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.

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Melges is on a roll. From its humble shop in Zenda, Wisconsin, to its Watersports Center in Florida, they reignited the adult dinghy racing scene with their Melges 15, of which more than 1,200 and counting have been built. But the 15, as popular as it is, does have one limitation: it’s a double-hander. So, what’s a larger sailing family to do? Try the Melges 19, a supersized twist on the Melges 15 that delivers a supersized sailing experience for a trio.

“This is our aim at a true three-person family boat,” Eddie Cox of Melges Performance Sailboats tells our judges. “There’s a real gap in our line, and this fills it. We wanted to build something that was simple to use and affordable—under $35,000 for the boat and sails, on the water.”

“Simple,” as Cox describes the boat, does not do justice to its sophistication. It’s an immaculately infused epoxy hull that weighs in at 375 pounds, and once again they entrusted the naval architecture firm of Reichel/Pugh  to deliver a hull shape that Cox says is revolutionary. “It’s so stable yet not sticky upwind,” he says, “This boat is really free upwind, and with a nicer rocker and taper into the transom, it’s a downwind sled, too.”

While cognizant of criticism about yet another one-design class with the potential to disrupt the livelihood of legacy one-designs like the Lightning and Thistle, the judges acknowledged that certain classes will continue to enjoy their followings so long as there are active builders. The Melges 19, they say, will better appeal to a newer generation of sailors who prefer a sportier asymmetric sailing experience. This one’s out of the bag, and the judges must evaluate it on what it is, not what it has the potential to do. Natural selection in the one-design world will do its thing over time, they agreed, but given their enjoyment of sailing the boat, and the commitment of Melges to support its classes, the Melges 19 is certainly the most exciting dinghy of the year.

The Melges 19 incorporates several design features that make it suitable for a family-oriented three-person racing experience over many heavier legacy classes. Lightweight construction makes it easier to launch and handle for a wider range of sailors. And the comfort and ergonomics of the cockpit, which Ingham described as considerably deep, will provide more comfortable hiking. The structural spine that runs the length of the cockpit doubles as a support during tacks, which is beneficial even for older sailors.

They appreciated such simple but modern features as the self-tacking jib and its athwartships jib tracks. But its accessibility, the judges say, is its best trait. The boat accommodates sailors of varied abilities and ages, with spacious and obstruction-free arrangements. The loads on sheets and control lines are not excessive, making it manageable for smaller or less experienced crew members.

“A smaller person can definitely handle it, which is really cool,” says Morgan, a sought-after crew in a number of one-design dinghy classes, including the Lightning and Melges 15. “Nothing on this boat felt overly loaded. It’s just so easy to hike, it’s easy to crew.”

And it was definitely easy to drive—that is the Melges Midas touch. “The boat is just so easy to understand,” Morgan adds, appreciating the simplicity of the boat’s straightforward and minimalist layout, especially after her recent experience rigging a new custom 6 Metre with a cat’s cradle of control lines. “We were never sitting on any hardware, jib sheets or spinnaker gear. We weren’t tangled up in maneuvers. And for the three of us having never roll-tacked together, we did a lot of tacks and jibes with no snafus.”

Davis, Morgan’s fellow judge, who was nursing a bum knee, noted that the cockpit spine goes beyond giving the boat its structural rigidity. “They made that into an ergonomic feature rather than an impediment, so for an older guy with a bad knee, it was great because it gave me something to support coming out of the tack.”

Davis notes that high-quality epoxy construction is what makes the Melges 19 feel “really solid and robust,” but he’s also cognizant of the fact that the boat is plenty powerful, with a generous amount of sail area and a hull that will always want to get-up-and-go. This is not targeted at entry-level families learning to sail, he says—although they certainly could—but rather the families that are already experienced. “For them,” he says, “this thing would be awesome.”

Cox says one reason they chose a daggerboard rather than a keel was to have the boat be easy to trailer and launch in any way—trailer, beach dolly or hoist. And cost considerations are a major factor in the package: from the aluminum rig, to the one-design class sails to stock hardware and ropes.

