Melges Performance Sailboats - Zenda, Wisconsin

The Melges 32 Experience

With many years of racing experience driving everything from Sabots to Sleds including the recent “Alchemy”” an Andrews 77, it was time to buy my own boat. Sailing the larger boats tend to spoil you with lots of power, speed and early finishes. This made the selection of a smaller boat a bit challenging especially with a forty-foot slip going for upwards of $100k in Santa Barbara. The boats considered were a Farr 40 (used), ID35, Thompson, and of course the new Melges 32. I had previous sailing experience on my brothers Melges 30 “Grins” and was impressed with its speed.

I saw the prototype Melges 32 “Emotional Rescue” a few years back in the annual Santa Barbara to King Harbor race, which is a 20+ mi beam reach and a 60 nm downhill run. I was driving the Andrews 70 “Alchemy” for the start and didn’t think twice about the small 32 on the line. The race turned out breezy with wind peaking about 30 knots. Our speed off the wind was 20+knts quite often and we quickly put most of the fleet out of sight. We finished in record time; I think first boat for boat mainly because the turbo sled “Magnitude” dropped out to assist a capsized tri. After about 20-30 min, a couple of larger boats like “Medicine Man” came in the to our utter amazement a very small boat, the 32, was tying up to the dock. I thought, “how could such a small boat be here right now?” they even blew away all of the new Shock 40’s! That really made an impression!

Being an engineer, I tend to over analyze anything I buy with research, spreadsheets and interviews (my wife always makes fun of this). I sailed many times on a local Farr 40, talked to many 1D35 owners, had dinner with Steve Thompson, and of course started taking to Harry and Andy over at Melges. It slowly became apparent that the best “bang for the buck” and “trophy winner” would be a new Melges 32. I think Thompson has some good designs but the communication channel definitely lacked and was not even close to the well-established “Melges” team. It’s too bad more companies in this country don’t operate like Melges; the personal attention and service is absolutely un-paralleled. I think it would be appropriate to call them the “Nordstrom’s” of boat building. I felt so comfortable with the integrity and honesty of Harry and Andy that I ordered a new 32 without ever seeing the (new) one. The Melges team delivered on time and the boat was ready to hook up to my truck for the trip out west. The trailering cover package is one of the best I’ve seen, not one issue in 2200 miles, 34 hours of driving.

We pulled into Santa Barbara with about 20 racers ready to unwrap the new toy. Everyone was amazed at the level of detail of the “ready to sail” package. Everything, and I mean everything is included to get on the racecourse. The rig was up within 2 hours; the gin-pole system really works well although there was some apprehension at first purely due to the size of the rig. Everything fit, looked good and was amazingly simple. A few questions were forwarded to the Melges team and the response was always immediate. Once a nice bottom was put on the boat she was launched and christened “Yabsolutely”. Dave Ullman came up the following week with some of his latest technology: Fiberpath carbon sails, and the big 1350 sq. ft. 2A spinnaker. All sails looked beautiful and sailing the boat the first time was a treat for a bunch of long time racers.

The following weekend was Santa Barbara’s Holiday Regatta and the main boat to beat was the local well-sailed Farr 40 “Stressless” that my crew and I had been sailing on during the 2005 season. Stressless pretty much always won over the other “A-Class” boats. The four race, two day regatta was tight between us. The Farr was able to pace out going to weather in 10+knts of breeze, but we were able to close the gap off the wind, the races were close but due to a couple of difficulties on the Melges and the fact we did not have our heavy jib yet, the Farr beat us out in the two heavier air races on Saturday. I feel we can beat them in breeze once we get up to speed. The “Stressless” crew was pretty cocky in the bar after the race, but we still had Sunday and two more races.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny, warm 6-knot Melges day! The Farr guys were worried and immediately went to pre-start match racing tactics, it didn’t work against the 32, which is more maneuverable, quicker to accelerate and stop. We got the start needless to say. The boats were very even upwind; I even felt we had a bit of an edge. Once spinnakers were hoisted, it was like the ol’ story of “the Turtle and the Hare”, the Melges 32 came to life! On a 1-1/4 mile downwind leg we opened close to 4 min on the Farr! We finished so far ahead that we got bored waiting for them! Race #4 was the same; we led the whole race and finished about 3 min ahead again. That gave “Yabsolutely” the win for our first regatta and second time sailing the boat! The other sailors were amazed at the speed and beauty of the new Melges 32.

For any West Coast sailors, one feature needs to be mentioned: the ability to get kelp off both foils. As Dave Ullman said: “well that’s a winner right there” watching us cut it off the keel and being able to lift the rudder while sailing. A lot of sailors thought we would not be able to lift the rudder under sail, but the boat is so well balanced and it is easy to unload the foil for the 3-4 seconds it takes to clear kelp. It’s better than dragging a kelp pole through the water! Of course this won’t be able to be done in all conditions, so we will have a pole on board.

The “Melges Experience” has met and exceeded all of my expectations! The boat is simple, well thought out and a rocket ship. It’s like sailing a 32-foot dinghy with eight or nine of your best friends. Everyone loves it, even my little girls!