I went on to Amazon and there are 3 copies of the Merlin Rocket book on there. Before you all rush to snapthese up I should point out that they range in price from £110 to £310.86 !! Surely the authours must have autographed every page of the dear one!? What would it cost to have a print run done if there was enough interest? |
Wish i had bought a copy when they came out!!! |
I did in 1991 for about £8 or £9 from what was then Racing Sailboats store in Clapham. Perish the thought of ever selling it though irrespective of it's worth. |
Any prospective Rocketeer living on the Island can borrow mine if thats what it takes to get more boats here! |
I was given one last year by my wife who did a deal via Amazon. We are still in the black so it wasn't too dear. I noted several typos and grammatical slip ups and wonder if mine was a proof copy. If so it will be worth billions and I can sell it to MROA and retire to the sun. |
I bought my copy at the party held at Ranelagh S. C. to introduce The Merlin Rocket Book twenty years ago. It's signed by Ian Poctor, Jack Holt, Graham Donald, Pat Blake, Dick Batt, Jilly Blake, John Stokes and other luminaries of the class. So what's my copy worth? |
It really is an excellent book I have several copies and I'm not letting go of any, a revised edition is due whilst Jim Park is still alive I'm sure a few to underwrite the production costs could be found, perhaps the Sailmakers, Boat Builders and others who daily eat because of the Merlin Rocket Class? |
Do you want me to ask if Jim'll Fix It for a reprint. Or are we looking for a second edition? |
So the rumour of a stash in the garage is true n'est pas? |
I have a good copy of the book salvaged from the local s/hand shop by an elderly neighbour for 50p! I reckon a reprint might be nice, but it would be better to produce, in addition or instead of, a volume 2 no? That would encompass modern rigs, FRP in the guise of Turner and Winder, Phil, Kevin, Let it Rides, Easy Rollers etc etc. |
Plenty of us would be interested in a reprint as we've never seen the original. It doesnt matter if it doesnt cover the last decade! |
A Follow up edition would not help the shortage of the original. I was a bit too young to appreciate the book when it came out but really wish i had got one but it is too late now. It is a pity for all the new or growing Merlin Sailors to miss out on such a master peice. |
As someone who's not been active in the class since about the time the book was published I'd vote for an update. |
An update that encompasses the old and new would be perfect. |
I agree 100% Jeremy - the history is important - and remember, the current developments will be history in 60 years time too!! (Not that I will be around to see how the class develops by 2066) |
I was given a copy a few years ago with my last Merlin, having looked at Amazon i wish i hadnt bloody lost it, it's nearly worth as much as my boat |
Garry, |
Garry |
With all the semi retireds like Jim Park & Robert Harris it should not be the work of geneii to produce it with a good sub editor of course! Private publishing is not expensive either. |
Good idea who's going to write the update though I suspect a lot of the copy could be garnered from this site! |
Thanks for the info 578. In fact my parents live in Biggar. But (and it's a big and insurmountable but) I have no intention of making Merlin restoration an annual pastime!! Having done two it's time to stop. But the book is tempting ........ nah - will wait for the reprint. |
There seems to be considerable interest in a updated reprint I'm sure many would pre order & pay up front if that would help deminise the gamble. |
Yep - I'm up for a pre-payment should there be a reprint/re-vamp |
I'd pre-pay are IOU's ok |
Jeremy - Glad to hear that you managed to get all your prizes home OK after the prizegiving....can I have my wheelbarrow back? Sorry to hear that you do not have a copy of the Merlin Rocket Book, I would let you have a look at my copy but my cottage has an uneven floor and it's just the right thickness to stop our table from rocking! |
John, I do have my dads copy but i guess he will want it back one day!! For the price the books are going for i could buy you an uneven table to go with your floor? |
Did you know that a three legged table will never rock no matter how uneven the floor is?!! |
I guess that is a matter of opinion? |
Apparently it is a fact - hence the design of milking stools to be used in uneven floored byres. The legs have to be at approximately 120 degrees to each other. |
It is true, as if they could rock it would mean they would only be on two legs and would fall over anyway!! |
I'll bet the RS crowd would find a way to rock it. |
I thoght milking stools had three legs so's the maids didn't fall asleep lent up against a cow during the morning milking |
I have to be honest i have never fallen asleep whilst milking a cow. Would be keen to her from any1 that has |
Thanks to Garry R for his helpful advice. I have now sawn off one of the four legs of my table..... the problem is that it keeps falling over.... wish I had left it as it was! (Did I saw off the wrong leg perhaps?) It was OK before with one Merlin Rocket book.... now I need lots of them! |
Try cutting off another leg. Some say it will be an improvement. |
The One legged stool was of course introduced for the old powder mills where people engaged in the extremely hazardous occupation of mixing gun pwder by hand the idea being that if they got lazy or went to sleep they fell off! And we made Gun Cotton on the kitchen range of my Boarding House at school! These days we's be put into care, come to think of it A Public School circa 1960 was prabably akin to care these days (With out the sunstances!) |
