Melges 20: Best One-Design
In sportboat terms, the Melges 20 rips in big breeze, but in the light winds during our test sail, the powerful sail plan pushed the boat along effortlessly.
There's no refuting that the Melges 20 incorporates the best features of all of Melges' boats into one sweet little package. If it weren't for the chine running through the aft section, you'd think the Zenda crew simply shrank the Melges 24. Yes, it's like the 24 in many ways, especially how it moves through the water, but this pint-size sportboat has its own personality traits-good ones, too.
"It's a boat that I think would be fun to just take out and day sail," said Stewart, touting the virtues of a boat that will have you itching to leave work early whenever the breeze is up. And the ease of getting the Melges 20 to the water, particularly if it's drysailed, is all the more reason to do so.
Intended as a straight up one-design, the class rules have no crew-weight restrictions, but the boat will sail best with three average size adults. Class rules mandate legs-in hiking, and allow professionals to be owner/drivers so long as they own the boat.
The Melges 20's deck layout is clean and functional, and with the vang mounted above the boom, the business end of the cockpit is wide open for the forward crew to handle the spinnaker and move effortlessly from side-to-side. Spinnaker sheets are led inside the cockpit aft, which keeps them inside the stanchions (and not under the boat). Padded backrests on the upper lifelines provide comfortable support for the crew to lean outboard, out of the skipper's line of sight.
The design brief with this boat was to keep it as simple as possible, getting away from the micro tuning that is the norm in Melges 24 class competition. Fore-and-aft adjustable shroud cars (set with pins) on short tracks can change rig tension from 200 to 700 pounds with very little effort. Rig changes can be made between races without having to break out the tools.
