Clean Report: Melges 32 Beer Can I Just got my first sail on Saturn, the only Melges 32 in Detroit. 18-25 knots, 4 foot lake chop on St. Clair. We sailed sort of a triangle course - the DRYA C-Course. Some of the crew couldn't do their regular jobs and we filled in for a couple who weren't there. She was easy to drop into the water, but a silly problem with the CRO system had us tooling around before the start trying to get the big-ass hole that the outboard sticks through sealed so we could go sailing. We made our start with time to spare, but no time to practice. Upwind, the boat sails just like a 24, but Mer said she was a lot comfier than on the smaller boat. Hiking hard while crashing down a wave's back on a 24 is excruciating at times. 6 or 7 feet of waterline and another 3/4 of a ton soften the slamming a lot, at least in those close period 3-4 foot waves built up over 15 miles of fetch. I sailed on the same course as the 32s in Newport last month, and in 6-8 foot waves and big breeze they looked to be almost as painful as the 24. After rounding the top mark, we turned the corner and the reach mark was too tight for the kite and too deep for the little jib to do much. A barber hauler might have helped let some more air through the slot, but reaches are not really the point of the boat, at least without screachers or other narrow free-luffed sails. In that breeze it seemed the way to go was to two-sail high and then pop the kite, sail until you run out of water, and gybe for the reach mark and the rest of the course. We went for that after a couple of minutes, hoisted the kite, and accelerated like a missile. I have experience with just a few planing a-sail boats in big breeze. The I-14 accelerates like a slingshot - power on and then TWING! you get snapped forward and try to keep the rig from snapping forward faster than the hull. The Melges 24 accelerates the way that a snowboard does when you drop into a steep, icy bowl. The 32, in comparison, had a lot more power and smoothness. I know I'm going overboard with the analogies, but if you've ever ridden the TGV it's sort of like that, but without the bar car. Despite all that, you sail all three downwind in exactly the same way but with different reaction times. The 32's rudder is like a ninja sword - it seemed barely wider than my 14's rudder. It is really easy to stall by either not anticipating a puff or steering too hard, too fast. We wiped out three times, the only drama coming from the bowman getting nearly swept overboard while freeing up something on the leeward rail during a broach. It was a lot warmer in the water than the air, I might have just let go and had a relaxing and warm float. The boat came up easily with a little smoked halyard, and the kite was easy to get back up as it streamed to leeward of the jib and main, and then you're off again smiling as big as day. The crew has only been sailing on Saturn for a half a season, and they're coming from a long time together on a big J/boat, which just doesn't prepare you for the totally different sailing that is a boat as high powered, simple, and refined as this one. They're good sailors, though - and with another season and maybe some crossover with crews and practices on a skiff or 24 they will really have the boat moving. It's a hard adjustment - it's taken me over two years to really understand most of what's going on. It takes less thinking and more acting - speed and strength are your friend everywhere on the boat, and you don't have the time or the controls to get every last tenth out of the boat - focus, steering, hiking, and more focus are what makes this boat go fast, and in order to focus you have to know your jobs well and perform them extremely quickly and consistently. To some extent this is true of all boats, but it's amplified in the really fast ones. The deck is so well laid out that the boats should be easy to sail well, but they're not. At least if your last name isn't Melges. We were having so much fun that we sailed past the leeward mark and just kept flying down the river. I think that we were supposed to have another upwind mark and a reach, but we were just laughing as we headed straight for the sand and coal piles onshore.
What a sunset. What a sail. What a way to end a tough summer. Nice job, Melges. And thanks to anarchist FINS for hooking up the ride and owner Wally Tsuha and the crew for the hospitality. Some of you are coming on the 14 soon. You'll learn real bruises and what a real wipeout is. As an aside, more than a month ago, one of the top Melges 24 owner/drivers in the midwest posted the first long distance report we've seen from onboard the 32. They sailed the 333 mile Chi-Mackinac race in winds up to around 34 knots. Thanks to anarchist Napoleon Dynamite for the report, and you can check it out here. 09/04/06 |