Melonseed Skiff, Page 2 |
The cambered deck has a non-skid finish in a buff-colored gelcoat that looks and feels a little like canvas. And the hatch between the daggerboard slot and mast has molded in wood grain. Daggerboard and rudder are made of teak plywood. The oak tiller fits into a custom bronze rudderhead made in the shop.
Crawford’s mold-work is excellent, as the dark green gelcoat confirms. Dark colors make a hull’s dimples and bumps stand out. You won’t find any on the Melonseed.
The Smithsonian’s melon seed has only 54 square feet of sail, but the hull is stable enough to handle more than 70. Crawford chose 62 square feet.
He kept the sprit rig but added a sprit boom to control twist in the sail and lift at the foot when the boat sails off the wind, both of which cause the rhythmic rolling that can end in a broach. The sprit boom extends upward at a modest angle from the clew of the sail to a rope on the mast
called a snotter. When the sail tries to lift or twist off, the geometry of the boom causes the foot of the sail to tension and act as a yang. The mainsheet leads through a small bronze block on the rudderhead and can be cleated to a Clamcleat on the tiller.
Versatile Sailer
Crawford’s fiberglass Melonseed gives away nothing to its plank-on-frame counterparts. In many ways, it’s a better boat. I owned and sailed a wooden version for six years. My boat was built of cedar over oak framing. Dry and rigged, it weighed about 250 pounds. Fully soaked from a season of sailing and rowing, it must have weighed close to 300 pounds. In spite of the weight, its performance never disappointed me.
Crawford’s Melonseed weighs less than 200 pounds, fully rigged. You don’t have to be a naval architect to realize that the fiberglass version will accelerate more quickly and be faster off the wind than the wooden boat.
“Now, in traditional boats,” Crawford says, “acceptable performance for the buyer, the industry, and the builder on a scale of one to 10 appears to be five or six. If you can get a traditional boat to be adequate in its performance and speed, windward ability, rowing ability, and so on, everybody applauds you as being successful. But we’ve got a boat here that’s 100 years old, and it’s as fast as nearly everything you’re going to sail against.”
An hour aboard the Crawford Melonseed in light and fluky air on Duxbury Bay, Duxbury, Massachusetts, and a few hours of racing on the Delaware River off the Red Dragon Canoe Club, Edgewater Park, New Jersey, confirmed what the moderate sail arealdisplacement ratio suggests
and what Crawford learned in sailing hull number one.
In winds of 20-25 knots on relatively flat water, even my heavy wooden melon seed would exceed its theoretical hull speed, the way a semi-displacement hull does. The stern squatted, and she gathered speed in a single deliberate rush—no perceptible transitionary humps. No doubt Crawford’s lightweight Melonseed will plane in similar conditions. Sitting well forward in the cockpit ought to help her get up, as will keeping her sailing on the leeward bilge.
Little boats generally have a corky motion in rough water. The Melonseed is no exception, but its motion feels gentle, and lacks the quickness that can cause some boats to pound. Credit for the pleasant motion goes to the fine entry, buoyant midsection, and sweeping run. The motion of the
fiberglass version suffers a bit from its lightness, but the difference isn’t significant.
The daggerboard is shaped like a scimitar and has a lot of area for the boat’s size. It enables the Melonseed to hang on well to windward, but you’ll want to raise it by half when you’re reaching or running in a blow because the boat can trip on the board. The shallow barn-door rudder has plenty of area and is more effective than its depth suggests.
One disadvantage of the shallow rudder compared to a deep one shows up in rough water. A short steep chop of 2 feet or more will sometimes lift the rudder clear off the water. If you’re running before a fresh breeze with the daggerboard down when the rudder loses its bite, the boat can broach. You would expect such a handy little boat to tack quickly, but the Melonseed is very deliberate. The barn-door rudder and skeg that make the boat track well under oars also cause it to sail through a tack, instead of spinning in its own length the way a Laser tacks. Also, because the rudder is so long fore and aft, it will act as a brake if you put the helm down too quickly.
Rowing the Melonseed is a treat. In order to keep from cluttering the cockpit, Crawford didn’t add a rowing thwart. You just sit on a pair of flotation cushions. They are comfortable and can be adjusted fore and aft to suit your tastes in rowing position. Under oars, the boat tracks beauti-
fully, carries well, and turns quickly.
The Melonseed Skiff is almost twice the price of a Sunfish or Laser and isn’t as fast as either one. What do you get for your money? Versatility. You can’t row either of these popular sailboats, nor can you sail with a friend or two in any degree of comfort. The Melonseed also is more stable and drier in all conditions and offers the adventurous skipper the option of serious beach cruising.
