.

After countless hours of prepping, fixing, replacing, adding, and deleting structure and parts, the decision was made to take it to a local boatbuilder/boat painter to have the topsides and nonskid sprayed, along with an epoxy bottom. It was a hard decision because Plant and my father had a budget and wanted to do it on their own. But with hours of fairing required and a desire for a professional, finished look, they succumbed to outside assistance.

While the boat was away at the “spa,” they took the trailer to be refurbished and raised the bunks a few feet. This will allow the rudder to be left in the boat while dry-sailing locally, and will also add space for storage boxes on the trailer. Simultaneously, the stern pulpits were modified by Steve Harrison at Harrison Marine in San Diego. Legs added to the stern pulpits would prevent movement when hiking and ­pulling on them.

Once the boat was back in their hands, Dad and Plant finished the painting of the interior, and then the mast and boom and associated parts such as instrument brackets, tillers, hatch boards, etc. At this point, we had a completely blank canvas, allowing me to design an entirely new deck layout with the help of Harken.

Having eliminated all the below-deck systems, we’ll be going to winches for the runners. The mainsheet fine-tune will become external. The jib lead will become a floating lead system, with inhaulers for the jib and genoa staysail. Finally, because the boat will someday have a square top, we’ll get rid of the backstay and add top-mast backstays to the runners. They will be on new Harken winches so that handling will become easier. All this will be done with the help of a running-rigging package from Marlow Ropes and an instrument package from B&G and Navico.

In future articles, we will dive into what parts we chose and why, and what worked and what didn’t. Everything we do will be budget-minded but we’ll be sure to have the correct gear so that we can race successfully, all the while inspiring others to keep  aging race boats modern and competitive.

The post The Rescue and Rehab of a Melges 30 appeared first on Sailing World.