Perfect Melges 24 Weekend! ..... Debreifing .....

A week ago I jumped at the chance to sail a Whole weekend series in one design on the Melges I am now occaisional but long standing crew on.  I had just seen the weather forecast and it was sun, warm and Wind so it was a no brainer, just check the Brownie Points with the other half before the green light came.

The forecast was for once extremely accurate for both days and near enough spot on even five days before. Diamonds dancing on the water and some possibility for planing as the sun warmed up the land.

The event was fairly well organised the only gripes being a far too short start line on day one, a poor Place for the Windward mark both days really, and no decent break for lunch making it definetly the most physically tiring sailing I have done for many, many years. Sport comes to mind as I was reminded.

Black and blue and a little Brown with red patches were the sun cream washed off, I sit and think what we could learn from the weekend and any tips on the Melges in particular

Chronologically we had the owner driving day one and the bay area's best Melges helm (probably) on the stick on day two, when the Wind came up to planing potential in the gusts.

Day one take out : once again Our helmsman gets carried away with excitement and adrenalin. I remember that feeling when I first started competing as a dinghy sailor, having never been through racing schooling.

lessons - The Start

It is a given that a good start amplifies Your lead over other boats if you gain clean Wind, and coming out as top dog in any fleet, fastest and first once the fleet is moving at full speed then you Control the race and have Your lead amplified even more by the free Wind and tactics/manoevres. No Learning point there, but poor starts often make for nerves in the boat and too much decision making!

1) The start line was too short, but anyway the helm did not adjust his style of starting with very good speed from a high "boat line" triangle.

2) The visiting boat showed that melges really can have a dinghy start, plus two or Three boat lenghts and if you book a good lane just luffing "South" of the boat then you can Control a gathering fleet looking to come in at speed. In big OD fleets everyone gets a lane and shoots out.

The theory and practice of "burn time" then GO! is vindicated in my mind

3) The start line is not a Place for Adrenaline!   It took me a while to understand that the start is a Place to be in Control of not only Your boat but also Your emotions.  There is enough noise and excitment outside the boat. The Whole thing should be the most calculated part of yacht racing.

4) a theme we will come back to, in light of all these above , is that after four Seasons so to speak of sailing with Our man, he is not actually Learning.


Boat Set Up

1) the Melges rig has of course a BASE setting on the loos gauge or turns on the screw bottles. You also must remember that the adjustable Version of the forestay SHALL be adjusted BEFORE the shrouds if the amount of rake and forestay tension are to be Critical and different from its BASE or last race setting.
note

a) The inner shrouds (d1) need careful adjustment - they take out bend in the mast which puts Depth in the sail but if you want a flat sail in Wind over 12 knts then  you have to have them tuned up because the mid mast will bend sideways, inducing luff sag in the middle Third of the sail where most Power is produced. In light Winds with a wide slot (or Heavy Winds when this can depower a bit at a high risk) then this Powers the sail up more, but as the slot Closes in 'design' Winds, the sail backs and loses Power. d1s should be tuned after first the forestay and then the upper cap C1 are first done.

b) Masts can be a little uneven in side to side bend over time: It is more important to have the mast straight than measurments which match exactly from side to side. Sight up the slot of the mast when on the dock ( with Your head on the boom, looking up the slot, no sail up of course)

c) tuning guide interpreation - you need to take into account
i) crew weight - a deeper sail plan, yet still stiff mast  to maintain Power and therefore drive and Acceleration
ii) style of sailing : if you prefer to keep the boat very flat for example, or if you like to use the backstay more than the traveller, or if you like to steer a lot up Wind.

There is probably no exact single optimal rig set upfor a Melges 24 if they vary from absolute best crew weight and best helmsman. Luff sag on the jib can be something some like in lighter air, flat water venues


POST SCRIPT:

As per my other blogg on the idiot savant- if you let the main sail down on the traveller you can judge if the twist and rig are set up right and where in the vertical and horizontal they are wrong, by slipping the traveller down slowly until the sail backs - I noted that the mid section of the main luffed first, and this was because our D1s were too slack - in fact we did not secure the locking nuts on day two, so the shrouds shook themselves loose!!

Also we could try VANG sheeting ie using more kicker upwind, and then just adjusting with the mainsheet

2) The boat should be crew friendlier!  The melges can be quite slippy without grip Paint or the rubbery cockpit floor covering and the shrouds bottle / screws really need a Nice soft Velcro-on cover which protect the crews legs.

Good topic to move over to the NeXT theme with

Boat Handeling and Team Work

1) Practice together before the race. Scratch crew need to be really experienced racers and most of all agile. When sailing with 4 there are no passengers. Evening before can be good

2) Clear signals- Our "consultant" helm on day two meant to give Clear signals but the protocol "ready ? Tacking 3,2,1" broke Down often and this was of course more worrying on the gybes.

3) As helm, give Your crew time to get over into position and then over in the boat when tacking especially. Follow as much Your crew in how you turn and harden up and how the main sail gets trimmed in. Get a choreography worked out for the rail to rail move, with the lightest crew member slipping Down from the middle or back of the rail line, first to release the jib and sheet it on, with then the back man going and the front man going in front of the sheet man and the back or mid behind the person sheeting.

In conditions under 16 knots the crew coming in early off the rail can help heel the boat up into the Wind, but over this it can lead to a crash tack or a knock down with the mast maybe potentially hitting other boats.

A light agile mid man, wriggeling out between the two other crew and getting a foot in on the deck can then make Space for the other two to swing their legs round in a Natural action, over into the cockpit, rather than them standing first on the deck.

The final job sheeting out of the tack is often done by the helm, stepping forward and stamping Down on the sheet such that it stays in the cleat. This is to be recommended.


4) The assy' is just like most, slip it forward during the gybe, don't just blow it. We didnt get to try the "gather break" they are doing in M32, where a second crew takes the sheet to the clew at the shrouds in order to destroy the remaining 'old' flow, and roll the lower half of the sail round the forestay.



General Learning on Sailing

On saturday I was disappointed with the helms stress Level and crew-blaming Level for what was actually the result of bad starting and poor strategy.

I learnt more and more as the weekend went on that I am in many ways a more mature and better sailor than the helm and just lack a sic boat and time on the helm for now. Things like using a river current for a lift, checking the Wind angles for the course, and then for the second helm too, going wide into the lee mark and tight out.

Also that some helms just are not willing to learn and be humble, and blame a Whole load of details for bad performance which are external to their own performance.

Right now I can't afford a racing dinghy, not that a melges is so much dearer than a modern, carbon rigged dinghy. However a few good results yesterday and some self criticuque on how I perform and behave on a boat mean that I can be happy as crew for a couple of years more,