Melges 15 Demo Boat Reaches Lough Ree Yacht Club

12th July 2023

Afloat.ie Team

Lough Ree Yacht Club has been the first Melges15 demo boat tour stop. One of the M15s is touring her way around the country over the Summer.

Nearing the end of her time at Lough Ree, the boat has been sailed in all conditions, including strong winds and flat seas, a good recipe for speed records.

John Malone and John McGonigle wasted no time (below) putting the boat through her paces, hitting over 18 knots of boatspeed after just taking the boat out of the wrapper.

Next up on tour is a trip to North Dublin where sailors at Howth Yacht Club and Skerries Sailing Club can try out the boat and put her through her paces.

Melges 15 demo boat tour stop

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Melges 15

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About the Melges 15 Dinghy

The Melges 15 was designed by Reichel/Pugh and built by Melges.

The design prioritises stability, comfort, ease of use, and performance.

The Melges 15 is built to be sailed by everyone from friends and couples to families and kids. The design offers performance, comfort, and stability in one sleek package.

The Melges 15’s stable hull shape and ergonomic cockpit make it a suitable layout for adult racing and educational sailing. Easy conversion from a club configuration (non-spinnaker) to a one-design setup, provides more versatility to club programs and options for individual owners.

“The Melges 15 creates a clear pathway for junior sailors to get started and stay excited about sailing while also being comfortable and accessible enough for adults to learn, race, or cross-train,” according to Harry Melges III.

With the main design goals focused on stability and performance in various conditions, the boat features a narrow overall beam and a flat cross-section shape for stability, righting moment, and ease of planing. For a more forgiving feel upwind and to navigate larger sea states, the Melges 15 has just the right amount of fore and aft rocker.

Melges conducted extensive research and product testing to produce this layout factoring in cockpit depth, backbone height, and floor plan. The result, they say, is a comfortable environment for both the skipper and crew. The deeper cockpit takes the load off the sailor’s knees helping them feel locked into the boat while the high boom and gnav vang system work together to make the boat easier to manoeuvre.

The asymmetric spinnaker offers an additional performance element, while the single-pull launch and retrieval system makes handling the sail easy and fast.