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Class War The Melges 32 controversy at Key West continues. Here is a reasoned for from a M32 owner. Greetings, I read your site often and enjoy some great photos. As a competitor in Key west on a Melges 32 I wanted to provide you a bit different point of view on why the Melges owners chose not to sail on Wednesday. First, several of the boats did not go out on Tuesday because they had just gotten delivery of the boats and had not yet purchased #4 headsails and small kites. Additionally, two teams had never been on the boat until the Sunday before the regatta. We on Grins sailed and had a great day that would have been even more fun if we had not sail handled like wankers. Many great down wind rides and the boats held up great. On Wednesday the same boats were not going out and the remaining owners felt like it was a waste of good sails to go out and flog around in what turned out to be gusts to 40knts. It is interesting to note that only one race was held instead of two and that several classes including the powered up Mumm 30 class never set a kite. Talking with those who sailed, many agreed that it was kind of pointless to be out there. That being said, our hesitation was around saving good new sails and not concerns over the capability and strength of the boat. We raced a very windy regatta, as you know, and had no boat or gear failure other than a broken outhaul shackle. We are enjoying the boat, the great rides and the great support from the boys in Zenda. I have owned several race boats over the years and feel like I have a lot to compare to. This boat is defiantly a keeper.....just one guy's view. Cheers, 01/26/06
The M32 story, at least tangentially, continues.... Regarding the Melges 32 owner commenting on the Mumm 30's not hoisting a kite (see M32/25 below - Ed.) I am a. big fan of SA, and thought you might want to publish the real story of the Wind Limits for the Melges 32 class and how the Mumm 30's fared rather than take the word of the Melges 32 writer. Why do people insist on bagging on other classes? So I am standing up for the class, my team and the RC who all did really well. Here goes.... I just wanted to give your and your readers a clear picture of what REALLY happened on Wednesday on the Division 1 Mumm 30 course at Key West. Our team on Turbo Duck left (some say by accident) the fractional spinnaker at home in Annapolis, which meant in order to win our division we had no choice but to hoist and use the masthead kite no matter how windy it was. This led to some interesting on board discussions, some wet salty consequences, and some illusions of being true bad-asses. Whatever the case, we neared the first weather mark leading the fleet in the only race on Wednesday. The crew was hiking very hard and taking a viscous pounding in the chop. They kept asking me what the gusts were since their heads where down by their ankles. Once it got to 30 knots on our calibrated B & G's I decided to downplay it, otherwise they may have vetoed my decision to hoist. As we came to the weather mark and I looked back at the two closely following boats, both Bold and Groovederci had their poles ready so I called for the same. It is one of the rare times in sailing where you have so much on the entire surrounding disappears and the team becomes 100% focused on their jobs. They did a great job and got it fully hoisted and set without incident. The kite popped and off we went. Downwind I drive as my father Bodo has long since given up on driving in breeze with his titanium hip. I was told we where doing 17-21 knots of boatspeed steady but since I never looked at anything other than the bow and the waves, all I know is it was fast and a ridiculous cocktail of fun, fear and really fast. I stole a quick glance back once to see Bold and Groove planing with the Frac Kites up. As I sent the bowman up to attempt a jibe we were hit with a gust, which read 33 true. I told the bowman we would wait for it to subside but it never did. As he ran back the to the stern to join the entire team now on the stern the boat smoked along and we began to bury the bow. I tried heading up but nothing happened. We popped out of the wave but by then the rudder was dead and cavitating and the Duck chose to slowly head up for a spectacular full planing wipeout to weather. My wife Vicki (Guy Trimmer) and Bodo both were standing next to me and ended wet but up held on. Eventually, Teresa Dirrocco, our superstar pit person, lowered the halyard and we popped up, completed the jibe and planed with the jib and main into the leeward mark. Every boat in the Mumm 30 Fleet started and the only boat not to finish was a charter boat USA 41. This is a great testament to the class and its owners and the race organizers. Last year at Key West we faced a difficult situation where the Race Committee decided to keep us home on the dock in a similar although I am told less windy situation. Our team and the class made it clear to the organizers at Key West that if the RC is willing to race us, the boats in our class have the decision to make about what is safe and raceable. On our team we all wore life jackets. We had a detailed discussion about what would happen if, we wiped out, broke the halyard etc. We were required by the Sailing Instructions to perform MOB drills on the practice day. We were rewarded with a spectacular week of Mumm 30 (tried it yet?) sailing and competition at the edges of what is raceable. If we compete in these events in this class we want to make our own decisions about what is reasonable in terms of raceable, and not have preset limits. With this in mind we accomplished our goals for the week....have fun (in spades) , win (almost) and of course be safe. Nick
von der Wense 01/27/06 |