Melges—a sailboat brand founded in 1945 and based in Zenda, Wisconsin—launched the new Melges 15 boat in May, 2020. After the first year, the M15 has enjoyed a huge explosion across the United States. We chatted with Eddie Cox of Melges about this amazing growth in February, 2021.
0 to 115
After just 9 months on the market, there have been a total of 115 Melges 15s sold. Averaging about 15 boats a month. These numbers are expected to grow as dealers start demoing boats and satisfied owners spread the word further across the sailing world.
Increasing Production
The launch of the M15 has been so successful that Melges is bringing their European M14 builder online to produce the M15 as well. The increased production capacity will help increase production numbers and shorten buyer wait times—getting more boats to more sailors even faster.
All sure signs that the M15 is enjoying high demand and fast growth.
Across the Nation
The 115 boats sold so far from May 2020 to February 2021 are finding homes all across the United States. The map below shows an M15 logo for each location/yacht club that is a home to a sold M15 boat. A real sweep across the map, pins cover the East Coast, South, Great Lakes, Rocky Mountains, and West Coast.
Melges 15 Class Map
Zooming into 180 Marine’s home state of Colorado, you can see that there are 4 M15 pins dotted from the front range and into the mountains—Cherry Creek, Chatfield, Union, Grand Lake, and Dillon. Grand Lake was even recently announced as having the second largest M15 fleet in the country!
Melges 15 Class Map—Colorado
Built for Success
What makes a successful boat? Simply put, design a good boat. Melges definitely has this in mind when they sketched out the Melges 15.
Easy to Sail
The Melges 15
Stable, Fun Sailing
Colorado sailing is pretty crazy. Crawling in light winds can suddenly turn into a storm in just minutes. The climate and mountains play games with the winds. But the M15 handles it all beautifully. Union, CO M15 sailor, Dirk Richter, says the Melges 15 is an extremely stable boat that is easy to control. A minimum of 7-8 knot winds will get the boat going, good for Colorado’s light days. And don’t sorry when a storm blows in, cause even in 35 knot gusts, Dirk said his boat felt safe and in control.
Great for All Ages
Comfortable
Comfort isn’t high up in the mind of sailors while they race, that’d be speed. However, most sailors don’t just race their boats. Some days it’s good to enjoy a simple relaxing sail on the water. The wide, open design on the M15 gives plenty of space to get comfortable.
Easy to Rig
Only have your two hands? Don’t like spending hours to rig or derig a boat? Not a problem. The Melges 15’s simple and thoughtful design allows a single person to rig and unrig their boat quickly and easily.
Easy to Travel
After an easy derigging, the Melges 15 is then easily packed for traveling. It can be towed on their M15 trailer which includes a convenient read mast stand. The small and light (hull weight of 230 lbs) boat is not very hard for cars to tow. Alternatively, the 15ft boat easily fits into enclosed trailers. And with the magic of some carpentry, most enclosed trailers can be retrofitted to be able to stack 2-3 M15s inside. Simple rigging and packing makes this boat simpler to travel with so you can spend more time sailing and less time working.
For more information contact Richard Allen - richard@180marine.com