The Merlin Rocket has steadily developed over the years into an efficient pleasant racing dinghy. Too many one-design classes are stuck with old concepts or suffer from poor attention to design details.
Do you know these boats?
The boat with the protruding corner to the deck moulding, that attempts to catch the mainsheet on every gybe. That bit of plastic has caused millions of capsizes!
Boats where the crew has to sit on the jib fairleads/cleats.
Boats where the rules restrict the jib sheeting positions so that you end up with an inefficient rig and a poor pointing ability.
Boats where you cannot adjust the mast rake during sailing, so you cannot respond efficiently to changing weather conditions.
Boats where the specified "cheap" sails are blown out after a week sailing at the Champs, so you need to buy some new ones. Not so cheap after all
Boats with hulls that go quickly go soft and uncompetitive.
In contrast, Merlin Rocket dinghies look good, are comfortable and efficient to handle, sail well and last well.