OPPOSITE—A look at the interior, fore and aft view. ABOVE—The Malbec feeling plenty frisky in a good breeze.
and she came through her tacks smartly. Te second thing that stood out was
her tendency to slice easily through the confused seas stirred up by opposing cur- rents and powerboat-traffic wakes. Twice we instinctively braced for the boat to pound or hobby-horse only to have her sail through unperturbed. Speed and pointing ability were harder
to gauge, given the conditions, so we look forward to trying her again in better sail- ing weather, but we leſt feeling confident she’s at least as good as boats her type in both respects. Her 157 square feet of sail (sail-area-displacement-ratio of around 19) puts her squarely in that medium cruiser range—not powered up but not super conservative either. Te hull shape suggests she will get-up-and-go in the right conditions. Te running rigging seemed well-engi-
neered and of high quality, with a 4-to-1 aft-boom mainsheet setup leading to a swivel cam cleat mounted on the cockpit sole. Te roller-furling jib’s sheets are led to swivel cams on the cabintop. There was also a 3-to-1 vang—most hardware was Ronstan.
SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR The fractional rig has an adjustable
split backstay and a pair of shrouds on each side—one upper and one lower. While early models had spreaders, the latest model, conveniently, does not.
TRAILERING AND LAUNCHING: “Rigging is easy since everything remains attached except roller-furler.” Sue Bam- ford, 2018 Blubird.
Designed from the outset with trailera- bility in mind, the Malbec is just small and simple enough that we could see rigging, launching, sailing, and then pulling her out, in the same day. Of course we’d rather not do it that way, but she’s manageable enough that it might be worth it. Trailering her 1500 pounds to a destination for a weekend or week-long cruise seems perfectly reasonable. Rigging isn’t especially complicated,
and with a board-up draſt of 12 inches, neither is launching or retrieval.
SEAWORTHINESS: “My experience with the boat involved a test sail out of Oxnard. Conditions were
NW 12-14 with seas running approx- imately 4 feet. I found the Malbec to be very seakindly, dry, pointed well, tacked easily and in my estimation rode like a considerably larger boat. Very impressed.” Bob Taugner
“Aſter sailing it three times I can say that it has met my expectations and desires. Te sail area is relatively small and the boat does not feel overpowered in brisk wind. On one trip a guest was an experienced sailor who heeled it over so that the rail was almost in the water, and was impressed at the stability and stiffness. My chief fear in getting a centerboard boat was that it would give a rough and noisy ride in Ches- apeake Bay’s washing-machine chop. So far, that has not proved to be the case. Te boat knifes through waves to a surprising degree, just like a big boat.” David Brown.
“Boat is forgiving and very stable. For example, riding a 3-foot wake in heavy wind, barely got any spray to cockpit.” Sue Bamford, 2018 Blubird.
Although she’s not designed as an off- 63
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