I have just come back from sailing at Tammy and I am very saddened to see that Merlins are sailing with rudders up, Brian Southcott, John Harris sitting on the bank and just doing nothing, and it is just so ovious that some boats are getting a distinct advantage and you can see,
the BLATENT CHEATING
It is very disappointing that Tammy wont do  a thing about  it, but I will next time, and I will take it to the RYA,

What's cheating about having rudders up as long as you don't waggle them.  Standard practice at Salcombe to let the weed slip off - Uncle Dan taught me that one.  The Laser class rules say you have to have the rudder fully down, but the Merlin rules don't.  In fact when I started sailing Merlins ALL the rudders were raked back

I know there are percieved issues and some ill feeling over rule observance on the river, but would it not be a better and more effective idea to deal with it locally rather than on the internet?

We have arbitration, protest and if all else fails the RYA. The Merlin forum can't really help on this one!

Martin, you were there, did you protest or object at the time? Not aware of the MR class having a rule that states rudders must be kept down and rule 42 deals with the use of the rudder.

What rule is allegedly infringed?
I think this thread should be removed, as it could be taken to be defamatory.

I was busy watching the A-Raters illegally gybing downwind

Keeping the rudder up for too long is usually punished by Mother Nature. A small gust and maybe shifting your weight at the wrong moment, and.....eek, you turn when you didn't mean to and hit something.