| # | Boat Name | Original Owners(s) / Crew | Etymology
[Person supplying information] |
|---|
| 3647 | Mr Bright Side | Andy Davis | A song from the band 'The Killers'.
[Andy Davis] |
| Re-named:-
Liquid Dreams | Re-named by:-
Hywel Bowen Perkins (jnr) | For a long time Hywel had dreamed of owning a Winder Mk4, so when he finally got permission from his wife to buy the boat he got very excited - 'liquid dreams'.
 [Hywel Bowen Perkins (jnr)] |
| 3650 | Headcase | Lawrence Tosh | At the time of buying the boat, Tosh lived in Looe. Whilst standing on the balcony of his house and wondering about the name, he got the insparation from the name above the hairdressers across the road.
 [LawrenceTosh] |
| 3651 | Jupiter | Colin Brockbank | For Colin this was a reminder of his school days when, with his mates, lived in a fantasy world of 'Jupiter' - they were all 'Jupiterians'. A trip in to nostalgia.
 [Colin Brockbank] |
| 3652 | Time & Tide | Graham Williamson | Further development of the 'Time' theme (3569 & 3609). Time & Tide, as we know, wait for no man but lead from the front!
[Graham Willianson] |
| 3653 | Artemis | Judith Massey | Artemis was another famous warrior queen (see 3592) - in this case the highly respected Greek goddess of hunting. Watch out chaps....
[Graham Willianson] |
| 3654 | Tales of Acapulco | Geoffrey Cox | Following the theme from a previous boat - 3476 - Tales of Marco Polo
[Kieron Mason] |
| 3656 | Wild Card | Rob Wilder | Bought with a bequest from his grandfather, Rob was only slightly known in the fleet, but felt the new boat would make him the Wild Card in the pack - a good play on the family name.
 [Graham Willianson] |
| 3657 | Revolution | Phil Emery | A continuation of the Chelsea FC theme (see 3609) Roman Abramovich was considered to have started a revolution when he became the owner of Chelsea FC.
[Phil Emery] |
| 3658 | Batto | |
[Peter Male] |
| Re-named:-Re-Entry | Re-named by:-David Gates | Rockets re enter the atmosphere. David was returning to the fleet after an absence.
[David Gates] |
| Bernard | Chris Jennings | Did not like Re-entry so had to find another name.
Inspiration taken from the Blackadder series. A character called Nursey turned out to have the name Bernard. Chris started to use 'Bernard' for all things without a name! But - of course all boats are female.
[Chris Jennings] |
| 3659 | Zeno | Julian Parry | Zeno was a Greek philosopher - who had a 'hare & hound' theory (paradox) - if, in a race, you keep halving the distance between the hare & the tortoise then the hare never catches the tortoise. Like buying a new Merlin - by the time it is ordered built and fitted out you can never catch up with the latest developments.
[Julian Parry] |
| 3660 | djelibeybi | Will Raney | Will abandoned his Star Wars themes for this boat. Sir Terry Pratchett had published Pyramids, as part of his Discworld series, and 'djelibeybi' was a fictional middle eastern country in the story. As you would expect, djelibeybi was painted/sprayed a deep rich blackcurrent colour.
[Will Rainey] |
| 3662 | Attack of the Clones | David Winder | Although Will Rainey had moved away from the Star Wars theme for his new boat (3660), Dave was still a fan. The new boat was black, the same as 3611 and when it was taken out of the mold it looked just like a clone. Attack of the Clones was Star Wars: Episode 2.
[David Winder] |
| 3663 | Bronte | Chris Haworth | This relates to Chris's surname and the Bronte sisters who lived in Haworth, about 3 miles from where the boat was built.
 [Chris Haworth] |
| 3665 | Still Not Over | Matt Biggs & Dave Crockett | The earlier expectation (see 3617) that Dave would have to give up his sailing did not happen and they upgraded to a new boat.
[Matt Biggs] |
| 3666 | Enchanted Evening | Chris Lewns |
[Year Book] |
| Re-named:- ted | Re-named by:- John Meadowcroft | One of John's crew did not like the original name so some of the name was removed leaving the name as 'Enchanted'. This did not find favour for very long and the self adhesive name was 'attacked' again - removing 'E' - 'n' - 'c' . When the second 'n' had been removed a solution to the name problem had been found. The addition of the stripes finished the job.
 [John Meadowcroft] |
| 3667 | Last Gasp | David Bland | Purchased by David as his final Merlin.
[Paul Keeling] |
| 3672 | Bola Bola | John Cooper | This is Malay for one of his families favorite expletives - 'Balls' or more usually 'Bollocks'. John had served in the Malaysan Army.
[John Cooper]
 [John Cooper] |
| 3673 | The Oldie | Alan Warren | The inspiration came from the magazine "The Oldie"
[Alan Warren] |
| Re-named:-
Desperate Housewife | |
[Peter Male] |
| Returned to original name:-
The Oldie | Returned to original name by:-
Caroline Croft |
 [Caroline Croft] |
| 3674 | Autumn Gold | Mike Anslow | This was (planned) to be Mike's last new boat. The boat is 'yellow' to match the seasonal colour.
 [Mike Anslow] |
| 3676 | Hot Totty | Patrick Blake | Following the theme from previous boats (3506 - 3620 - 3640)
 [Patrick Blake] |
| 3677 | Indecision | David Proctor | A name to reflect upon the problems when trying to name a new boat.
 [David Proctor] |
| 3678 | Nora | Stu Bithell | Stu only owned the boat for about 3 months. It was his first real attempt to win the championships and the money to pay for it came from his grandmother who had just died. She was called Nora hence the boat was named after her.
