melges 40 yacht

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Melges 40: Onboard the unique lightweight racer taking the Med by storm

• October 22, 2019

The Melges 40 is the only canting-keel production one-design yacht in the world. Andi Robertson explains what makes it extraordinary

Each year the curtain rises on the Mediterranean grand prix regatta season at the PalmaVela. The increasingly popular event is not just a chance to shake the rust off race boats after the winter, but more often than not there are a couple of eye-catching new designs to be spotted.

The 2018 PalmaVela saw the Melges 40 make its public debut as a class at the popular multi-class regatta. Interest spread like wildfire.

Despite a small entry of five boats, competition levels were high. Four of the five international teams won races during their nine race series, the regatta title went to the wire, and there were just five points between 1st and 4th.

The mainly pro and semi-pro class is stacked with talent: Cameron Appleton was calling tactics for winners Inga from Sweden, Francesco Bruni sails on Stig . Teams so far hail from Sweden, Italy, Japan and Monaco/Russia.

The Melges 40 is super light at just 3,200kg – that’s some 800kg lighter than a Fast 40+

Slow-burn success

The Melges 40 is something of a slow-burn success story. As the only canting keel, all carbon, strict one-design grand prix racer it remains unique. It is very much an elite, niche class. It was never targeted at the wider horizons of the one-design production racing class, such as is the new Melges 37.

So far it appeals only to a small cross-section of experienced, competitive owners who want electric downwind speed, and quick and efficient upwind sailing. The canting keel adds a whole new dimension to windward-leeward racing.

Melges 40 owners want to go quicker than anything else of a similar size, and to travel and race internationally with their team. They are owners who might otherwise be in the TP52 fleet, but perhaps don’t want to employ full-time shore crew or to be running a development programme.

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The Melges 40 is the confluence of two sets of ideas. Botin Partners were already convinced that canting keel technology was the way forward and had done their own preliminary designs, while Melges had a small number of successful top-level Melges 32 owners who wanted to move up to something bigger. And the new design simply had to be faster; which is a big ask considering the downwind and reaching speeds of the 32.

Adolfo Carrau of the Botin design office is a huge fan of the end result. “The concept and the way the boat behaves are unique,” he explains. “It is really easy and safe to race hard but it goes very fast. It is very overpowered but it is easy to control.

“It has a huge sailplan and a very tall rig. It accelerates really quickly and the owner-drivers can push the boat very hard downwind because the bow is usually up, and it has the twin rudders.”

The Melges 40 is hugely powerful, with a 72m 2 square top main and 49m 2 jib – that’s 20 per cent more sail area than a Fast 40+. The keel sets a 1.1 tonne bulb on a 3.4m carbon fin.

“In essence you get 10 per cent more righting moment than the Fast 40+ with a bulb approximately half its weight.

The deck layout is super simple, borrowing many ideas from the TP52, though note the mainsheet track is at the far aft edge of the cockpit

The keel technology is super-simple and well proven. Manufactured by Cariboni it is a direct development of the IMOCA and Volvo 65 systems using a single ram with a double-acting cylinder (which both pushes and pulls).

It’s driven by a 24V 4,500W power pack that is controlled by Cariboni’s four-point system. A simple keypad on the turn of the cockpit, at the helmsman’s back leg, is for the tactician/runner trimmer at the back of the boat to operate.

Simplicity is paramount in every area. Hence there is a single centreline canard rather than twin daggerboards cluttering up deck space and complicating matters. The canard is controlled on a simple purchase system by the pit crew.

The purchase system sits inside and is controlled from two lines, up and down on the winch. Needless to say this is one of the busiest and skilled crew jobs on the boat.

Multiple purchase systems below decks minimise loads and maximise control

The class sails with nine (or ten) people, up to a maximum crew weight of 750kg. There are no limitations on professional sailors unless specified by a national class association. Most teams are currently sailing with nine, some with a dedicated grinder. Fundamental to the operation of the boat is the aft pedestal, a six-speed Harken MX Air.

