Melges go Kevlar

The Daily Sail talks to North UK's Nigel Young about the change

At the Melges 24 class AGM in September the class voted on and decided to adopt Kevlar sails. The proposal, put forward by Nigel Young of North Sails UK, was principally aimed at increasing the life span of the sails, and in particular the jib.

Two years ago the class voted to use battens in the jib, which Young says, “Made a serious improvement in the life of the sails, the headsails on a Melges 24 get furled up and take a bit of a bashing.”

Two years on and Young has received plenty of feedback from his customers: “Comment from some of our regular customers that the Pentex sails weren’t lasting as long as they had hoped. The serious guys and also the semi serious guys were considering whether they would need a new jib for each major regatta.”

Choosing to use Kevlar also has the added advantage from a marketing point of view as it helps to maintain the image of the class and make it look fresh and modern.

For the mainsail, the change to Kevlar helps but the sail does not get the same amount of abuse as the jib, as Young explains, “There will be a real benefit for the mainsail, but because the sail is effectively fully battened, with the top two battens full length and the bottom two shorter, the mainsail doesn’t suffer in quite the same way as the jib. Kevlar will definitely add life to the sail.”

North Sails UK are working with North Sails San Diego and between them will finalise designs for the new fabrics over the next 6-8 weeks. Young is not anticipating large design changes but more subtle modifications to take account of the low stretch properties of Kevlar.

One option is to produce lighter sails which are the same strength as the existing Pentex ones, “That’s not we’re going to do, the aim is increase the life span,” says Young.

Unlike many one design classes, where the new sail inventory is limited through a ‘button’ or ‘card’ system, in the Melges class there are no limits on the number of sails a yacht team can buy through the year.

Young is happy with this situation, not just because of the potential for the increase in sales, but also from the perspective of not penalising the really active teams who may compete at many regattas through the year. Young explains what he thinks would happen with a button regime: “What the really wealthy guys will do is just buy more boats. This would definitively happen in the Melges 24 class with some pretty high-powered people coming into the class. They would simply buy more boats.”

The class is very unlikely to adopt a button regime, something that actually helps other lofts. If the curtain came down it would seriously restrict the ability of other lofts to break in with new product, as shown in the North dominated Farr 40 class and the North/Doyles dominated Etchells class, both of which restrict new sail purchases.

The new sails are around 15% more expensive than current North Pentex. For the jib, the price increase is actually slightly less than the additional cost when battens were fitted two years ago, so the change to Kevlar is inline with other changes that the class have approved. “It’s also one on the reason why the change has been restricted to Aramid fibres rather than include Cuben fibre for example,” explains Young.

The new Kevlar sails will not be allowed to be used in class competition until March 2004. The first major event for the new sails will be in Marseille, The SNIM regatta, where upto 60 or 70 boats are expected to attend representing around 10 countries.

For Melges owners interested in up-grading, North Sails UK are running a winter offer, if orders are placed before the 19th December 2003:

15% discount for sails ordered and paid in full with order.
10% discount for sails ordered with a 50% deposit payment. Balance due in the Spring 2004.

The retail prices for the Melges 24 Kevlar sails and spinnakers are:
Mainsail £1515.00
Jib £862.00
Spinnaker £1300.00

All prices quoted are in UK pounds and do not include vat or shipping. UK vat is 17.5% and shipping will be quoted on an individual basis.

Contact Nigel Young: Ph +44 2392 354800