[Steve Crook] |
| 3680 | Shaka Zulu | Steve Watson | Continuing a theme from a previous boat (3569 - Time Zulu). The boat that replaced Time Zulu was Time Lords. Therefore Steve continued with the Zulu theme.
Before moving to Birmingham, Steve worked in South Africa.
Shaka Zulu was the founder of the Zulu nation, based in Natal, South Africa, in the early 1800s.
He was a ruthless warrior and never lost a battle.
 [Steve Watson] |
| 3681 | Midnight Flight | Emma Flight (& Richard Bates | A double meaning on Emma here with romantic connotations for them.
[Graham Willianson] |
| 3682 | Red Wizard | | Originally this boat was red and with the colour and class the name is self evident. Over many years there were several 'paint jobs' on the hull and eventually it turned to black. The name became a little obscure.
At Salcombe week in 2025 the boat sailed with the name 'Loki' - a Norse God of Mischief depicted in a TV series - Avengers
A previous boat - 3196 - had been named Loki so this clashed with a MROA tradition of not having two boats with the same name. Plans are in hand to repaint the hull red and return the name to the original.
[Peter Male] |
| 3683 | Bluebird | Tom Stewart | The boat was wedgwood blue. A name had to be chosen quickly.
[Tom Stewart] |
| 3684 | Keyser Soze | Andy Davis | From the film 'The Usual Suspects'. Keyser Soze is a 'crime lord' who is not to be 'messed with' - worse than the devil.
 [Andy Davis] |
| 3685 | The Black Pearl | William Warren | The boat was bought during the height of The Pirates of the Caribbean films, William's boys were of an age when pirates were fun and therefore it had to be 'The Black Pearl'.
 [William Warren] |
| 3686 | If | Paul Aldridge | After conversations at the bar - what if I buy a Merlin? - Only if you would.
 [Jeremy Deacon] |
| 3687 | Mellow Yellow | Alan Jackson | Alan was in a pretty laid back part of life.
[Alan Jackson] |
| 3688 | - | Not recorded | Not named by original owner.
|
| Who Dares Wins | Ben Hollis | Ben was a fan of the TV programme ' Only Fools & Horses' and the lead character - Del Boy (Derek Trotter) - used the phrase 'Who Dares Wins' on a regular basis. As a joke, Adam (Ben's brother), stuck the name on the boat whilst Ben was absent. It is also the motto of the SAS.
[Ben Hollis] |
| 3689 | Ticket to Ride | Hywel Bowen Perkins | Ticket to Ride - the boat design was a variant of a Let it Ride and the inspiration came from the Beatles song.
[Hywel Bowen Perkins] |
| 3690 | General Lee | Andy Dalby | This was the last desperate and wild act of a poor bloke about to tie the knot! Andy simply wanted to create the General Lee car from the Dukes of Hazard TV show. Dave Winder needed some persuasion and called Andy just before he made it to make sure! Andy thought it would stand out so he would definitely have to hold back on the start line instead of pushing it and getting OCS. It certainly worked!
 [Andy Dalby] |
| 3691 | Quick Fix | Mike Calvert | Mike had not being happy with his previous boat (3626) and was unsure which direction to pursue for the replacement. While thinking about the issues he needed a short term solution in which he could keep his winning ways - in other words a Quick Fix.
 [Mike Calvert] |
| 3693 | Slippery When Wet | Will Rainey | Bon Jovi was the inspiration for this choice. 'Slippery When Wet' was their third album and included tracks such as 'Living on a Prayer'. The real reason is the original album cover design (which was not used except in Japan).
[Will Rainey] |
| 3694 | The Soup Dragon | Steve Tyler | Following the theme established with 3641.
 [Steve ] |
| 3697 | Too Dark and Stormy | Richard Page | A follow on from the previous boat (3619). Dark and Stormy II was not an option.
 [Richard Page] |
| 3700 | Brazilian | Phil Emery | Named after Phil Scolari, the Brazilian Chelsea FC manager, who was sacked soon after. A continuation of the Chelsea theme - (see 3608 & 3657)
[Phil Emery] |
| Renamed - Dumb & Dumber | Renamed by - Andrew Prosser | As reported by Andrew - The helm (Rob Kennaugh) is Dumb for sailing with me, and the Crew (Andrew) is even Dumber for sailing with him.
[Andrew Prosser] |
| 3702 | Salmon en Croute | Duncan Salmon | Following the theme - 3518; 3575; 3644 - Salmon en croute or crusty salmon - Duncan's 50th birthday present to himself!
 [Duncan Salmon] |
| 3703 | Faithless | Richard Whitworth | A continuation of the theme Richard used for a previous boat (3593). Faithless was the artist that sang the song 'Insomnia'
 [Richard Whitworth] |
| 3704 | Livestrong | Chris Lewns | Livestrong is an American cancer charity
[Yearbook] |
| Re-named:- Factory Maid | Re-named by:- Jemma Horwood |
One facet from the lyrics is a reference to the industrial revolution when the weaving industry moved from the cottage to the factory. This is seen as akin to the boat building in the 20th / 21st century. Merlins would originally have been designed with paper & pencil; patterns marked out by hand and then the boat built by the shipwright in his workshop using hand tools. Sails would have equally been designed and made using a a pencil, paper and hand cutting.
Move to the 21st century - design on a computer, components cut with computer control. This would apply on hull and sails.
The "Weaver" introduced Jemma to merlin sailing.
[Jemma Horwood] |
