I along with my brother have started a long awaited and much needed overhaul of 3424, a late 80's NSM4 origination name was Bucephelus. Unfortunately she was in a sorry state when purchased in August 2012 and having suffered a run in with some black & yellow paint it would appear applied using a hedgehog. Fortunately this application had been over non prepared gloss so came off reasonably easily. we have so far primed and applied the first coat of gloss and shortly hope to make a start on the deck. link to photos if anyone is interested. only a few at the moment but there will be more to follow.

Another boat that was at Hampton for a time, IIRC in the hands of Tim Harridge and subsequently Mark Fuller, with a variant of a self-launching pole that didn't quite work.  Was it blue underneath?  The name of course being Alexander the Great's horse.

Hi Andrew, the boat was indeed a bluey grey underneath.

Delighted to see Bucephelus being restored to a dignified state. My brother Ian was the original owner and finished off (in blue) a Nick Turner built Rowsell Morrison NSM4. Lovely boat, which Martin Warren and Zeb Elliott borrowed for the 88 nationals, finishing 8th. Bit of history for you!

Looking good Tim. Well done! Love the colour. What RAL is it? Two or single pack? Keep posting the pics of progress. Cheers. Richard

Hi Richard, it's RAL Signal Violet single pack. I have opted for Jotun ultra top coat.

Thanks Tim

Added some more photos of the weekends work. Only got the top sides done on Saturday. too much snow on Sunday.

First coat of the light grey under waterline colour added.

Looking good. Is that a single or 2-pack paint you are using?

Hi Richard

Its Single Pack Jotun Ultra Topcoat.

The decks have now been stripped and after 2 of us working on it for 8 hours, they are pretty much ready to varnish

Yes, Bucephelus was my first Merlin, I bought it off Stuart Guerney, an it was originally very nice condition Rowsell with a good two pack light blue.

We couldn't sail it at Hampton when we first got it as that year (1997?) the stream was too strong all winter, so the first time we sailed it we took it to a small pursuit race at Kingsmead.  Much to our naive surprise we were the faster boat entered and the only vistor, never the less we wizzed around the pond and a few minutes before the 'gun' we had just one graduate left in front, fortunately we didn't catch them as it happend to be the commodore of Kingsmead. 

A couple of years later, as Mark started to become a good helm, I purchased Bald Eagle off Stuart Jenkins (which was an NSM2 'Wembly One Design', and frankly so much better on the river) and Bucephalus became Mark's boat.   Ben Harridge & Mark decided on the bumble bee paint job, which was a one pack.

The NSM4 had a wide falt transom and so wasn't great on the river and at that stage we didn't do much open water sailing either and pretty inexperienced in Merlins, so never really found out if it was any good.

Contrary to Andrews comments, to one good thing was the single pole spiro launcher which work like a dream, especially with small crews as when I started with Mark, and later with Natalie, as there is no struggling to get the pole on the eye, and gybing was dead fast.

I've still got lots of odds and ends stock at SailSport, and the coupon code  HP45 will get you an extra 45% off. I've only got what I have got, when its gone its gone.

(I probably have got the the odd mainsail with 3424 somewhere in the shed too)

This is how she looks with 3 coats of 2 pack clear varnish. We (thanks Mum) managed to get rid of the horrible dark patches on the foredeck just behind the jib tack and on the starboard side deck. We also got most of the dark patches on the gunwales too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92175531@N05/8671793018/in/set-72157632520803130

Link below.

Finally got the varnish completed. The boat is now in the Dinghy park ready to race.

Looks fantastic. Where do you race her? I also recently purchased an NSM 4 3396 Rocket Science based at Weston in Southampton.

Looks lovely, bit worried about the crew's head though as the on-board tool kit looks a little inconvenient... perhaps it would be better stowed in a dry bag in case of capsize?!

@James 
There is nothing wrong with that 3396 – I won the crews' race in it in 1987! The NSM4 had a brief period of dominance before being eclipsed by the Canterbury Tales.

Alan, I know just what the drill is doing measuring the dangle angle for the mast rake.

James you have done a brilliant job on the boat, looks lovely now, look after it!