Intelligent rig

The two-part twin spreader high modulus Southern Spars rig is deck stepped and set with EC3 composite rigging. The rig uses TP52-style deflectors, which are controlled by a PCT-developed magic wheel, one of four such systems on board.

They are also used to control the traveller, drop line system and vang. There are masthead and jib halyard locks. Sailmaker choice is open and at the moment the fleet is split between North and Quantum.

The canting keel adds a set of new challenges to moding and trimming the boat downwind. Michele Ivaldi, tactician on the Dynamiq Synergy Sailing Team who joined the class from the TP52s, explains what he sees as some of the attractions of the Melges 40: “It is super fun because it is a new generation one-design, there are so many things to learn.

Pleasing detailing includes the carbon tiller, set relatively far forward as per current trends

“The keel position upwind is usually fully canted to 45°. Downwind it is very challenging to understand so if you want to you can have the crew maybe not full hiking but with the keel up, or you can do the opposite – there so many different modes.

“For example, we saw that when we are sailing in 11-13 knots we use 20° keel and the boat is sailing 143°-145° TWA. When it is lighter you are sailing with the keel in the middle and more like normal. It is very unique.”

Even the most experienced teams like Stig and Inga have still only sailed between 30 and 40 days on the water so far and so there is still a lot to learn. The finer points of the tactical choices are all part of the learning curve.

Among the fleet there seemed to be a real camaraderie, all of the teams debriefing together on the Real Club Náutico de Palma’s pontoon.

Four buttons control the keel, usually operated by the tactician or runner trimmer

Inga ’s owner, Richard Goransson, came from the Farr 30 into the Melges 32 having won the US Nationals and the European Series: “You have to plan your tactics just a little bit further ahead. A lee-bow is not so easy to pull off because if you come in too close you won’t make your tack.

“It is all about tacking and the keel dictates the speed of your tack. You turn the boat at the same speed as the keel and come out high, then bring the bow down. If you lean over then it is really hard to get back up.

“To maintain speed out of the tack you need to be quite careful. We are all learning that. It is super close racing, one boat length of a gain is like: ‘We crushed them!’”

Onboard power

Melges was adamant that a 40-footer that makes 22-23 knots downwind should not have a prop dragging in the water, so the prop is lifted before racing. The inner power pack, PLC brain and remote control are all controlled by the engine.

The hydraulics run off two batteries for the canting keel. After three races there is usually still 60 per cent of battery capacity left so the boats should be capable of two days racing autonomously.

The footrests are long enough to be used by both the mainsheet trimmer and tactician

Botin’s Carrau confirms: “You always return to the boat with a smile on your face. That is not marketing speak. I have always returned to the dock with a smile on my face. Everyone always looks forwards to going sailing in 20 knots and big waves because it is so easy to sail. It will go 23 to 24 knots.”

He smiles, “Who needs foils? It is very simple. Keeping it simple was our priority. It is very easy to get very complicated very quickly. Complex boats are appealing but at 40ft they quickly need a shore team to maintain and you need an engineering team.

“We wanted to avoid experiments. After all, in the round the world races the canting keel system here is well proven. So we are not inventing anything, we are putting pre-existing technology in a production boat.”

Melges 40 Specification

LOA : 11.99m (39ft 4in) LWL: 11.10m (36ft 5in) Beam: 3.53m (11ft 7in) Displacement (lightship): 3,250kg (7,165lb) Draught: 3.20m (10ft 6in) Crew weight (max): 750kg (1,653lb) Engine: 20hp Fin weight: 100kg (220lb) Bulb weight: 1,100 kg (2,425lb) Canting keel angle: 45° Mainsail area: 72m 2 (775ft 2 ) Jib area: 49m 2 (527ft 2 ) Gennaker area: 200m 2 (2,152ft 2 )

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Designed by Botin Partners Naval Architecture and built by Premier Composite Technologies, the Melges 40 is a weapon for windward/leeward, inshore and coastal racing. Fresh off the design line, the Melges 40 strengthens a unique sailing/racing experience.