The intended race-weight range, Cox says, is 475 to 550 pounds, which is right around three average adults, and ideally, one junior sailor to mentor, but Ingham says the ideal number is likely at the bottom of that range. “In this kind of boat, crew weight will matter.”

With sheets and controls spread throughout the boat, the judges agreed with Cox’s pre-sail assessment that there is a job for everybody in the boat. “You can have the driver either just driving or driving and playing the main and backstay,” he says. “You can have the middle person doing the backstay, trimming the main and trimming the kite. You can have the bow person trimming the kite, dousing the kite, setting the kite. You know, you can split up the jobs depending on the skills that you have on the boat, which makes it super conducive to families.”

Ingham ranked the Melges 19 high on his list on account of it delivering perfection. He was especially appreciative of the deep cockpit floor that gave him the feel of being in a sportboat rather than a knees-to-your-chin dinghy. “There really is nothing like it in this modern three-person dinghy category today,” he says. “So for me, it does move the dial. It’s lighter than the legacy boats, it’s asymmetric and it’s a lot more comfortable to hike on. It just moves, and in the bigger puffs it never came close to feeling like it was gonna wipe out. A puff would come, you just bear off…easy and quick.”

The post 2025 Boat of the Year Best Dinghy: Melges 19 appeared first on Sailing World.

From the heartland and cornfields of Zenda, Wisconsin (with a census population of 120), comes big news for the sailing industry that Melges Performance Sailboats has been purchased by champion sailors Cate Muller-Terhune and her husband Allan Terhune Jr.

According to a company statement issued today, the sale of this iconic brand, founded by Harry C. Melges in 1945 and nurtured across three generations, “reflects both a celebration of the Melges family legacy and a bold step forward. Cate and Allan Terhune bring extensive experience as lifelong sailors, industry leaders, and class advocates. They are committed to honoring Melges’ heritage while guiding the company into its next era of growth.

“The Terhunes also represent a new era of industry leadership, balancing championship-winning campaigns with contributions to sail design, class development, and leadership in the sport. Their partnership reflects the modern face of competitive sailing: innovative, collaborative, and dedicated to growing the sport at every level.”

New Owners With Sailing Clout

Previous to purchasing the extensive Melges brand, Cate Muller-Terhune handled marketing and business development then presided over her family’s successful Chicago-based architecture firm, Muller & Muller (Muller2). The business was acquired by Gannett Fleming TranSystems in December 2024 for an undisclosed amount. Maintaining a busy work-racing balance throughout her time at the family firm, Muller-Terhune has been a world-class one-design helmswoman and offshore racer. Allan Terhune Jr. is a longtime professional sailor who has led North Sails’ North American One-Design division since 2007, while earning more than a dozen national and continental sailing titles.

“Melges has always been about more than boats. It’s about the people, competition, and community,” said Cate and Allan in a joint statement issued by Melges Performance Sailboats. “We are humbled that Harry has entrusted us with taking the next leap towards an amazing future. We are excited to carry on this incredible legacy and join an amazing team that is expanding opportunities for sailors everywhere to experience the joy and excellence that the Melges brand represents.”

“Our family has dedicated generations to building Melges into what it is today,” said Harry Melges III in the release. “We know the Terhunes will honor that history while continuing to innovate and inspire the sailing world.”

Production Continues in Zenda

Melges Performance Sailboat, the company statement continues, will remain headquartered in Zenda, Wisconsin, and the new Melges Watersports Center in Merritt Island, Florida, will continue to operate as a hub for racing, education, and community building. Andy Burdick continues as President of Melges, and Harry Melges III will remain with the company in his new role as Board Member.

“We are excited to join forces with Cate and Allan, whose vision and values align closely with our own. We’ve done some incredible work over my 40 years at Melges,” said Burdick. “I see this as the beginning of a new chapter—one that will allow us to accelerate growth, strengthen our capabilities, and continue to deliver exceptional value to the sailing community.”

The post Melges Performance Sailboats Sold to Terhune Family appeared first on Sailing World.

