Melges - Suit You Sir?

Now although I think there are a few sore Points about the melges I have come around to having an enormous respect for those who sail them and the boat itself.

I used to think that it was pretty ignorant and on the verge of arrogance to have a Melges in Scotland and be one of two or most Seasons the only lonely little m24 on the Block. This weekend I changed opinion radically.

My main grudges of the Melges 24 the new price, the price of sails and crampedness with the low boom and tight Space between the traveller, the sheet Block on the boom and the tiller.

The first two are actually easy to answer to: at the weekend we were sailing against Party Girl, who are a top Norwegian amateur team With a boat in Miami up their sleeve. They don't just sail the boat, they LIVE melges 24. They had a pretty New Devoti With a CE marked hull I guess under two years old. The skipper of Our boat has a 1995 BAE boat, with a new stick (just as well, I would never trust a stick over 10 years old), and some hand me down North's. We kept boat speed with the New build a lot of the time both on and off the wind!!

So Budget for a syndicate of 4 ? We are talking about under 5 grand buy in with some New or part used sails to boot. As the other active local boat says, that is less than a set of racing sails for Your 7 knot 38 foot shit Box.

Also it is a boat known for rock stars to jump into: Our own national 49er medalist Sundby hops in once a year for the NM and promptly buggers off.

So owning one is really like owning any amateur trailer sailor or international dinghy- it is what you want to do with it- Nationals, Europeans, worlds? Beat a few pros on a Lucky wind shift or when they broach and burn maybe?

"Clapped out toy boy" and the SBR sail modified schmelges we had in Scotland then, don't seem as idiotic as they did way back when. Then I wondered why People didn't just join the local gang of 1 design, but the world is a free Place and the Melges is a better boat than the Cork 1720 for example, and needs less crew!

With Family life in the Picture, a wealth of sailing experiene and the confidence to shake Down within a day, then the part time Rock Star mentality can well and truly set in- drop in and out, quality over quantity. For me personally I have to find some way of improving my helming skills and getting that step up I never really reached, instead of just being a good crew and aspiring helm.