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Melges 40, the new reference for the one-design 40-foot sailboat?

With its new Melges 40, the American brand wants to relaunch the 40-foot one-design sector. Tilting keel and top-of-the-range construction are on the sailboat's menu to meet the challenge.

First One-Design with tilting keel

Melges' new yacht is a high-tech bet The Melges 40 is the first monotype with a canting keel. The electro-hydraulic pack and powerful batteries ensure that the rocking movement takes place in a very short time. "Transfers and gybes are as simple and fast as on a classic boat" according to Federico Michetti, Melges Europe's manager. The new appendage increases performance and sail area while maintaining performance on banana courses, a new challenge with a canting keel.

Careful construction

The largest unit marketed by Melges, the Melges 40 is the brand's first keelboat entirely made of carbon fibre. Instead of producing these highly technical yachts itself, Melges chose to partner with Premier Composite Technologies, based in Dubai. It has made a name for itself in carbon racing yachts with units like the TP 52 Platoon.

Create a new 40-foot one-design circuit

"Since the gradual disappearance of the Farr 40, the one-design sailboat market around 40 feet is very scattered. The objective with the Melges 40 is therefore to tackle this market, with its own technological style, and to relaunch a large fleet. The goal is to quickly create a club of owners, with 15 to 20 boats, racing together in the most beautiful places in the world. "says Federico Michetti

A niche market

With a budget of $650,000 for a complete boat, the Melges 40 will not be accessible to everyone. It will initially reach the classic Melges Europe markets of Italy, Sweden, Germany and Russia.

As the manager of Melges Europe points out,"the regatta market is a niche and the technical regatta market like Melges is a niche in the niche Nevertheless, he is convinced, the customers are there, who"feel old not to fly on foils and who want to add a little spice in their way of sailing

Published on April 28th, 2016 | by Editor

Melges 40 Gets Released

Published on April 28th, 2016 by Editor -->

For more than 70 years, Melges Performance Sailboats has delivered scows for inland sailors, and later spread their wings into the sportboats arena. And now their newly announced Melges 40 is taking another grand step. Here is the Melges update released April 28th:

Designed by Botin Partners Naval Architecture and built by Premier Composite Technologies (PCT), this collaboration has created a one-of-a-kind, exciting, innovative-racing experience.

“We are thrilled to present the Melges 40, which will open the doors to a bright new future in the world of monohull, one-design, in-shore racing,” said Harry Melges, CEO of Melges Performance Sailboats. “We’ve always believed that one-design racing is sailing’s greatest strength, as it feeds all other aspects of the sport. We are excited about the Melges 40 because it will inspire and encourage sailors all over the world, regardless of age, gender or experience to have fun and enjoy sailing.”

“Fundamentally, it best represents our core values and philosophy,” said Federico Michetti, president of Melges Europe. “We’ve taken it to a whole new level by collaborating with the most visionary and award-winning yacht designer of the last decade, and one of the world’s best boat builders.”

“For years, customers and top teams alike approached us demanding a unique package that featured full-carbon technology – sculpted performance from bow to stern,” explained Michetti. “The Melges 40 is a very special boat in that it’s the culmination of input from our best customers, owners and respected professional sailors, which is built within class rule and where the focus has been set to contain overall running cost. They asked for something that is 100% Melges concept – a boat that embodies the extraordinary.”

Botin jumped at the chance to design Melges’ largest boat ever made to date. “Melges is a pure sailing legend, and this was an opportunity for us to design something very new and different,” said Marcelino Botin. “The design compliments the Melges brand, and upholds their top-quality ideals. With respect to their philosophy, we proposed a design that adopts and introduces new features and concepts. The Melges 40 creates a new benchmark for performance in the 40-foot range.”