After an extensive development program loosely kept under wraps, Melges Performance Sailboats unveiled the Melges 19, the latest addition to its high-performance dinghy range. Designed in partnership with Reichel/Pugh and built by Melges in Wisconsin, Melges says its new three-person, 19-foot one-design “delivers affordable fun and performance with signature Melges style.”

“The Melges 19 fills an important gap in the market,” says Harry Melges III. “It’s built for sailors who love speed, simplicity, and sailing with their family and friends. The boat is designed to allow for a variety of three-person crew combinations to sail and be competitive.”

According to an announcement today, the Melges 19 offers “a uniquely connected sailing experience, with a light, with a light and responsive helm that gives sailors immediate feedback and control. Built on a stable and forgiving platform, it’s as rewarding for experienced sailors as it is approachable for new sailors. The boat doubles as the ultimate cross trainer – refining your touch, sharpening your sense of movement, and building skills that carry over to every type of sailing.”

As a daggerboard boat, ramp launching with a custom dolly and trailer is an option, but at 395 pounds it’s easily hoisted as well for venues without adequate ramps or beach access.

Melges says the deep cockpit is spacious and well-organized to accommodate an unlimited composition of teams: “Every detail, from the rig to the backstay setup and sail plan, has been carefully designed and tested to make the Melges 19 welcoming for crews of all levels, with just the right amount of power for exciting racing and easy handling. With a target crew weight of 485 to 535 pounds, the Melges 19 is designed to be inclusive and competitive.”

The Melges Watersports Center in Merritt Island, Florida, now home to winter action for Melges scow and one-design classes, will host the inaugural Melges 19 Winter Series in December, followed by events January, February and March. Each of the four events will feature a pre-regatta clinic.

The boat is priced at $34,500, which includes all sails and rigging. The one-design sail plan features a Dacron main and Mylar jib and a 319-square foot asymmetric kite with a single-line halyard hoist and douse system. A combination trailer and dolly, plus covers and race electronics are not included in the price.

Melges 19 Specifications

• Length Overall: 19 feet / 5.79 meters
• Beam: 6.5 feet / 1.98 meters
• Draft: 4.5 feet / 1.37 meters
• Weight: 395 pounds / 179 kilograms
• Crew: 3 people
• Target Crew Weight: 485–535 pounds / 220-243 kilograms
• SAIL AREA:
• Main: 133 square feet / 12 square meters
• Jib: 65 square feet / 6 square meters
• Spinnaker: 319 square feet / 30 square meters

The post From Zenda Comes The New Melges 19 appeared first on Sailing World.

The 65-boat fleet at the 2023 Melges 15 Winter Series was an impressive turnout for a one-design class that’s only three years old. But that was nothing. This year, 90 boats showed up at each of the three series’ events in over three months in Jensen Beach, Florida. The class has subscoring categories for women, youth, master, grand master, mega master, and even a “couples” division, but this year’s winter series was won by a pair of recent college-sailing alumni. The transferable dinghy skills and emphasis on strong sailing fundamentals from college sailing paid off for skipper Luke Arnone and crew Cameron Giblin, from Mantoloking YC, New Jersey. The pair won two of three events, including the final Midwinter Championship, to earn the series title.

What was your strategy for winning the 90-boat Midwinter Championship?

Cameron Giblin: Consistency is really important, especially in the big fleet. You can see people put up some big numbers. We got off to a bit of a slow start ourselves, with a 14 and a 20. The racing was pretty tricky early on, but when we got settled on the second day, ­rattling off a couple of top-five finishes helped settle the score line. Sometimes you’d rather be chasing than being chased, so it was nice going into the last day with something to fight for.

Three of the races were windy, and four were light; what’s the key to being competitive in either condition?

Giblin: We really like the range because we think we’re a good combined weight and a really dynamic pair, so a lot of people are really consistent in windy or light air, but if we get three different days with three different conditions, we think we have a good combination of smarts and speed in the boat to where we can really capitalize on it.

When you guys are ­preparing for your races, what is your ­discussion around strategy?

