Mighty Merloe

[AClass USA 230]

Thank you HMB for the first-hand data.

The lack of capital doesn't explain the condition of the engine, headsails, mainsail, and hull in Acapulco. You don't need money to practice good seamanship, or to clean up your chaos. You do, however, need knowledge.

I found this to be one of the most insightful comments in this entire thread. The video of DL sailing the boat under bare poles and the condition of the boat while under sail is painful to watch. It’s heartbreaking to see a tragic ending looming in the near future for MM.

 

[timotheysski]

MM on a beam reach from Facebook

New video in from 2 days ago. Boat actually seems decently put together in this one besides the stuff sitting behind the crossbeam (mooring line?) and the halyard/cable on the forestay being so loose. I imagine is it a halyard.
I may be wrong but I believe on these boats you never put that there because of how easily the rig could tension up and rip the pulpit out (it now flies around in the air). An easy fix for that is to make it slack, which seems to be the DL method, but I'd be concerned about it slapping around. Surely they is a tack point somewhere. To be honest, probably used to live on the sprit which was "intentionally removed".

This seems to be about 15-20 knots of wind, maybe gusting more, hard to tell with the glare, but few whitecaps, and I totally understand DL would want to be cautious with his sail plan because it's famously the death zone for trimarans (both heading up and down will lead to an increase in power and heel the boat. However, that 2 reef (from visual estimation) + J1 config is straight out of J-boat cruising and besides being slow I think it could be made both faster and safer.

In my multihull experience, you would want a more powerful main (1 reef or even unreefed) and a smaller headsail (J2 or even J3). The idea is as you speed up with the main and the apparent goes farther forward, that small headsail really begins to work, and you're able to maintain this equilibrium of speed where going fast keeps the apparent forward which keeps you going fast. That's why you always see foiling IMOCAs blast reaching with their J2/J3 out and trimarans sometimes with a seemingly way too small headsail but a HUGE main.
Like this:

(concept still applies to foilers and left boat is a C foil like MM anyways)
and not like this (imagine small mainsail lol):

Besides making you significantly faster, the center of effort would shift MUCH farther back. Can't blame Don for being slow here as surely if he tried to speed up, his big J1 would drive that leeward hull down into the abyss. It's the same principle as any Hobie 16 or that 30-ish ft catamaran he "skippered" to win the Chesapeake Bay multihull thing. On monohulls, headsails can lift the bow up and out, and when they pitch you down, you have a comparatively huge volume for support. On a multihull, headsails just want to bury the bows. Most helpful thing to making a tri less sketchy is to reduce headsail area.

On a side note, I think it's sad he's just given up on using anything other than the furling J1/J2/J3. The J1 is a light-air upwind/reaching sail. Sure it'll probably hold for what he intends to do with it (use as Code 0, he says it elsewhere) but what a joke coming from someone aspiring to race records. This guy can't even run any kites for light air, windseekers, fractional reachers, and any kind of powerful reaching headsail! How does he expect to sail the boat fast, forget about record-pace, with a third of its sail inventory?!

 

[F18 Sailor]

How does he expect to sail the boat fast, forget about record-pace, with a third of its port ama delaminating of its sail inventory?!

FIFY. Sail inventory is the least of DL's problems.

 

[Rasputin22]

When I see the title to this thread I can't help but read it as

Mangled Merloe...

 

[Trevor B]

It’s a very sad and very public way for one of the best boats ever to die.

 

[unShirley]

I do find it a blessing we mean so much to so many people!

that is a quote of Captain Donald Lawson. What he doesn't understand is that it isn't him that means so much to so many people...

It’s a very sad and very public way for one of the best boats ever to die.

It is the boat that we are care about.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

It’s heartbreaking to see a tragic ending looming in the near future for MM.

We've gotten to see ignorance attempt to trial over seamanship on steel garbage barges (Reid), welded alloy trimarans (that crazy SF thing), weird ass cruising boats (Rimas), and now welded steel battle wagons (SVSeeker), with various rates of success. Now we get to see how it works on one of the highest-performance sailing craft of the 2000s.

Is there a pool yet on how MM and DL meet their end? I vote for October, sinking near the entrance to the panama canal, rescued by panamanian coast guard and fined 50k for spilled jerry cans.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

It’s a very sad and very public way for one of the best boats ever to die.

It will have died doing what it loved: Breaking sailors!

 

[timotheysski]

It will have died doing what it loved: Breaking sailors!

Till the bitter end! Somehow this made me feel a bit better about the whole thing even if it just a joke.

 

[oldsurfer]

^^^^^

 

[munt]

I'm sticking with my analogy. I think he'll do a Pacific variation of the Crowhurst, sailing around in relatively benign waters before finding a nice tropical reef or beach to end the journey. I sincerely hope there's no analogous human tragedy. That first Golden Globe ended very badly. If you want to get the bad taste out of your mouth I most highly recommend the Mike Plant movie, "Coyote." What a fantastic story, I'd love to have Captain Lawson over, drink a few bottles of good red wine, eat some popcorn and watch that movie with him. Then we could figure out how to donate his boat to Multihuller and maybe get the Captain a more appropriate vessel. Redemption!

 

[MR.CLEAN]

I'm sticking with my analogy. I think he'll do a Pacific variation of the Crowhurst, sailing around in relatively benign waters before finding a nice tropical reef or beach to end the journey.