“For sure the Melges 40 is a new starting point in the sailing world,” said Max Waimer, Head of Marine and Technical Director at Premier Composite Technologies. “We share the same passion as Melges and Botin for creating not only a exceptional boat, but a very new, competitive racing experience. We truly have a common vision. The additional input from customers has made a big difference too. We put all of our production expertise and technology into the Melges 40.”

“Utilizing our in-house, 5-axis milling capacity, rigorous quality control and weight management, the Melges 40 is the most precise, one design ever built,” he added.

Premier Composite Technologies is the exclusive builder of the Melges 40.

FALL HEAD OVER CANTING KEEL A canting keel and large sail plan aboard the Melges 40 increases upwind performance and creates a dramatically faster, thrilling downwind run. It will be unmistakably fun to drive, a real thoroughbred. Already, top international owners and teams have committed to the Melges 40 program in full anticipation of sailing by Fall 2016. The very first Melges 40 World Series event will take place in 2017. VISIT MELGES40.COM TO RECEIVE UPDATES A website and digital presentation can be found online at melges40.com . Downloadable PDFs that contain specifications and a sail plan are all available. The Melges 40 can also be found on a number of social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Be sure to LIKE and follow the Melges 40. You may also Sign-Up to Received Melges 40 News Updates and Press Releases, and event announcements.

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Sailboat specifications

• Last update: 20th March 2020

Melges 40's main features

Melges 40's main dimensions, melges 40's rig and sails, melges 40's performances, melges 40's auxiliary engine, melges 40's accommodations and layout.

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How it's Made: Designing the All-New Melges 40 Sails

With a history of world-class sail design, Quantum’s experts are at it again creating the next class of championship sails. Quantum’s Vice President of Design & Engineering Robert Ranzenbach gives us a look at what it takes to design and produce the first generation of a new one design class and how we designed the new Melges 40 sails.

Creating sails for one design classes requires a careful collaboration between many people. When such an effort is hitting on all cylinders, this coordinated approach can yield amazing results, like the Quantum-powered one design teams who won recent world championships in the Melges 24, Melges 32, Farr 40 , and TP 52 classes. We’ve recently turned our award-winning strategy to the new Melges 40 class, where we’re expecting similar world class results. Here’s an inside look at what it takes to create championship-winning one design sails.

It Takes a Village

They say it takes a village, and that’s definitely true when it comes to sail creation. The sail designer and sailmaker aren’t enough. The boat owner, boat designer, boat builder, mast designer/builder, class representation, sailmakers, and professional sailors all contribute when creating sails for a new class.

At Quantum, our Inshore and Offshore One Design Directors coordinate entire teams of experts. Our technical team includes the Vice President of Design and Engineering, Vice President of Production, designers, master sailmakers, and class gurus. You’ll notice that our team includes more than one sail designer – Quantum purposely avoids designer exclusivity to ensure that each sail design includes the very best input from our entire team of experts.

For the Melges 40 class, the team included some of the best in the business: Scott Nixon, Jordi Calafat, Doug Stewart, Paul Tingle, Andrew Scott, and Dr. Robert Ranzenbach.

More Than Just Triangles

Beyond the obvious design and material requirements, creating new sails also has to takes into consideration the following:

• Flying shapes appropriate to performance characteristics of the boat
• Fit to boat/rig
• Finishing Details
• Tuning Guide
• Cost Containment

Typically, the boat designer (in this case Botin Partners) provides Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) output for the boat. Using this information, the Quantum team compares performance against other similar boats then begins developing the basic framework for the inventory.

iQ Technology®

Next, using Quantum’s exclusive iQ Technology® software, we fine tune the flying shapes to maximize the boat’s performance.