Luke Arnone: I feel like the game plan is always changing, especially at a venue like Jensen Beach, where we’ve gotten a little more comfortable with the conditions and we started noticing more trends. For example, really digging into the pressure instead of letting it come to you consistently paid off. It’s also a venue where the wind winds a certain direction instead of going back and forth, so digging into pressure and getting that slow shift is what has been paying off for us.

Giblin: Luke and I try to keep everything pretty light in the boat. You know, after some bad races, you can get pretty down, but that’s definitely what causes things to snowball. So we try to reset after races and just hang out, drink water, and not think about racing for a bit. Then, as soon as the Vakaros shows the countdown to a new start [Ed. Note: Vakaros electronics and its companion RaceSense race management software were used by all teams], we start looking upwind, make sure we are all good, and get the water out of the boat. Having a process where we do the same thing again and again produces repeated full results and being consistent. This is super-important over the series of events where there’s a lot of competition and variable conditions. We pretty much try to keep it as simple as possible. We’re a fast boat and we know that, so we try to stay out of the way and get in that front pack early, and then play the game from there.

You were in the top five over the course of the regatta, but you weren’t winning. Did you know you were in contention going into the last race?

Arnone: I never thought we were out of contention at any point in the regatta. We definitely took a good look at the scores [before the final day], and I even had to factor in that the fellas in first place were dropping an 8, meaning only 8 additional points would get added to their score should they have a worse race. That was something good to have in the back of our minds, but we really just wanted to get top threes. That’s all we could do, and that’s what we did.

With 12 to 18 knots for the last two races of the regatta, what was your top speed?

Arnone: We hit 16.5 knots on the final downwind on the layline into the finish when this huge puff took us down angling below the finish line. For a moment we weren’t sure if we were going to make it, coming in at such a hot angle, because if we headed up in that puff, we were going straight over. But we made it around, and that was a blast. I can’t really remember the last time I went as fast in a sailboat.

How did the use of the Vakaros and RaceSense software affect your series?

Giblin: The Vakaros is super-nice, because on the start, we get instant feedback if we’re over or not. So, as the crew, I’d yell, “Green” as soon as I saw from the device that we weren’t over, and then it’d be full speed ahead. We were over in one of the first races on the final day and it blinked “OCS,” but we were able to clear ourselves, and once it tells you that you’ve cleared, it’s super-nice. It was our first time experiencing the OCS technology, and we didn’t have any trouble with it.

I also think it changes your strategy a bit because in big-fleet regattas, when the pack
to windward is over, you can hide your sail number. But with the Vakaros, there’s no ­hiding. So you really have to know where the line is, and you can’t rely on determining your position based on the boats around you knowing where the line is. You have to trust yourself, because with 90 boats, who knows if other people know where the line is.

What have you observed about the evolution of the Melges 15 fleet and your competitors?

Giblin: The top end of the fleet got a lot bigger. It seemed like at every event that there were a few more people in the top end of the fleet, and anyone could win a race by the end of the regatta. There are 20 teams who could finish the regatta in the top five, and it makes it much more interesting and the points more interesting. It’s cool to see everyone figuring it out week by week, as we are. Everyone is getting better. It’s been great seeing a lot of people from college sailing; many of them are in the different age divisions. A lot of skills from college sailing translate.

Speaking of the parallels of Melges 15s and college sailing, you both recently graduated. Cameron, you graduated from Tulane, and Luke, you graduated from Yale. How does Melges 15 racing compare with college sailing?

Arnone: The Melges 15 is a lot faster than college dinghies, and with the asymmetric spinnaker, the downwind legs are definitely the most fun part about this boat, especially when it’s breezy. With the kite up, we play the angles and sail the lowest path we have while managing waves and our speed.

Giblin: I can see some parallels with the M15 fleet and the college-sailing community. College sailing has a really good community where people respect each other and know we’re going to see each other week in and week out. And that’s kind of being created with the Melges 15 class as well. There are not a lot of protests; there are a lot of class-initiated group debriefs and people asking questions. There really is a sense of the class getting better rather than individuals getting better, which is awesome to see.

