Displaying items by tag: Aegean

1st May 2012

Three Dead, One Missing After Second California Yacht Accident in Weeks

#CALIFORNIA YACHT ACCIDENT - Three sailors are dead and a fourth is missing at sea after their racing yacht disintegrated after a collision with a larger boat off the coast of California, as Sky News reports.

The 37-foot racing yacht the Aegean was competing in the 124-mile Newport to Ensenada Race when it disappeared off the official race tracking system near the US-Mexico border on Saturday.

Race patrol officer Eric Lamb spotted the debris of the yacht, which investigators believe collided with a much larger ship such as a freighter or tanker. Lamb commented that the boat looked as if it "had gone through a blender".

The bodies of three crew were recovered by the US Coast Guard, but the search continues for a fourth person is still missing in the Pacific Ocean.

It marks the second major yacht racing accident to result in deaths in recent weeks, coming just a fortnight after Irish sailors Alan Cahill and Elmer Morrissey were lost in what was described as San Francisco's worst ever yachting accident.

Published in News Update

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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.