| # | Boat Name | Original Owners(s) / Crew | Etymology
[Person supplying information] |
|---|
| 3490 | A Wing and a Prayer | Peter Scott | This was a brand new Phil Morrison design that (hopefully) would be a good weight carrier. (See 3403) It was and this was the 'prayer' element of the name. When the boat was first launched it was rigged with a wing mast that was the same section as used on the Tornado catamaran - a failed experiment - but gave the 'wing' element to the name
The design became known as 'Thin Ice'.
[Peter Scott] |
| 3496 | Seren Y Mor | H. & W. A. Wright | Henry & Walter, who sailed at Bala, had a long tradition of giving their boats welsh names. Seren Y mor is welsh for Sea star. (also see 3200)
[Chris Martin] |
| Re-named:-
Smokin' | Re-named by:-
Steve Essex | Possibly a reference to the film “The Mask”
[Chris Martin] |
| 3498 | Wizard of Odd | Julian Parry | play of the epic "Wizard of Oz". This was an 'odd' boat - a Thin Ice design but without a thwart - which was unusual for a Rowsell boat.
[Julian Parry] |
| 3501 | Empi | Jamie Seymour | Named by Jamie after an elbow move in the martial art of Tomari-te.
[Graham Willianson] |
| 3502 | Shindig | Alan Markham | Alan had previous boats (not Merlins) called 'Shambles' (GP14) and 'Shemozzle' (Moth). The boat name continued the 'Sh...' theme with the word having a meaning of "having a party or having a ball". Furthermore, the family of Sue (his wife & crew) were fans of folk dancing.
[Alan Markham] |
| 3505 | Sterling Crisis | Will Rainey | 18 years on from The Red Baron (2865), on the 16th September 1992 (Black Wednesday), as Britain saw interest rates hit 15% before deciding to leave the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), Will thought - sod it - it is time for a new boat. So Sterling Crisis it was.
[Will Rainey] |
| 3506 | Smarty Pants | Patrick Blake | When Patrick came to order this boat, a Canterbury Tales or Let it Ride seemed to be the option. However, he wanted something different. He went to Laurie Smart and they studied the drawing of the current boats to come up with a new derivative that they considered would beat all. Most of the ideas came from Laurie so 'Smarty Pants' as in 'how clever' but there could be another interpretation. (see 3620)
[Patrick Blake] |
| | | The graphics on the boat in 2023. Not the original.
 [Peter Male] |
| 3508 | Red Dragon | Phil Emery | This was a book that was the prequel to Silence of the Lambs
[Phil Emery] |
| 3509 | Dingbat | Dick Batt | Again, the bat bit is easy, maybe Dick enjoyed this early 90’s board game?
|
| 3511 | Heaven Sent | Alasdair Evans | Andrew Mills advises that the story he had about Heaven Sent came from Judith Massey and corroborated by Rob O'Toole, who sailed the boat in her 1st championships.
Alasdair Evans came into a pretty large inheritance and went to Jon Turner,
who was turning out foam sandwich CT's at the time for somewhere north of £13,000. He requested him to design and build the best Merlin he could, money no object. The bill was quite large, and the boat was known colloquially as"Evans spent"
 [Andrew Mills] |
| 3512 | Flying Cloud | Peter Chester | It is understood that the name relates to the clipper ship that set the world's sailing record for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco. The ship held this record for over 100 years. It follows on the theme from a previous boat (3483 - Cloud 9)
 [Peter Male] |
| 3513 | Pipistrelle | Dick Batt | Following the theme from his previous boats - another species of bat.
[Chris Martin] |
| Re-named:-
Sticky Fingers | Re-named by:-
Nick "Boris" Heginbotham |
[Chris Martin] |
| 3515 | Slap & Tickle | Phil & Paula Mason | Named after a track on the 1979 'Cool For Cats' album by Squeeze. Musical taste and influence had moved onto a retro stage. The new boat coincided with getting engaged in 1994. The track was a ballad about a couple getting together. It seemed to just fit in a light hearted way if not romantically ... and included the lyric ... "Never chew a pickle with a little Slap Tickle!"
 [Phil & Paula Mason] |
| 3517 | Shooting Tsar | Graham Williamson & Nick Yeoman | A follow on from Rising Tsar (3408) - continuing the red/Russian theme and the next step along the way.
[Graham Willianson] |
| 3518 | Smoked Salmon | Duncan Salmon | Rather self indulgently, named after its eponymous first owner.
[Duncan Salmon] |
| 3519 | The Newark Eel | L. Ross |
[Mike Liggett] |
| Brain Salad Surgery | | Album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
[Peter Richards] |
| 3529 | Pass the Parrot | Alan Jackson | The term came from an over active workshop phone.
[Alan Jackson] |
| 3530 | Sir Topaz | Mike Colles | Mike bought the bare hull - a Canterbury Tales. Chauser's Sir Topaz was also unfinished. Sir Topaz was portrayed as a great hunter.
[Mike Colles] |
| 3531 | | S Monk | Not named by original owner.
[1996 Year Book] |
| NV | Steve Watson | Before purchasing this boat, Steve and his son Tobi sailed a NSM IV that was a rather questionable shade of green. As a result, Steve and Tobi were known as Team Green at Midland SC.
The new boat was therefore called NV - which stands for Nouveau vert (French) or Nuovo verdi (Italian) - and means “new
green”. The new boat was blue and yellow, which when mixed together makes green. Or was there a sense of being green (team) with NV (envy).
[Steve Watson] |
| 3534 | Valley Freight | John Dalby | This boat, designed & built by John, was supposed to be the first of a line, all to include the noun Valley (John was a member of Trent Valley SC.) To manage peoples expectation, in case it was not a rocket ship, John thought of Freight to acknowledge the nearby railway. The next would have been Valley Express - but it did not arrive.