The post Winners Debrief: Melges 15 Winter Champs appeared first on Sailing World.

Sailing World Magazine’s annual Boat of the Year tests are conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, following the US Sailboat Show. With independent judges exhaustively inspecting the boats on land and putting them through their paces on the water, this year’s fleet of new performance-sailing boats spanned from small dinghies to high-tech bluewater catamarans. Here’s the best of the best from our 2022 Boat of the Year nominees »

Out yonder in the vast cornfields of Wisconsin, boatbuilders in Tyvek suits are infusing polyester glass hulls as fast as they can, buffing out one gleaming white dinghy nearly every 66 hours in a full-tilt routine to place the latest American-made dinghy into the hands of sailors clamoring to get a piece of the new great thing in small-craft sailing: the remarkably versatile Melges 15, our 2022 Boat of the Year. No longer shall youth and adult sailors be cast to their individual dinghy classes, and our judges agree. This one allows all ages to play together in one remarkable 15-footer.

“It’s stable, forgiving and accessible to a wide swath of physiques, a platform where you can learn to sail it and then transition quickly to racing,” says Eddie Cox, the youngster of Melges Performance Sailboats who’s been involved with the Melges 15’s development from inception to launch. “The boat fits a wide variety of sailors, and that’s what our goal was. It’s family-orientated sailing, which is important to us because that’s how Melges boats are.”

While the Reichel/Pugh-designed Melges 15 was originally introduced in May 2020, its BOTY appearance was delayed to 2021, and clearly neither the class nor the builder was waiting for its award. In less than a year, multiple fleets have been seeded and growing across the country, with more than 150 boats sailing and another 175 or so already on order as of October 2021. Demand is, of course, outpacing supply, but the folks out in Zenda don’t mind that one bit.

The most notable trait the judges noted as they observed the boat on land during October’s United States Sailboat Show is its deep cockpit, which puts the boat in a similar space as the Club 420. But that’s about where comparisons end. In fact, during post-sailing deliberations, the judges found it impossible to identify another doublehanded dinghy quite like it, aside from the 25-year-old RS200 class, which is only active in Europe. So, there’s a golden opportunity for the Melges crew in the non-skiff, doublehanded asymmetric-spinnaker market.

The Melges 15’s best trait under sail, however, is its stability. The hull’s wide after sections and sharp chines push a lot of buoyancy outboard, says Greg Stewart. Examine the hull profile from aside the boat on its dolly and it’s easy to see the rocker too, which encourages early planing and a smooth ride uphill while also making it responsive to crew-weight adjustments as wind conditions change.

On deck, the judges took note of the open foredeck, which allows you to safely and comfortably walk or crawl to the bow should you need to when landing or correcting the inevitable spinnaker snafu. Mounted on the foredeck is the asymmetric spinnaker turtle with a stainless-steel throat bar and aluminum retracting sprit. The single-line spinnaker hoist and retrieval system leads to a cam cleat near the mast base and runs aft to a turning block at the transom, so either the helmsman or crew can manage the hoist. Pin-stop adjustable jib tracks are mounted on the side tanks, and sheets lead to ratchet blocks with stand-up rubber boots to provide the appropriate cross-sheeting angles.

Here, in the crew’s playground, a lot of design focus went into the height, width and construction of the boat’s backbone, making it a comfortable seat to straddle in lighter winds. The aluminum-reinforced centerboard box, Cox says, also provides extra strength in the trunk and allows Melges to build the boat more economically. The trunk tapers downward sharply aft toward the floor to provide an anchor point for the mainsheet block. From there, it’s a clean run aft with only the skipper’s hiking straps.

While the trend in dinghy design has been toward open transoms, doing so requires raised floors in order to drain water. To maintain a deep cockpit, Melges instead opted for tried-and-true stainless-steel Elvström/Anderson Bailers, as well as flaps in the transom should the sleigh ride be especially wet and wild.

Aiming to keep the rig tuning quick and simple, the two-part tapered aluminum Selden rig has a single-length forestay and adjustable turnbuckles, while gross settings for varying crew combinations can be made with adjustable spreader brackets for rake and spreader length.

