A collegue advises that my Merlin Rocket (of unknown specification) may be a Moon Rocket.  Would it be possible for any Moon Rocket owners on this forum to post some photos of their boats?  With a beam of 6'-8" I think 2435 is out--there is no evidence of that extensive a modification and the Mark IXA dimensions just don't make sense.

This boat does have a new thwart btw...and the suggestion has been made that it might be a stolen boat as the number was not re-engraved on the replacement thwart.  Hope that isn't the case.

I still need help here because while I've joined the association, I haven't a number to register the boat under!

What information have you got then? No number on the hog, old sails, old certificates? Whats the hull colour, any name on it?

What I have are sail numbers 2489 and 2435...neither agree with the boat hull dimensions that I can tell.  I have NO numbers anywhere on the boat.  No makers plate, no carved numbers on thwart or transom.  There appears to be a very faint "P.Y.C." on the back of the transom, and the P is a guess.

I purchased the boat off Evesham Sailing club, who claim to have provided a makers plate with the bag of bits--the hull had been worked on by some carpenter brothers who lost interest and donated it to the club.  Anecdotal evidence is 2435 Billy Boat Gruff, but I don't believe it.

Features a built-in bow tank (fairly high, maybe 150mm between it and the foredeck), no stern tanks and no evidence of stern tanks.  Beam of 6'8". Foredeck I think is fairly distinctive in its curves at the mast which is hog stepped.  Quadrants for the shrouds.  Foredeck has two holes, one round for jib and one 'triangular' (maybe trapezoidal is a better description) for spinnaker I assume.

Hull is all one colour of wood, I just don't believe anyone took 2435 and modified it to its current width.  And that is just about all I know!

Rob,
We have a Moon Rocket at Ranelagh, 2406 and I'll take some pictures for you if you still need them. The pictures I have are all of it sailing and too far away to show any detail.
Nick

Yes please.  Wish I could post a few shots of mine (again) to see if anyone can recognize the design.

Send me some pics Rob...show the transom and the front tank, maybe the thwart and centre floor reinforcements?

Is it not possible that the boat was built but either never registered or found to not measure and never numbered?

That would be the worst case, I think!

Photos should be on their way now, Mags.  Thanks...again.

Robs pics are in the gallery. Centreboard case looks very long, but apart from that, looks pretty Merlin-y to me. What is a Moon Rocket anyway?

I think that looks like a september girl - it's too wide for a moon rocket!

We had a boat that looked a bit like that at Midland years ago number 2685 built by Bob Hoare and completed by Scientific sailing according to the yearbook.

It was all varnished and if memory served had a fibreglass patch in the bottom of the hull.

That particular boat was last known at bristol corinthian.

You can put a date on this boat pretty confidantly I think.  It's 1970 as it is reasonably wide but clearly has NOT been built from the off with a spinny chute, that has been added later.  The foredeck style is much what Rowsell's were producing at the time & the shape could be a September Girl, but the beam of 6ft 8" is a little more than September Girl and suggests Phantom Kipper but that didn't appear till 1972 so would have a spinny chute.  Hornblower another possibility but I think the run is flatter?

More fun than work anyway

The boat that was at Midland had exactly that foredeck layout complete with the cutout for the jib tack.

I doubt there are two boats in the fleet with that appearance!

That looks like a Bob Hoare hull circa 1969/74 when he seemed to be the main user of gaboon ply. The mast gate also looks like a Bob Hoare design (see the two struts on the underside). The seat (?!) at the front of the centreboard case is another Hoare characteristic. While difficult to gauge from looking at the transom, if you look at the side picture ther does seem to be a distinct chine in the hull which suggests it's either a September Girl or Phantom Kipper.

Another thought. Pretty sure that Moon Rockets were designed by Mike Noakes of Wyche and Coppock and built by them only.

Sailed with C Bretherton in 'say no more' when new - that's a phantom Kipper and the bow shape of this looks completely different.

Certainly not a Moon Rocket, if it were by Bob Hoare or Whyche & Coppock or any other builder it would have the makers label or marks where it had been thus my guess would be an Amateut Build what about one of the ones John Aviston of Ranelagh built the fiddly attention to detail would point to a scientific pedant. His boats were varnished and v e r y --- s l o w nhe was not that bad a yotter, just a thought 23-4 00 nwould be the sort of number too,

If it were a Bob Hoare shell completed by either the owner or someone else then would it have had the plate?

Having had a closer look it isn't 2685 as that didn't have the strange construction at the front of the case, but it certainly looks similar.

Look on the bright side,  at least it's not a 12 like that other poor guy!!!!