No such thing as benign waters on an ORMA 60 unless the mast is down and boat under tow

 

[longy]

This boat is fractually fucked - ie, it's fucked in all directions all the way down to the microscopic. By the time Lawson is done with it, it will be toxic waste, abandoned somewhere like Hydroptere was.
No such thing as a 'free' boat, and Lawson doesn't have the money or the brains to keep it going - but as ling as the grift pours in, he'll flog this poor craft around some backwater.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

This boat is fractually fucked - ie, it's fucked in all directions all the way down to the microscopic. By the time Lawson is done with it, it will be toxic waste, abandoned somewhere like Hydroptere was.
No such thing as a 'free' boat, and Lawson doesn't have the money or the brains to keep it going - but as ling as the grift pours in, he'll flog this poor craft around some backwater.

Doesn't really sound like the grift is pouring in anymore

 

[timotheysski]

Doesn't really sound like the grift is pouring in anymore

Well he's too busy in Mexico dealing with his fuckups to be doing PR back in the states, and there isn't much to write home about to the press right now.
As expected, money (tax writeoffs) talked and bullshit walked, but you can't bullshit your way around an ORMA.

 

[Rasputin22]

Here is probably what will become of the MANGLED MERLOE when it runs up dockage fees in Mexico.

This is the 118' LOA RTW trimaran designed and (nearly) <80% finished in Hawaii. I was asked to try and do some renderings for the bare hulls and beams to make more saleable after the builder died. His widow had hoped to recoup some of the 10 years cash (and sweat!) that had gone down the drain. Jim Antrim had contributed to the design and he must have thought I would take on the rendering (and additional modeling) on a Pro Bono case but that never happened. Sad story really but she did get an absurd offer from some Australian booze cruise operators that did eventually motor it down under where it underwent and incredible transformation.

Before:

After!

Actually the trip to Brisbane from Hawaii was a record setting foolhardy event! I think the set up a small thatch roof over the steering station and hung a small outboard or two and just toughed it out. I can start on the 3d concept money for Capt Don just as soon as I get a retainer fee from one of his 'foundations'...

 

[ChannelWatch]

"I have seen some crazy things online about the Defiant, my skills, our program and so on. While it may be annoying to have to correct so many false narratives

I have been reading this thread since his accident at Anacapa Island and biting my tongue, and it was confirming to see a lot of comments even before that accident.
I was the swimmer who recovered his boat off the island and assisted him in getting underway again from Ventura. He told us he had insurance, so we recovered his boat. Well, he didn't have insurance to cover the recovery. What legitimate non-profit would take people from yacht clubs and youth sailing programs onto their boat without insurance?! (He purchased a very basic liability-only policy to meet the marina's requirements in San Pedro right before the accident) I was waiting to say something, hoping not to scare off his donors so I could still get paid, but I gave up hope! Some exciting facts left out of his story were that his motor wasn't working... he ran out of fuel. I also believe he didn't have any battery power as he didn't have a working engine to recharge his batteries. He called for help on a cell phone. Attached is his AIS track which lost him about 12 hours before his accident, so he likely ran out of fuel even before that and this was when he lost his electronics.
With this in mind, I personally don't think he was trying to anchor at Anacapa. Who would try or be able to anchor that boat in an unprotected kelp-covered cove at night under sail with no engine? I personally think they were navigating without electronics or off their phones when this happened and have a navigation error. Maybe this post will get Donald to return my calls!

 

[Rasputin22]

I have been reading this thread since his accident at Anacapa Island and biting my tongue, and it was confirming to see a lot of comments even before that accident.
I was the swimmer who recovered his boat off the island and assisted him in getting underway again from Ventura. He told us he had insurance, so we recovered his boat.

Maybe this post will get Donald to return my calls!

I think SA should start a GoFund me for ChannelWatch for his unpaid for efforts in the Anacapa Incident.

Wait, that name ANACAPA INCIDENT has a nice ring to it! I am hereby claiming my registry on that name as the title of my upcoming docudrama of the whole SNAFU that is the source of this whole thread.

I was being serious about the first part, how do we start?

 

[ChannelWatch]

I think SA should start a GoFund me for ChannelWatch

That is not necessary, just do us a favor and get good insurance for your boat before you go offshore. Accidents happen to the best of us. To be fully transparent, we were able to collect about 40% of the invoice.

 

[he b gb]

Here is probably what will become of the MANGLED MERLOE when it runs up dockage fees in Mexico.

This is the 118' LOA RTW trimaran designed and (nearly) <80% finished in Hawaii. I was asked to try and do some renderings for the bare hulls and beams to make more saleable after the builder died. His widow had hoped to recoup some of the 10 years cash (and sweat!) that had gone down the drain. Jim Antrim had contributed to the design and he must have thought I would take on the rendering (and additional modeling) on a Pro Bono case but that never happened. Sad story really but she did get an absurd offer from some Australian booze cruise operators that did eventually motor it down under where it underwent and incredible transformation.

Before:

After!

View attachment 573826

Actually the trip to Brisbane from Hawaii was a record setting foolhardy event! I think the set up a small thatch roof over the steering station and hung a small outboard or two and just toughed it out. I can start on the 3d concept money for Capt Don just as soon as I get a retainer fee from one of his 'foundations'...

that was a pretty sad story (Rave), I remember reading about the builder trying to get it finished for the original Jules Verne race. Talk about biting off more than you can chew!
It was pretty well documented in Multihulls Mag. I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw a letter to the Ed after this photo was posted in the previous issue showing it just before the amas and beams were attached to the main hull. The letter writer declaring “ that the main hulls transom joined to the forebeam like shown in the photo would definitely need beefing up and would definitely snap off in a large swell! “
🙄 sheesh, it’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.