“Put a Loos tension gauge on the forestay, tune the rig up until you hit 19 on the gauge, and that’s your base setting,” Cox says. “When it gets windy, put on a few more turns at the shrouds and that’s how you get to 24, which is your heavy-air setting. It’s all pretty simple. The boom-top mounted vang is anchored on the mast with the sliding track on the boom, which is a clean solution to keep the crew’s runway clear and have a powerful tool to depower the rig (the cleat is on a mast-mounted swivel).

The centerboard and rudder are both aluminum with rubber end caps, which is the go-to solution for maintenance-free appendages these days—less time fairing and fussing means more time sailing, and this is especially true for boats destined for sailing and yacht-club fleets.

“Our goal is to help the sport grow and help racing grow,” Cox says. “We think one problem with American sailing is getting younger sailors out of high school or college sailing into their next race boat. Going fast and being able to go 20 knots downwind hooks people—we need to make sure we are making sailing fast, fun and exciting.”

When the judges got their time in the boat with a fresh 15-knot northwest wind, they witnessed firsthand what Cox had promised. To prove a point of its versatility, veteran judge and college sailing coach Chuck Allen commandeered the 15 alone, set the red spinnaker, and was immediately a projectile—soon a red speck on the horizon.

“The stability of this really opens it to such a wide range of sailors,” Allen says. “The build quality is superb, and it is so clean. It’s classic Melges. They really took their time with it before putting it out there. Its stated purpose is right on target, the price point is good, and with that stability it sails incredibly well upwind and downwind.”

Once they were able to wrestle the tiller from Allen’s hands, fellow judges Greg Stewart and David Powlison, tipping the scales at 420 pounds combined, set off on a few speed burns of their own, climbing to windward in 12 knots of breeze at narrow angles, and effortlessly planing off downwind, knocking through jibes with ease after only a few minutes in the boat.

“Of all the boats we sailed, it was the one I really didn’t want to get off of,” Stewart says. “For me, selecting it as our Boat of the Year comes down to execution of the build and its performance. It’s exceptional in all ways. Everything is so well-integrated and clean. It starts with a good designer, and then it’s good product development and craftsmanship—there’s nothing on this boat that you don’t need.”

Powlison seconds Stewart’s praise for the boat, especially the part about how it serves such a wide variety of crew combinations. “It’s not just a race boat, but a boat to go sail and have fun with anyone, anytime.”

The post Sailing World’s 2022 Boat of the Year appeared first on Sailing World.

As the wind builds to 20 knots, eager crews on board 56 E Scows inch toward the starting line, sails flapping noisily. The race committee’s air horn sounds the start, and the fleet lurches forward, a densely packed swarm of white sails and low-slung surfboardlike hulls. But then there’s another horn. It’s a general recall, and the fleet returns to the line one by one. For its second attempt at a clean start, the race committee takes drastic action and hoists the dreaded black flag. Like scolded children, the fleet behaves, and five minutes later, 216 sailors shoot across the line toward the first mark of the course. New Jersey’s Little Egg Harbor is a choppy mess, which makes it tough-going on these flat-bottom scows. In less than two minutes, there’s a clear divide between the front and back half of the fleet. The faster teams surge into the lead, while the slower boats swiftly trail behind.

Among the front-runners in this race is 20-year-old Harry Melges IV, who had been penalized with a black-flag ­disqualification the previous day. Understandably, he is hoping for at least six races so he can discard his BFD score. Melges and his young crew of Kyle Navin, Finn Rowe and Ripley Shelley are sailing fast. They find a clean lane and round the first mark in third, setting the asymmetric spinnaker and accelerating down the run in a veil of spray. They pass one boat easily, but the race leader has a six-length lead. The wind is gusty, but Harry IV, as everyone calls him, maintains a precise angle of heel. His crew is constantly working the boat and its sails while the boat planes, skimming across the harbor.

Once they reach the leeward gate, Melges, whose sail number is “I1,” is in the lead. The unique sail number designates that the boat represents Lake Geneva YC. Young Harry inherited the designation from his father, Harry Melges III, who carried it forward from his grandfather, Harry “Buddy” Melges Jr.