The rather old fashioned planl lay at the bow may point to amateur build?

could it be the

Proctor Mark XVIII 1974 with a new thwart?

centreboard case looks like a Mk IX so could be a proctor design.

anyone else own that one?

Right, thanks for all the comments.

1) Would you say then that the 'seat' at the front is an oddity, and does it identify the boat at all?  

2) My opinion is that there is no chine at all...or only right at the stern if at all.  The second photograph (from the bow looking aft) shows this pretty clearly, I think.  No chine.

3) The spinny chute...how can you tell that it is not original?  Just curious because the woodwork around it seems 'original' or at least antiquated.  The deck was not simply punched through, there is supporting framework around the chute under the deck.

Oh, one more comment/question.  When are letters (R.Y.C. for instance) traditionally added to the outside of the transom?  If the boat is owned by a club?  I mean, the letters showed up after a lot of sanding on the transom, so I believe that is original.  Could narrow it down a bit...what clubs 'owned' Rockets back then.  Nick sent some photographs and I noted letters on the transom as well, in a similar location.  Is this normal practice?  My letters could have been R.Y.C. or P.Y.C.  What clubs?

Not owned by clubs but club the owner is a member of is usual. RYC? Sure its not RSC? Which would again point to the Aviston Boats.

Looks a lot like a very old super-maximum beam Xpectation I saw in the early 70's, build style that is, not design wise. Is it an Xpectant? The chute style is about right, there was a fashion for fitting under-deck jib furlers about then, hence the smaller aft hole.

I thought from your picture the hole from the spinny had been cut through by some amateur with a jigsaw (I remember doing just such a job in my back garden in 1985) but in fact other boats of the same era did have a similar hole for the spinny.  However the fashion for a drum furler for the jib (again I used to have one of these in a box of bits till I eventually threw it out!) was short-lived and points to around 1970, maybe a couple of years later.  Those around at the time will doubtless correct me.  I think Xpectant is like my old 1970 Northern Light and has a narrowish transom with a flat run and hard bilges.  That's not Rob's one, which is very slightly V'd

When you say drum furler...mine has an ali tube (visible in one of the photos I think) about 50mm diameter I'd guess, with a stainless ring 'clamp' to which my jib bottle screw is attached.  Are you saying this tube once rotated to wind up the jib 'cable'?  It does rotate now, or would if I detached the bottle screw which pokes through the hole in the deck.

Bored enough to do the research

listed by the RYA

PYC
Parkstone Yacht Club - as active Merlins today a good bet
Plym Yacht Club - founded in 1970, a maybe
Pagham Y C - a maybe
Penarth Y C - unlikely

under RYC
Redclyffe YC - unlikley

Parkstone might point to a home finshd Hoare of sorts?

Hi Rob,
We also have an Expectant at the club, 2195 which doesn't have a spinny chute or any sort of jib halyard tensioner at the bow. (Built by Aln Boatyard). Of the boats we have, the shape looks closer to a Tom Booth design, one of which we also have, a Courageous, 2444. Nothing with a "seat" like that though.
Nick

Rob, 
er, no. The ally tube didn't rotate, the jib furler was fastened to it, and ended up sort of stuck half through the deck, half below it. These weren't reel type furlers like you'd get on a modern Harken or Profurl set up, just a pulley with knurling on it, and an endless rope running round it and back to the cockpit. Were really c--p, and only worked for a week or two, hence the short lived fashion.

Right, thanks for that clarification.  I know what a roller furler is but thought maybe they stored the mainstay (have those always been integral with the jib?) wrapped around that ali tube and 'furler' was just an unconventional use of the word...

The two hole layout for spi chute and jib (off a short cross tube) was definitely used by Wyche and Coppock in the early 70's. (I had 2567 with the same arrangement)

Okay, hate to belabor this but I'm still trying to work it out so...

On eBay there is a boat for sale, 3001 Fireworks.  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98955&item=7166156861&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

I've checked the book and that boat is a P. Morrison Hooligan built by Robert Hoare.  I mention it because the hull shape, transom, and deck shape--overall but especially at the mast, are strikingly similar to mine (see pics further up this thread).

Does anyone know more about P. Morrison designs?

P.S.  I note from the book that both Phantom Kipper and September Girl (listed above in thread as potentials for my boat but generally ruled out) are P. Morrison designs.  I'm thinking things are coming together for my boat as a P. Morrison design and Robert Hoare build...but which one?

I have an old Phantom Kipper and next to it is a  moon rocket built by Wyche and Coppock  .Next time I go down to the yard, Ill take some picks of both for you to compare