An important element of iQ Technology® is high-fidelity fluid structure interaction simulations (FSI), which integrate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with structural calculations via finite element analysis (FEA). These fancy terms are steps that help us optimize sail structures and accurately predict flying shapes and sail forces. The sail designer can use this information in two ways: to ensure a careful fit of the non-overlapping headsails and to study various girth sizes on all sails to establish rational baselines for the class rules.

Next, Quantum works with the mast designer (Southern Spars) to ensure that mast properties are aligned to achieve the most desirable sail shapes. This is the same approach we used with Quantum Racing in the TP 52 class, which ultimately led to a new mast structure. This type of collaboration also provides an opportunity for the boat designer to organize all sheeting positions on the deck and to help influence the optimization of the boat’s structure.

It’s All in the Details

Once the baseline sails are designed, the designers fine tune the build details with the production team to ensure that the little, but critically important, details are just right. Then the production team prepares detailed construction drawings to ensure that the sails maintain Quantum’s production standards. “Our assembly team works closely with design and manufacturing to make sure our finish work is constantly improving in our Grand Prix classes, like the TP 52 and Melges classes,” said Paul Tingle, one of Quantum’s top Grand Prix sailmakers.

Always Be Testing

Even with all of this information and the expertise of Quantum’s technical team, real-world testing is still an important element of the overall process.

The predictions for the Melges 40 indicates it will be an extremely powerful canting keel sport boat. With that in mind, Quantum’s sail designers created a flatter mainsail and deeper jibs to help front load the boat, making for better balance and VMG sailing. They’ll analyze these designs in December with their first on-the-water test. Sail shape data collected on the water (using photogrammetric tools developed by VSPARS) will be relayed to the rest of the design/build team. The sails will continue to be fine-tuned until they’re delivered, making sure every aspect of the sail meets Quantum’s understandably high expectations.

“The Quantum process has been refined and validated in the Melges keelboat classes over the years,” said Scott Nixon, Quantum’s Global Offshore One Design Director, and a Melges 32 World Champion. “We have always treated the Melges classes as grand prix classes that deserve our full attention to the details that make fast and user-friendly sails for our clients. We work closely with our clients and their sailing teams to make sure our sails are constantly improving.

“We put our top effort into every one design class we work on, and we’re looking forward to continue validating our design process during the Melges 40 on-the-water testing phase this winter in Dubai. We rely heavily on two-boat testing and information exchange between our top Melges 40 teams to develop top sails as quickly as possible. Quantum’s standard for great results, top client service, sail support, up-to-date tuning, and continued improvement will continue in this new and exciting class. We’re ready for the challenges the Melges 40 class brings to the table “

Grand Prix programs, especially the TP52 and Melges 32 programs, are not just testing programs for our latest technologies but also the validation platforms for our sail design process. Just like we are constantly tweaking and enhancing our sail designs, we’re also tweaking and enhancing our processes. It’s this dedication to never settling that gives teams confidence when they hit the water with our sails.

Visit the iQ Technology® information page to learn more about the technology and process behind our sails.

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Melges 40 Grand Prix racer

Most of us got a bit bored during lockdown and bought a few things online that we really didn’t need . . . but a grand prix race boat? That’s pretty hard to hide in the back of the wardrobe. Sarah Ell investigates.

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron commodore Aaron Young wasn’t the only one. His mate and former commodore Steve Mair did the same thing, and now two other Kiwi owners have got in on the act. Four near-new Melges 40 one-design race boats have found their way downunder and are forming the basis of a new 12-metre division on Auckland Harbour.