Clearly, the Melges-family speed gene continues to be passed along from one ­generation to the next.

“I didn’t sail with him much, but I sailed with my dad a ton,” the youngster says of his ­grandfather. “He learned from his dad, and it was kind of the same thing. We strive for perfect racing all the time. Perfect boat handling. Perfect boatspeed.”

Speed is one thing, but Melges says the most important thing is that the crew get along like friends. “The smoother the racing can be and talking to each other, the better it is,” he says. “My crew are so good at their jobs. We are best friends, and we have been our whole lives.”

Melges’ parents are out watching the races too. Once ashore, I ask Harry III how he helps his son. “We emphasized performance boats like the scows and Melges 15 and Melges 20,” Harry III says. “We didn’t put him in an Optimist or Club 420 program because we wanted him to learn how to tune a boat.”

Later, when I ask the younger Melges for his insight on the E Scow, he tells me: “Clear lanes are really important in these boats. And good speed is super important. We adjust our sails differently for the chop to get a little more punch in the waves. In between races, we tune the rig and adjust shrouds. We don’t do it during the race because we are full-on.”

He says the competition in the E Scow is high at the top of the fleet. “It’s the best racing in North America in my opinion,” he says, all bias aside.

Harry III adds to the discussion by explaining what helped him grow as a sailor. “So many great people would come and stay at our house,” he says. “We’d learn from those people. I remember Ben Lexcen coming to our house before the America’s Cup in 1983 and talking about his new keel design. You look back now and think, ‘Wow, pretty cool.’”

Harry III has won the E Scow National Championship seven times, so he certainly knows how to get the most from the boat. “You have to have a good feel for it,” he says. “Angle of heel on an E Scow is probably more critical than on any other kind of boat. That was one thing Buddy drove home with us. Of course, there’s also getting the boat set up correctly and spending time with your team. You have to have confidence in your maneuvers around the racecourse.”

At Little Egg Harbor, Harry III is one of dozens of great sailors currently in the fleet. Class veterans include Brian Porter, the 2013 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and eight-time national champion. There’s also Russ Lucas, Rick Turner, 2010 National Champion Peter Hurley, Bobby Koar and Chad Hillyer.

With so much talent, it’s special to even win a race, let alone two. After the fourth race of the Little Egg Harbor championship, for example, Turner sails past the race-committee boat and announces that his second-place finish is his best score in the Nationals in 40 years. We all cheer for the accomplishment.

Porter, now 62, is still competitive and finishes fourth in this year’s championship. When asked how long he can keep going, he laughs and says, “I have my son RJ crewing for me. He is itching to take the helm away, but I am going to put it off as long as I can.”

Several sailors here were top collegiate sailors and are now racing their own boats, including Harvard All-Americans Vincent Porter and Clay Johnson, as well as 2017 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Erika Reineke, Kyle Rogachenko and Elizabeth Tell. It is worth noting as well that 29 women raced in the championship.

The E Scow is a cross-generational family boat that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023. It is rare for a one-design class to endure for such an unprecedented run, but the E Scow came about as a compromise boat between the powerful and awesome A Scow, which was impractical to move around the country, and a smaller 20-foot scow that was better-suited for two crew. The letter “E” designation was available and assigned to the new craft. It is because of the philosophy of its class founders that the E has enjoyed such a long and vibrant existence; it’s a strict one-design class, but sailors are encouraged to experiment with new innovations. Some modern examples include changing to a fixed and stayed mast rather than a rotating mast, a larger rudder, acceptance of asymmetric spinnakers, a lever boom vang, flotation in the head of the mainsail, and retractable spinnaker socks that go down the middle of the boat. A shift from wood to fiberglass hulls years ago opened the door for many more sailors. While evolution is encouraged, it’s not an arms race. The class has a robust system to approve changes. “You can request to experiment,” Harry III says. “If the board approves it, you have to submit a report. About 90 percent of these experiments get approved, which has kept the boat relevant.”

