Melges 20 « www.surfacehoar.com

The other interesting new boat is the Melges 20. It’s not even out yet, but it’s still very promising. Rumor has it it’s come into existence just because the SB3 is being sold direct from the factory… Melges is a Vanguard dealer. Vanguard opted to sell the SB3 direct in order to offer it at a more competitive price. Well Melges didn’t like that idea as they’re one of Vanguards better dealers, so they decided to build a better mousetrap. The interesting thing about that is everyone complains that the SB3 is overpriced since it’s old technology. It’s said you’re paying for the marketing behind the boat, and that Laser is getting a hefty margin on it. Well melges has gone out and designed a boat that on paper is very similar to the SB3. Sit in, no hiking asym screamer. But theirs is all high tech, and their prices is the same exact price ($39,999!). Hmmmmm….

Anyway, removing this tin foil hat, it does look like it has some serous potential. It’s ~400lbs lighter and has very similar sail area numbers. It looks to be easily rigged and they added a 1 line chute system. I’m very curious to see how that will work though as you typically see the string going into a tube/sock well forward on the boat, but the melges has a hatch just in front of the mast on the drawings… Regardless, I’m sure they have something up their sleeves and they’ll pull it off. I’m really looking forward to seeing this boat progress through it’s development stages. It sounds like they’ll have a test mule out this summer and be selling production boats in the fall.

For the price this sounds like a better option than a SB3. I’d opt for the OD option if I had one, but if I were picking boat for boat this would win if I had $40k for a boat. But I don’t.