[Andy Dalby] |
| 3535 | An Bradan Fease | Colin Brockbank | The name is related to Irish mythology. A tale about a 'Salmon of knowledge' - a fish that has gained all the world's knowledge and this is passed to the first person that eats the flesh.
[Colin Brockbank] |
| 3536 | Blazing Saddles | S. Wragg |
[Paul Hollis] |
| Renamed:-
Mine's a Double | Renamed by:-
Paul Hollis | When Paul purchased this boat he had just become the licensee of the Needlemakers Arms at Studley (see 3610)
[Paul Hollis] |
| 3539 | Gangsta Paradise | Phil King | Named after Kevin Driver, the boat's builder who at the time wore dark clothes and black hats, and the (almost) eponymous song by American rapper Coolio.
[Phil King] |
| 3540 | Cheers Easy | G. Forshaw |
[Chris Martin] |
| Re-named:-
M&M's | Re-named by:-
Mike Allen & Mark Archer | Not only a reference to Mike & Mark. - M&M's are also a chocolate confectionery coated with hard candy shell
[Chris Martin] |
| 3546 | Gilt Complex | Will Rainey | Following on the theme from Sterling Crisis (3505), Will's next new boat was a simple play on words. The quickest boat he ever had.
[Will Rainey] |
| 3547 | Moondance Assasin | Mark Barnes | The name and colour scheme comes from the rave/drugs culture. Having been sailing new high speed designs for the previous 10 years, Mark came up with the concept that one must be on drugs to spend such a large amount of money on a 14 ft. wooden boat. The name comes from the Moondance Rave (Funky - still going strong in 2015) and Assasin (instead of Assassin) as in high as a kite.
The yellow inside reflects a bad trip and outside the calming of the blues / Van Morrison, from where/who the Moondance Rave takes it name.
 [Mark Barnes] |
| 3548 | Tam htab | Tony Larder | This photograph has not been reversed
 [Kieron Mason] |
| Re-named:-
Firestarter | Renamed by:-
Kieron Mason | Kieron had been inspired by 3549 - Unfinished Business - and was looking to move up from an old Phantom Kipper. When 3548 came on the market he seized the opportunity. The quick refurb turned into a fairly long one over the winter with many cups of tea and of course music playing . The original name and graphics went with the sandings and was replaced with the 'Firestarter' – a track by The Prodigy. It had been played a thousand times during the refurb and seemed appropriate as the anticipation of getting the ‘new’ boat on the water grew. Kieron wasn’t disappointed as the boat repaid the hard work with some sublime moments.
 [Kieron Mason] |
| 3549 | Unfinished Business | Mike Calvert | Having ordered the boat, the delivery was longer than anticipated. Mike's request for progress reports indicated that it was not finished. The expression 'unfinished business' evloved over a period of time.
[Mike Calvert] |
| 3550 | She's a Cracker | Tony Johnson | The farther of Tony's crew (Robert Smith) had a boat called 'Cracker' and Tony liked the name. Furthermore, the boat looked good.
[Tony Johnson] |
| 3551 | Rush in Blue | Nigel Brooke | Many facets to the derivation of this name. NIgel had a theme to use or imply the name of an animal in the name of his boats (see also 3748) At the time Nigel kept Russian Blue cats (Rushin). The boat was build by Chipstow Boats and it was a rush job to get it finished to sail at Salcombe week in 1998.
As an aside, the boat was an alternative to a honeymoon for Nigel and Suzie and Alan Jackson called the design 'Honeymoon' (The only one in it's class although 3547 is similar)
[Nigel Brooke] |
| 3554 | Stud Muffin | Julian Parry | Nothing more to it other than Julian liked the name.
[Julian Parry] |
| 3556 | Make it so | Lawrie Smart | 'Make it so' was an expression used by Admiral Lord Nelson, who would go on deck, give an order to an officer and culminate with 'make it so'. Lawrie copied this style by using the expression when giving instructions to his assistant.
[Lawrie Smart] |
| 3557 | Out of the Blue 2 | Guy Winder | Although sail numbers do not show this - Out of the Blue 2 was the first Winder foam sandwich boat out of the mold - just out of the blue.
[David Winder] |
| 3560 | Luka | | Named by the boatbuilder, Steve Neal, after his favourite Suzanne Vega song, released as a single in 1987.
[Ollie] |
| 3561 | Snorting | John Cooper | A carry over from Captain Snort (2710)
[John Cooper] |
| 3565 | Spotted Dick | Dick Batt |
|
| Re-named:-
Scallywag | Renamed by:-
Andy Bownes | Andy did not like the idea of being 'associated' with Spotted Dick. Scallywag was the nickname used by Andy's father and the name was chosen in his memory.
 [Andy Bownes] |
| 3569 | Time Zulu | Graham Williamson & Nick Yeoman | Time Zulu is zero hour - the time from which all other times are measured - as happens when winning races. Following Nick's untimely death after sailing the boat only once, John Bell acquired his share, and the name proved fortuitous as the boat won the nationals at the first time of asking (2000).
 [Graham Willianson] |
| 3570 | Second Thought | Chris Rathbone | Chris was carrying on a theme from his previous boat. (3451)
[Chris Rathbone] |
| 3571 | Hakuna Matata | Andy Jones | Andy took his three children to see The Lion King. The song took their imagination.
Hakuna matata is a Swahili phrase; roughly translated, it means "no worries".
 [Andy Jones] |
| 3573 | Rong Number | Paul Davies | The builder carved the wrong number in the hog.
 [Paul Hollis] |
| 3574 | Holy Grail | Hywel Bowen Perkins | Merlin > Wizard > King Arthur > the Holy Grail.
[Hywel Bowen Perkins] |