“That 40-foot size is really where it’s at – it’s always been a popular size in New Zealand over the years,” Young says. “We had some discussion with the other 40-footer owners who wanted to set up their own division. We needed to get six boats to get our own start but we’ve currently got nine, and we think we can get 12 or so. “It’s a good size – you only need eight or nine crew rather than 13 or 14 for a 50-footer – they’re easier to manage, lower loads on everything and less expensive overall to run.” Originally Young and Mair’s plan had been to keep their boats the same and run a two-boat programme, but other owners have different goals so the fleet won’t remain truly one-design. So far though their performance seems very equal, although Mair’s crew came out on top by four minutes in the Coastal. Checkmate is named after one of the first boats Young remembers sailing with his father – a One-Tonner launched in 1977 and designed by his grandfather, the legendary Jim Young. Jim Young passed away in June, but he knew the new Checkmate was on the way. “I did tell him just before he died that I was getting back into a racing boat, and he said ‘I hope it foils’. I said I didn’t manage to get a foiling boat, but it is a canter. He replied that it was lucky I was commodore of the squadron, because they banned him when he was sailing Fiery Cross !” This was New Zealand’s first-ever canting keel boat, a boat well ahead of its time which Young designed and built in the late 1950s.

* A note on pronunciation: we Kiwis tend to say Mel-jess or Mel-jizz, while Americans say Melgus. And is the plural therefore Melgees or Meljesus?

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The New Melges 40

North leads the way towards the new melges 40.

When a new high-performance boat comes on the market, the pressure is on to meet the expectations of everyone involved in the project: the designer, builder, class promoters, industry providers, media and – most importantly – the owners and crews. The higher the performance, the greater the expectations and the lower are the acceptable margins for error. New boats of this genre must be fast out of the box with little or no lead time available for testing and refinement: everyone wants one, so the first one built and launched will command great attention and must meet all expectations to provide that Wow factor needed to help launch the class into success.

The new Botin-designed Melges 40 is a perfect example of such a high-profile new design, with the global reputation of Melges on the line. Designer Marcelino Botin has said “Melges is a pure sailing legend, and this was an opportunity for us to design something very new and different. The design compliments the Melges brand, and upholds their top-quality ideals. With respect to their philosophy, we proposed a design that adopts and introduces new features and concepts. The Melges 40 creates a new benchmark for performance in the 40-foot range.”

Builder Max Waimer at Premier Composite Technologies said “For sure the Melges 40 is a new starting point in the sailing world. We share the same passion as Melges and Botin for creating not only an exceptional boat, but a very new, competitive racing experience. We truly have a common vision. The additional input from customers has made a big difference too. We put all of our production expertise and technology into the Melges 40.”

So, with this backdrop in mind, how is North meeting this demand to have the fastest sails ready for this exciting new one design?

The answer is in the process North has established to be intimately involved throughout the design development of the boat to gather the details on the rigging, spar set-up, and even the equipment on board to help advise on solutions that will benefit not only designing fast sails but also contribute to achieving the overall goals of the project. Participation in these formative stages helps in ensuring accuracy in not only the detailed sail geometries, but also in anticipating other important aspects of performance that affects the sails, such as crew work and the deck layouts that support their efficiency.

With this information the North Design Suite of sophisticated computational tools can be used to replicate the details of how the spar and sails integrate with the boat’s design to produce these expected levels of high performance. These tools have been used successfully and refined repeatedly for the past several years on a wide variety of boats, ranging from small keel boats to Maxis, so the process is well-proven and has led to North’s widespread success in all these classes.

Not only does this process help in the accuracy of sail design, but establishing a detailed knowledge base on the ground floor of a new project has other benefits, such as anticipating the content for a tuning guide that is ready to use at the first launch rather than having to wait for the completion of extensive sessions of sail testing.

Being a regular sail trimmer on Steve and Heidi Benjamin’s HPR 40 and now their TP 52 called SPOOKIE, North sail designer Chris Williams has a perfect perspective to the development and design process for the new Melges 40. “This boat is truly unique,” he says. “Besides having lots of sail area, the canting keel gives it a righting moment that is 20% greater than an HPR 40, so there is tremendous power and speed potential, and modeling the sails to drive its performance is not just using a variation of any existing designs.”