During the regatta, several sailors tell me they expect to see carbon-fiber spars sometime in the near future.

I find the names of the boats interesting. There are several that play on the “E” theme, with colorful names like TipsE, SilkE, CrazE, BloodE and In the MunE. Then there are the speed-oriented names like Full Throttle, Full Send, Full Tilt, Fast Break and Wide Open. And not to be left out, there were plenty of humorous names: Jenny No More, Route 66, Might As Well and A Walk in the Park.

For Melges and his crew, it’s certainly not a walk in the park on their way to winning this particular championship. On the second day, they were hot with 1-3-1 finishes, but on the final day, they finished with a 15-8 to secure the win by exactly one point over Sam Rogers from Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. Jack Brown of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey’s Seaside Park YC finished third.

The next E Scow National Championship is scheduled to sail on Torch Lake, Michigan, in September. For the sailors headed there, Buddy Melges, who is now 91 years old and has an Olympic Gold Medal and an America’s Cup victory to go with his 60 world and national titles, shares his sage advice: “You have to present the boat to Mother Nature, use the wind to your advantage, and sail more quicklier than the other boats.”

“More quicklier?” I ask him. “Is that a word?”

“You bet it is,” he responds with his ­typical charm, “when you’re winning.”

The post The Enduring E Scow appeared first on Sailing World.

Greg Fisher joins the ATSW squad this week to explain how he coached a 13-boat fleet at the Melges IC37 Class Association Nationals, which raised the question: When and where did the term “schwable” come into sailing parlance? Plus, some sailing politics with Gary Jobson, Ed Baird goes racing, and Peter Isler gives us the course breakdown of his cool new Marine Weather University. Enjoy.

The post Around the Sailing World, Episode 20 appeared first on Sailing World.

In this week’s episode we get the first-ever virtual boat tour of the new Melges Performance Sailboats 15-footer with Andy Burdick and Eddie Cox, straight from the factory in Zenda. A perfect little ripper for doublehanded racing. Check it out. Happy sailing days ahead. Plus, the editor lays out a new course challenge for the summer.

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“The Melges 15 appeals to a wide range of skill levels and sailors while serving a variety of purposes,” introduced Harry Melges, CEO of Melges. “The Melges 15 creates a clear pathway for junior sailors to get started and stay excited about sailing while also being comfortable and accessible enough for adults to learn, race, or cross-train.”

With the main design goals focused on stability and performance in a variety of conditions, the boat features a narrow overall beam and a flat cross-section shape for stability, righting moment, and ease of planing. For a more forgiving feel upwind and to navigate larger sea states, the Melges 15 has just the right amount of fore and aft rocker.

For adults, the Melges 15 features a more ergonomic platform and a broader weight range for competitive racing. Melges conducted extensive research and product testing to produce this layout factoring in cockpit depth, backbone height, and floor plan. The result is a comfortable environment for both the skipper and crew. The deeper cockpit takes the load off the sailor’s knees helping them feel locked into the boat while the high boom and gnav vang system work together to make the boat easier to maneuver.

The asymmetric spinnaker offers an additional performance element while the single-pull launch and retrieval system makes handling the sail easy and fast. “This system is nothing new to small boats,” explained Melges. “We envision this boat being sailed by kids, couples, and families. By adding this setup to the Melges 15, it keeps the boat fun and easy for anyone to crew.”

The Melges 15 has an adaptable sail plan for both club use and one-design racing. The club setup features a main and jib and durable platform for daily use in sailing programs. The one-design rig adds the asymmetric spinnaker for advanced learning and club racing. The transition from club to one-design setup is a simple process to remove the spinnaker bag and bowsprit.

The new boat is already creating such a buzz that Melges is planning a winter series in Florida for 2021. More details on the winter series will be released in the Fall. Production is underway in Zenda, Wisconsin, for the first run of boats. “As we celebrate 75 years of business, we’re proud to start building these boats at our Wisconsin headquarters,” said Melges. “We use the same build processes on the Melges 15 that we use for many of our other boats and hold them to the same high standards.”

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