I am looking for a really nice Merlin, must be wood and in very good condition with a budget of £800, it needs to be complete and ready to go with combi trailer etc.  I am planning to sail it with my wife and we have a combined weight approx 21 stone, at Draycote water in the Midlands.  Looking at the the details, a modern boat ie raking rig, deck stepped mast and as easy as possible to sail.

I hope I am not asking too much, there are a number of the boats for sale, section and I would appreciate any comments that anybody has to make.  

We have sailed boats such as Cherubs, GP's, Enterprises etc plus keelboats.

Peter,

Are you far from Banbury sailing club (halfway between Banbury and Daventry) as we have a very active Merlin fleet including class racing every Sunday.

Regards

Jon

Bluddy Poachers, get orf moy laaaaand

Hi, I am in Burbage Leicestershire only 20 minutes from Draycote, therefore this is my preferred Club and a fantastic piece of water.

You will not find a deckstepped boat for £800. They tend to start at around £2500 to £3000, basically because deckstepping only came into vogue abour 15 years ago. You might be lucky and find a converted boat but make sure it's been done properly - not all home conversions are up to the job!

In that price range your best bet would be a Summer Wine design.

I have seen a Holt designed and Winder built boat 1985 vintage with deck stepped rig sail number in the 3000's, is this likely to be a conversion or an original deck stepped rig.  This is in the region of £800.

Also what are the important things to look for on a secondhand boat.

That would be a conversion.

They do crop up from time to time, but not that many boats have been converted.

Why not come down to Banbury (only about 10 miles south of Draycote) and have a look at the boats that we sail - currently a mixture of deck and hogstepped.

We regularly turn out 4-5 boats each Sunday and enjoy fleet racing wheras at Draycote, you will only find one other Merlin (and that one quite old) which rarely races.  Racing against other Merlins helps you to get the best out of your boat and allows you to pick up tips on what to do.

We have an Open afternoon this Sunday (1st May) or you are welcome to email me and arrange to come down at some other time.

Hi Richard,  thanks for the offer to pop down to Banbury, unfortunately we are away this weekend abroad.  

We are pretty adamant that we will sail at Draycote, due to the very handy location for us.  There was a very nice Merlin racing there in the handicap fleet on Sunday, 3432, and was doing very well.

I would appreciate any advice re checking over used boats to ensure that I get the best boat for us.

I notice 3432 appears in the boats for sale list quoted as £2000 in the Isle of man. On the asumption it,s been sold it might be worth chating to the new owner to get some idea of what he paid & any others he looked at in his quest, which might save you time. Barry

I notice 3432 appears in the boats for sale list quoted as £2000 in the Isle of man. On the asumption it,s been sold it might be worth chating to the new owner to get some idea of what he paid & any others he looked at in his quest, which might save you time. Barry

deja vou?

That was me on Sunday - you should have come and had a word!!

I'm not a member at Draycote, we were just out for a practice on a bigger piece of water as I haven't helmed all that much on open water for ages and i'm doing a week of it at Saundersfoot in a few weeks time.

It's a beautiful stretch of water, but the lack of any other boats to sail against would count against joining there if i was looking for a club. We came 5th in the fast handicap out of 7 boats, and given that the other boats were a 29er, International Canoe, Laser 5000, Vortex, Contender and a Dart 18 we stood no chance in that breeze and on that size of course in spite of - IMO at least - sailing quite well. If you do join apply serious pressure to whoever runs the racing at comitee level to either introduce a Medium handicap race or allow the Merlin to join the slow fleet. 

You will quite quickly get bored and learn very little sailing around on your own.

Re boats to buy, there is very little on the list at the moment that falls into your price range. 3432 is still for sail as far as I know - my boat is 3442 - so that remains an option but you won't get it for £800. 

I beleive the best design to go for that you should get for around £800 is a Summer Wine, preferably one with a low tank (Above no 3200). There are none available at present, but keep an eye on the list as there are plenty of them about and activity at the moment is quite high.

If you can stretch a bit more to around £1500 - £2000 you can get a lot more for the money. An NSM IV would be a good boat to try, or possibly even a Gnome. Both are pretty tame as Merlins go, the NSM IV a very good all round boat, the Gnome blisteringly fast offwind but it needs breeze.

The preferred builders for all three of those designs were Rowsells of Jon Turner.

Glad to see Richard have a pop at poaching you aswell, I was feeling a little guilty!

I bought my NSMIV last year for 1600, advertised at 1800.  I looked at 3 boats last year, all pretty much the same spec for between 1500 and 2000 and bought the highest spec in the end.  I'm no boat expert by any stretch of the imagination but having now had 2 Rowsell Merlins can say that the build quality is fantastic, although I suspect that my last boat, 2819 needed rather more long term TLC than I was equipped to give it.

You should try and get over to see Richard at Banbury open day just to take a look at the boats , particularly the deck-stepped Summer Wine (a conversion).  There are various boats in verious states of repair and it will be easier for someone to explain what to look for when they can show you an example (popped plank, delaminated deck, quadrant levers, blah blah).  We also have pretty much all the different styles of Merlin rigging all on one patch of grass.

As an aside, can anyone tell me if my boat was originally deck-stepped, or was it converted (possibly by Jon Turner in 1989 - who supplied the current spars)

Thanks everybody for the advice, it looks as though I need to revise my budget to £1500 - £2,000 to get what I am looking for.

Any more hlep and advice would be appreciated and also if anybody knows where good boats at this price range are for sale, please let me know.

The best advice at the moment is if you find the boat you want don't hang around!!

There are at least four people looking for a boat of that vintage and in that price range that i've spoken to in the last 2 weeks, so it's definatley a sellers market!

It's never a seller's market in this range?

We sold our deck stepped conversion NSM2, 3325, 2 years ago for £750.

There is a similar type of boat on the list, 3397, which appears to have been on the list for 18 months and looks like it's still available.

I know nothing about this particular boat, but we found the converted NSM2 the ideal stepping stone to a Canterbury Tales as it basically had all the same gear.

3397 has been up a while, but it's not a known builder which doesn't help it's cause.

At the moment Rowsell or Turner NSM IIs are in demand - i've spoken to 3 people on the phone and there is a guy at my club who wants one plus Peter on the forum, though i don't think a II is the boat for him. When supply doesn't meet demand it's pretty good for the seller!

Even though you want to sail on your own at Draycote, we'd be happy to see you at Banbury and show you around some boats.

I actually live closer to Draycote than to Boddington (where BSC sails) and prefer to sail against other Merlins.  We also have other members who live north of you!

Give me a call on 01926 812694 or send an email if you want to come: just to check that I am not off somewhere.

nice looking summer wine on ebay

£550 for a Summer Wine got to be good what are you waiting for? Buy it now then save up another £3000 to buy a CT later on.

i doubt it will go for £550, but it does look a decent boat.

This very same boat was on e-bay last august with a reserve of around £900 if memory serves me correctly. I was tempted but went off and bought an NSM instead. I agree it looks nice but why is she changing hands again and at a lower price?

Becuase you pay out of your arse to put an item on ebay at a high reserve and it works against you, not for you.

Ebay works for sellers best when buyers leave their heads at the door when the bidding gets close.  They're still in the "I'm gonna get a bargain" mindset they were in when they bidded at the low reserve, even though the price is now higher.