Williams explains more on the particulars:

“We started work on this early with Southern Spars to identify the rig parameters so we could set up the sail plan properly using DesMan. On any boat the headstay characteristics are an important driver for jib design since it governs the luff tension, and for the Melges 40 we know there is no hydraulic ram for this adjustment, so we then knew the runner winch would control this for the boat. We then looked in detail at the runner set-up: the winch size and how much power it could generate, and the location of the runners and how efficient they would be in transferring the load to the headstay. We then urged the class design team to move the runners as close as possible to centerline so no moment would cause the spar to twist and throw off the tuning calculations.

“Once we recreated the spar’s properties in DesMan, we used Flow and Membrain to model our first test sails on the virtual yacht and start iterating towards greater refinement in the designs. This allows us to give some meaningful feedback to the class managers in which we helped establish some parameters for the One Design class rules and build specs for the yacht. An example of this is knowing the exact placement of the spar doubler: this ensures every yacht’s spars will work with any sail. Modeling the mast bends and jib trims through their ranges of different tunes and jack loads allows us to maximize the size and roach profile of the light air jibs and their batten placement relative to the available space in the foretriangle.”

After this crucial first step, the sail designs and their MemBrain modeling data are forwarded to other members in the North design team, who with their individual and collective experiences accumulated over dozens of similar projects can further refine their accuracy. For the Melges 40 these team members include Giovanni Cassinari, who is not only a North Sails sail designer and mainsail trimmer on the SuperSeries 52 Azzurra, but also will be racing on the new Melges 40 Inga; Marchino Capitani, another North Sails designer, coach of Azzurra, and an Inga team member; and Per Anderson, North Sails head of design.

“I’m sure the sails will be tweaked slightly with the overall goal of making sure that the first set built follow very closely to the ideas and design concepts of the group as a whole,” says Williams. “There are always many ways to skin a cat here, so the hard part is to make sure the sails are not designed by a committee so much as input and experience is given and shared by a group then correlated into a fast suite of sails.”

Finally, another important factor in the project was in working with the Melges 40 class to determine the optimal sail inventories needed for this boat through its range of performance, mindful that the class is interested in minimizing cost through allowing too many sails in the inventory and also being sensible their replacements. For the Melges 40 it was determined that 3 full-sized jibs was the best solution given not only the boat’s performance through the range of conditions but also their intended schedule of races and venues.

Part of this discussion is driven by the durability of the sails and their ability retain their performance shape through an acceptable lifespan. For the Melges 40 Williams says 3Di Raw materials will be used in the upwind sails, with a mix of tapes and their composition to be determined when the mold shapes and designs are finalized. He reckons that this brand new boat with its canting keel and massive sail area will have steep learning curves for the sailors, yet the accuracy and efficiency of the North Design Suite process will ensure that the first generation upwind sails and rig tuning guidelines from North will be at 95% of their ultimate level of development…this is highly encouraging news for those first few owners who want to come out of the box with fast results and remain fast as the class grows and develops.

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Texas school bus with over 40 pre-k students crashes, killing 2: authorities.

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A school bus carrying more than 40 prekindergarten students on a field trip collided with a concrete truck and rolled over Friday in Texas, killing two people, authorities said.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Deon Cockrell said another vehicle was also involved in the crash in the suburbs outside Austin.

He did not know which vehicles the victims were in.

Cockrell said others who were injured were airlifted to hospitals, but he did not know how many.

The Hays Consolidated Independent School District said the bus was involved in a “serious accident” while returning from a field trip to a zoo.

Passengers on board included 44 students and 11 adults, the district said in a statement.

A large presence of first responders and emergency vehicles could be seen along the tree-lined highway after the crash, and the bus was upright but leaning to one side.

The top portion of the bus’ front was crumpled, and much of another vehicle nearby was pulverized. Personal items were strewn across the highway.

The school district said the students attend Tom Green Elementary School in Buda, which is about 16 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Austin.

The school district said parents of the students on the bus were notified of the accident and the district was working to reunite them.

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