Review: Norlin 2.4M Mk III

http://www.inter24metre.org/files/suppliers.htm

This is the 78 different sailboat I've sailed, and one
of the most fun. A great little boat and a fun time. I'd
like to sail one again. I'm seriously considering buying
one.

I had a chance to sail one of these this morning. It is
a small boat, about the length of a Sunfish, but with a
3.3" draft. Beam can vary in this class--the Norlin is I'll
guess 30". It holds one person, and looks like a mini
12 meter, sans spinnaker--not having a spinnaker was
a disappointment. I sailed it in light air and didn't get
wet, you will get wet in heavier air.

Norlin website: [Not in English]

http://www.vene-bjorndahl.fi/norlinmark.htm

The rudder is I felt--too responsive. There are two sizes,
many are saying the longer rudder is better. I have my
doubts and think a smaller or shorter width rudder would
be better. It can be actuated by foot pedals--push left to
go left, and a reverse tiller--hooked up with cables and
attached under the coaming. The tiller works somewhat
intuitively but the pedals react the opposite of what I'd
feel comfortable with. They did not seem as sensitive.
I think it would be easy enough to rig these to reverse
the pedal action to make them feel more natural.

The boat has a cool shock corded whisker pole
arrangement, that worked great, deployed easily.
For gybing, the trick is to be sure the main is not
against the shrouds--which could pinch it, and to be
sure to ease both jib sheets are eased. Perhaps I
should be very clear--it was super easy to use.

These boats are used by older people and handicapped
people. One person can easily do anything including
stepping the mast, etc. In fact one person could
completely rig the entire boat, including mounting
all the deck hardware in three days.

The boats have become popular with handicapped
sailors because motor controls are available. I help
a paraplegic sailor into the boat to try it today. He
was a bit of trouble as he was big and it took a while
to get him loaded in the boat. I managed to pull him
out, but his 290 lbs of dead weight tweaked my back.
Some yacht clubs, like this one, are putting in
provisions for handicapped people. Some sort of
special arrangements need to be made, while many
handicapped sailors have enough upper body strength
to be mobile enough on their own. Even severely
handicapped sailors can handle the boat with
motorized winch controls.

There is an effort to make this into a one-design class,
however, it was originally created to be a backyard
designer class, as the cost to build a boat yourself
are minimal. I thought one design was the way to go
until I raced it (handicapped Olympics race it as a one
design) after which I thought I'd prefer to build a custom
boat. I'm tall so I wanted to cut into the front air tank
so my feet could lay flat. I found the two nacelles
inside the hull--used to mount blocks and hardware
were placed poorly for my knees. I didn't try to adjust
the seat, but I feel that is one area that needs
improvement. While the seat angle can be adjusted
underway, the seat position can't (possibly with difficulty)
and I took off my sandals to provide some lower back
support and to give myself an extra 1/2" of legroom.
I'd want to get my head down a bit as the boom is
quite low.

Sailing the boat was pretty easy. There are a full suite
of controls, Cunningham, outhaul, boomvang, backstay,
barber-haulers---the jib sheets to these these--sort of a
floating track, mast partner adjustments, and cloth (jib
downhaul). I found myself having a little difficulty seeing
out of the boat. You need to have your head to leeward
to check sail trim, but then you can't see well to windward.
It is not easy to see what is going on outside the boat
unless you move your head around a lot, and the boom is
fairly low--so that took a little thought. I found I kept
my head to windward on tacks, watched the jib trim
carefully, giving it it's final trim in setting before moving
my head to the other side.

The steering is not sensitive on the peddles, but I liked
using those for tacking. There is not enough sensitivity
on the steering unless you use the tiller. Sailing for
speed--racing--use the tiller. I do think some sort better
arrangement, as I stated earlier, would improve the peddle
steering. I would want both unless I felt I needed the
extra space.

There is no such thing as hiking out on these boats. I
felt that moving my head to one side had no effect and
keeping it to leeward--being able to study the sail shape
and tell-tales, yielded the best boat speed.

New fully rigged Norlin's, made in Sweden, cost about
$11,500 fully rigged with two wheeled dolly. Used boats
sell for around $7,000-$8000. The US builder, Gavia,
has, I'm told, a crappy mold and no vacuum bagging
and these boats are generally poor in quality compared
to the Norlin made boats. These can be had used for
around $6000. I've seen the older Illusion boat sell
for as little as $2500. That is a much older class and
is not competitive compared to the Norlin 2.4M Mk III.

These 2.4M boats are extremely popular in Europe,
particularly Scandinavia where there are hundreds of
boats competing. In the US they can be found in
Connecticut--Stamford and Darien, Florida, and I think
in the Midwest, the Wisconsin area. They weight
150 pounds with ballast removed, you can fit two in a
pickup truck bed. Fully rigged, they weight about 550
lbs.

These boats are worth a try. The boats are small
enough you can carry them down stairs and stow
them in your basement.

While the initial cost seems a bit high, they are not
very easy to dry sail with a hoist, easy to store
either dry or winter, they take up 1/4 the space of
typical boats, you can work on them standing next
to them, and the cost for materials is cheap--nothing
costs much--so new sails every year are not a
problem--if you think you need them. Try one, you
will like it.

Bart