Stunner!
How else to describe Botín’s new Melges 40 canting-keel one-design? North Sails and Southern Spars have been central to the launch of a potential market disrupter
When a new high-performance boat comes on the market the pressure is on to meet the expectations of everyone involved in the project: the designer, builder, class promoters, industry providers, media and – most importantly – potential owners and crews. The higher the performance is, the greater the expectations and lower the acceptable margins for error. New boats of this genre must be fast out of the box with little or no lead time before they can start competing. Everyone wants one, so the first boat built and launched is critical – it must start to deliver on the pre-launch hype right away if a successful new class is to follow. The new Botín-designed Melges 40 is a perfect example of such a
42 SEAHORSE
high-profile new design, with the global reputation of Melges on the line. Designer Marcelino Botín has said, ‘Melges is a sailing legend, and this was an opportunity for us to design something very new and different. The design complements the Melges brand, and upholds their top-quality ideals. We proposed a design that adopts best practice and introduces new concepts. The boat creates a new 40ft performance benchmark.’ Builder Max Waimer at Premier Composite Technologies said, ‘For sure the Melges 40 is a new starting point in the sailing world. We share the same passion as Melges and Botín for creating not only an exceptional boat, but a very new, competitive racing experience.
We have put every ounce of our expertise into the Melges 40.’ So, against this backdrop, how is North meeting the clear need to have the fastest sails ready from the get-go? The answer is in the process. North Sails has been intimately involved throughout the design development of the Melges 40 to gather the details on the rigging, spar set-up and even the equipment onboard, to advise on solutions that will benefit not only designing fast sails but also contribute to achieving some ambitious project goals. Participation in these formative stages helps in ensuring accuracy in not only detailed sail geometries and shapes, but also in anticipating other key aspects of performance that affect the sails, such as crew work and deck layouts.
With this information the North Design Suite of computational tools can be used to replicate details of how the spar and sails integrate with the platform to deliver the available performance. These tools have been refined repeatedly on a wide variety of boats, ranging from small keelboats to Maxis; the process is well proven and has led to great success on the water. Not only does this process drive good sail design, but establishing a
Boat no1 on her maiden sail in Dubai – the home of builders Premier
Composites. With its
canting keel, light weight and very substantial sail area it’s no surprise the polars for the Melges 40 promise something very special indeed. Primarily
conceived as an inshore oriented one design, the new Melges also looks capable of delivering blindingly ‘exciting’ offshore
performance for those who feel that a Class40 or a Fast40+ may be a little bit too tame…
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