I have Merlin 2005 which I believe to be a Proctor 1X. The name on the boat is Will'O'Th Whip, does anybody know the history of this boat? The mast that came with it does not have any shrouds, is this normal for this design?
Roy 3570

I've never seen a merlin rig with no shrouds but plenty of older boats did not have speaders.

By the look of the name it was probably owned at one time by a Mr Dashwood of Medmenham Abbey.  He had a lot of jolly nice friends.

Dad's 9b dfinitely had shrouds Roy.

Sorry, I meant to say speaders. That what comes of sending postings late at night. Can we start again?

Dear Roy,
Trust you are well and looking after Second Thought!!! As I recall, spreaders didn't really come into vogue until boats started going wider, i.e Wotnot and Courageous era. If you look at some of the old pictures of Mark IXs and IXb sailing at sea, you'll see that there was a lot of sideways bend that opened the leech of the mainsail when the gaff leech came into vogue courtesy of Bruce Banks, Mike Mac and Graham Leech.
Suspect that someone like David Child would know better than I.

Chris

Hello Chris ,nice to hear from you . Thank you for your interest in Second Thought, she is still looking fantastic and going as well as ever, the only weakness is the helm who is not as young as he used to be, hence I've given up Salcombe Week but still doing three races every Sunday at Cookham. Do you still have a Merlin? Thanks for the information on spreaders.
Roy

2005 was built by Bob Hoare and finished by the original owner - W. Parker of Bala SC.  She remained at Bala until 1976 when she she was bought by D. Williams of West Kirby SC.  According to the record books he was still the owner in 1997 - the last year book record of her.

Sorry to hijack this thread but my MkVIII (950)from 1959 has a proctor mast with both spreaders and a diamond - although the spreaders are not fixed.  It also has a wheel kicker arrangement. I had always assumed that this was original fitment.......

Steve - I am certain your mast is original. Spreaders (with or without diamonds) were in use at the time M/R 950 was built.  I have a picture of Brian Southcott sailing "Restless III" M/R 842 a Mk.XI with a mast with spreaders. Regarding the winch kicker - these were a standard fitting for many years, certainly throughout the 60's and into the early 70's. A Phantom Kipper I owned (2701) had a winch kicker.

Thanks Mike.  Back to the subject in hand...