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The Dinner PartyDavid Villers-Child reminisces... |
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It was going to be such a happy evening. We had taken delivery of our brand new Merlin Rocket Dinghy, of which we expected so much. Robin was coming to supper to measure the boat. On the front lawn we set about the job and all was going to plan. Until that is we turned her upside down to measure the “rise of floor”. Oops she was several inches out. Were we doing it the right way? Could it possibly be a building error. The trouble was there were already several sister ships in existence that had raced successfully in the previous years championships. A frantic telephone call to an Geoffrey Saffery-Cooper an older statesman of the class, and his son Brian led to an early morning visit to their house another measurement on their front lawn, just to be sure, and thence to confront the boatyard. The boatyard were not best pleased to see us and knew they’d been rumbled. The boatyard demonstrated their way of measuring the rise of floor, which was such that it could have no limiting effect at all! The matter was raised with the Royal Yachting Association, who withdrew the certificates of the ten existing boats. My faith was so shattered I did not opt for one of the new legal boats, though they did prove to be successful, but together with a great friend designed and built what was to become one of the most successful Merlins of all time. We never did get our money back, nor did the Royal Yachting association ever accept any guilt for their part in what was a blatant cheat by one club, their measurer and their local boatyard. Indeed my ever generous Father bailed the Royal Yachting Association out to the tune of the other boats for which he never received acknowledgment thanks or repayment! It was undoubtedly a blatant cheat by one club and the boatyard these days the penalties would have been draconian , but in 1962/3 things were less intense and no one apart from my pa lost anything. This was a severe lesson for me at any rate in the very bad state even in those days of honesty in sports competition. And a lesson in life too! |