I had the opportunity to have a first sail on an m244 today and thought it'd be a good idea to share my initial reactions...
A little background ...
John Horemans, Alistair, Shirley Cheung, and myself set out this afternoon after scavenging minimum safety gear.
Winds were very light (only a few knots) at first then increased to 10 - 12 kts when we were further out (for the second time).
Rigging the boat:
Not much to do just open the companionway, attach the main halyard.
Departure:
Started outboard casted off and backed out. Helmsman position on stbd rail aft nestled with back on stbd pushppit rail very secure. Also good location to shift gears and adjust throttle.
(NOTE: Bolt which adjusts friction for turning of motor must be sufficiently tight so that engine will remain pointed where you leave it - usually straight. We had to adjust ours cuz it was turning on its own and you end up short of hands to manage the helm and the motor when it turns on its own.
Not much power required to get boat moving but seems to have less momentum then sharks or J's had (probably due to fact boat is lighter).
Backed out very handily.
Raising the Mainsail
Headed toward the lake and chose to raise the mainsail in the channel.
Headed to wind and we raised the mainsail but found that it took longer then we are used to due to fact it goes up 1 foot for every 2 feet of halyard pull. Need to take this into account so as to avoid close encounters with Mimico / EYC docks.
Unfurling the Headsail
Kind of a non event but luff seems slack albeit the sail shape was not bad. There isn't a halyard to tighten as the halyard seems to be a line which runs inside the luff-line and is tensioned there as part of the rigging process. More investigation / learning needed here.
Sailing!
Tacked back and forth up the channel and discovered that the helm is very well balanced and the boat answers readily even with very little way on. The rather modest sized headsail switches tacks very easily say compared with a 150% genoa on certain other boats. The sheets which cross on opposite sides feel odd at first but work well enough provided you keep them free , un-entangled and primed for the next tack.
The mainsail in light winds tends to have the upper half remain convex to windward as the battens stubbornly refuse to "turn inside out" even when you give the leech a shake- a problem that is not seen when the wind picks up. This is probably a case of those crisp new sails.
Kept the engine running in neutral till we got out of the channel then shut it down.
Pulled the engine up by kneeling in front of it, reaching, releasing and pulling it up. Some care is needed (and this would be especially true in large waves) to keep your c of g inboard rather then go for a swim.
With engine in the tilted up position it is useful to turn it all the way over so that the throttle side is facing the sky and the throttle arm is all the way up. This gives the tiller lots of room to turn without hitting it.
Becalmed
Yeah it happened - stuck in a dead spot out front of channel...
Back to the Club
Alistair had to get back so we headed back in. Dropped and started engine, Furled the Headsail (on broad reach as prescribed). Didn't try (but want to later) furling on other points of sail).
Motored into channel with headsail up, went head to wind, dropped sail then motored in. New sail is slippery, stiff, and awkward to flake so we did a sloppy job (hey we were goin' out again).
For dock approach tested inertia of boat in channel. Slows down (and speeds up) much faster than J's / Sharks. Did not attempt to control forward motion with reverse thrust but it might work.
Drop and go
Dropped off Alistair and immediately headed out this time up the channel at full throttle. Boat moves very well under power - hauls ass!
Real Sailing!
Had to motor out to wind area and things picked up to 10 - 12 knots (whitecaps forming). Now the boat takes almost no breeze to push it along quite nicely but with a bit of wind and the odd gust its like sailing a racing dinghy. It accelerates fast and that big mainsail powers it along like you will not believe. As we were pushing up to 12 kts it started to feel like a handful close-hauled with a substantial heel. Could level things off by moving off wind a bit but our view was that probably 12 kts is when you should start to think about a reef - depending on how comfortable you want to be or how much excitement you want.
Seemed like a good time to try heaving to which we did and the boat behaved very predictably - settled down moved downwind and slightly forward while hove to.
While we were at it we threw in a reef which unfortunately required that we use a sail tie on the leech. We have to rig a reefing line (and the block on the boom to make it work) because this method is not safe. Under reefed main with 12kts it still humped along damn good. (No knotmeter yet so no recorded speeds but it still felt good).
Oh and we tried a a few gybes. These work well but even controlled gybes need some additional care since the boat reacts very quickly.
The helm requires that helmspersons use the tiller extension which works very well but Shark sailors used to gripping the tiller may need some practice before they are comfy. J sailors should be okay if they were used to the tiller extensions on those boats. I can't imagine anyone sitting inboard and using the blocky looking tiller on its own.
Oh but what a hoot to sail especially when we passed one of our J/24's like it was standing still. (Back at the dock the J sailors pointed out that they were mainsail battenless) - Ah I see (not).
Ended up in that calm spot in front of the channel (again) with the rain coming so we (regretfully) headed in.
Bringing down the mainsail - Just a caution that the aft flaker must stand forward of the tiller arc so as to avoid impeding steering (also for approaching the dock).
Some nits to pick
No end cap on boom.
Need to put proper dock lines on recognizing there are few cleats / padeyes and no fairleads.
Need new fenders (on order)
Spectra life lines need to be tighter (perhaps install the lower one).
All running rigging is spectra and of smaller dia then we are used to but work well. All need ends to be treated (heat-shrink tubing?)
Double sheeted main is tricky to cleat when sitting high on the rail (you must lean over and ensure you grab lines close to cleat OR use your foot to press the lines into the cleat).
Main halyard spinlock cleat works well but you must believe that it will!
Need instruments (Depth, Knotmeter, Compass) (Coming)
Companionway door must be well secured below.
Fenders thrown on floor (a la shark method) no good for m244's as cabin sole is small area and you'll end up tripping on them.
Inner shrouds were very slack - not sure what the proper tune should be.
Did not try the anchor but unless we use the padeye on the stem other solutions will likely cause the rode to chafe on the rail. Can't really imagine that a stern deployed anchor will work well but would be okay in an emerg.
Nifty mainsail slide which halyard threads thru before attaching to headboard needs to be coaxed back to deck level from up the mast (by patiently shaking the halyard).
The main halyard must be unthreaded from the slide so that it may be used for the topping lift.
Conclusion
I am well satisfied (excited) with the m244 performance and sailability. I think we have a few tweaks to do to render them fully usable by the general club membership. It would be my recommendation to only release them to use by club members after the mentors use them for their Club Instructor training, after the few tweaks have been done, and perhaps once we have established a standard walkthough of the features that mentors or instructors (or even already indoctrinated members) can do for other members.
These are going to be extremely popular at the club - I think we're gonna find that we should have bought a few more.
Dave Culm
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