M242 Fleet One

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Racing Concept of the Month #7
The “racing concept of the month” articles are way of sharing the general racing knowledge that has been developed over the decades in the Martin 242 fleet – this is the seventh of a series (ok...not quite montlhy). All are loosely based on the excellent content in this article by Michael Clements.

Shifting Gears

One of the beautiful things about racing the Martin 242 is that it’s a very simple boat to sail – a true sailor’s boat. Winning and losing races most often comes down to the skill of the crew, rather than the subtle demons of boat setup or sail trim that can consume you in more complicated boats.

That said, there’s still some thought that should be given to setting up your boat for different conditions to maximize performance. For a simple view of this I’ve broken sailing conditions up into three different modes:

1)      Light – Need Power
2)      Medium – Good Power
3)      Heavy – Too Much Power

Exact wind ranges and sea states are just a rough guide – but in the Martin 242 “Light” is something like 0-6 knots, “Medium” is 6-12 knots, and “Heavy” anything above about 12 knots of windspeed. Sea state is also a factor, in general the flatter the water the more set up towards the Heavy side you can be for less power and more point, and the lumpier it is the more you need to set up towards the Light side so you can have some extra power to keep the boat moving through the chop. The “Good Power” condition is any time you can control heel of the boat with crew weight alone, without having to start depowering the sail plan.

As I said, there’s not all that much to tweak on the Martin, but here’s a list of things to adjust, roughly in order of most to least important.

Read more: Shifting Gears

Martin 242 Fleet Featured in Sailing in Canada Magazine

Check out this article highlighting the Martin 242 fleet in the pacific northwest!

For those that haven't checked this magazine out - it's a pretty great online resource for sailboat racing in Canada.

New Crew Night Vancouver - Fleet 1 - Outstanding Turnout

The Fleet 1 (Vancouver & BC Mainland) New Crew Night was held on March 29, with just under 100 people in attendance (double 2022), including 21 boat owners plus 4 additional boat skippers.

Participants were shown a presentation about Martin 242’s, followed by a walk down to the Dry Dock to see the boats. Crew aspirants also participated in 30-question-quiz about the Martin 242 Class and then engaged in the “speed-dating” portion where the potential crew met owners and skippers.

Thanks go to Matt Collingwood as prime organizer of the event, his 4th year of involvement, plus Anthony Collett, Adrienne Mennell, Peter Grimm, Judith Roos-McClacherty, SiNae Park, James Pettit, and Michael Clements.

Thanks to our principal sponsors Ullman Sails of Newport Beach & MG Marine of Los Angeles