Did you saw the leg off the left hand corner? It was obviously the wrong one!! I should add that the three legs have to be distributed 120 degree to one another - that's critical. It's a bit like putting up a mast I suppose - geometry is everything!! But the good news is that it frees up a Merlin Rocket book which no doubt you will be flogging off to fund the purchase of a new table. See you in IKEA...... |
Ancient Geek - regarding being put into care - there were rumours that the research instiute I work in was to be relocated and many staff would be made redundant but it was pointed out that keeping the place open would be cheaper than care in the community for all the misfits who seem to work here. |
So the Geek made gun cotton eh? Note to MI5 or is it 6. |
For the purpose 578 describes we used Potassium Iodide even under a paper on the beaks desk a satisfying purple bang and puff as the paper was disturbed! I recall cannon we made causing quite a stir in the Nothamptonshire town where my school was, when the local Police Inspector called at our house our Housemaster a Veteran of The Western Desert and Burma later to become a rather "Camp" Television Personality simply said "I'll tell them to fly a red flag next time! The rather bemused copper left without a murmer, in these rather different times quite properly we'd have got ASBOS and an armed response unit! |
I am shortly to retire from school governorship where I have seen over the years all the fun and mystery removed from science and "technology". We are scared stiff of parents and HSE suing the pants off the LEA should any of the little horrors, sorry, students I meant, get a cut or burn. They are leaving school without an inkling of danger as they are not allowed to experience it. They can't use sharp tools confidently. At a school near me, which is a specialist "Technology College" few kids leave knowing which screwdriver does what or which glue sticks what. They have played at electronics, touched on plastics and fiddled with a sewing machine. We have also had a range of indifferent buscuits. But have the students got a firm grasp of any of the tech subjects. Well I have to say no. Its spread to thin and too restricted in its teaching. What our boatbuilder friends make of the 16-18 yr olds applying for jobs would be interesting to hear. |
Hope that the op was not carried out by one of your former technologically incompetents and finished off by the B grade sewing class!!! But I agree with you - some of the science graduates seem to have never done practical work of any quality and when all's said and done science is the most practical of subjects. Hope to see 578 sailing again soon by a perfectly restored helm!! |
I concur with the above, perhaps illustrated by the naivity of some people when it comes to DIY on their boats? "Artful Bodging" seems to be dying out! |
The removal of risk which 578 bemoans has been parallelled by a growth in the belief that one is not responsible for one's own actions. When my science class covered for a boy whilst he connected a bunsen burner to the water tap and turned it on, soaking everything in and on the master's desk, the entire class got belted and justice was done. Nowadays, there would be no effective punishment followed by social service enquiries - probably into the master's teaching methods. |
If you haven't got them the "Grumpy Old Men" books are for all ages of similar views! |
Some kids really come out of school knowing nothing and it's as much the parents' fault as the school's (yes I have two teenagers). |
And the sad thing is the "young" don't have the FUN we did either! They seek refuge in Alchol and "substances" they do I guess find oblivion but fun? |
Aincient Geek, |
Re chemical experiments. One of my pals made up a large batch of the stuff and put it in one of his mum's kilner pickling jars with a view of chucking stones at it til he smashed it and it blew up into a mushroom cloud (he'd seen a fellow chemical traveller do it). There were traces of the stuff round the thread of the metal top which of course ignited as he was tightening it up and boom off it went in his hand. |
best thing about the sciences is finding out how to make your own soap and alcohol, and handling radioacctive stuff and playing with mercury. oops sorry wrong meeting |
Mercury!!!!!!!!!! The school where I am gov got an Ofsted bo------g for still haing a bit of that locked away. I recall at school rolling it around on plates and banging the blob with a finger to make little blobs which merged again. Fascinating to think that it was actually a boiling metal! As for alcohol I am glad to say i have taught both my boys to brew their own beer. They have laid down a supply for me in our garden air raid shelter. But will all this get us the book reprinted? |
From the Merlin Book to Ofsted, via MI5.... |
cannons,thats what we made in metal work class. |
So glad that some had a fun upbringing! |
I remember making a "gun" out of a copper pipe (in 1961) with a turned over end , dismantling penny bangers for the powder and putting fuse (complete with blue touch paper)into a hole drilled in the top. The whole thing complete with gravel for shot was tightened into a vice before igniting. How the hell it didn't blow apart I'll never know but it wasn't until I started shooting with a 12 bore that I realised how lucky I had been. Oh but you are right - the fun was worth it. I am sure that now I would have an ASBO slapped on me. (I have neither been taken into care, had therapy nor have served prison terms!!!!!). Have I done something wrong? |
I can go back a further 20 years. During the war before Merlin Rockets were invented we occasionally found live .303 rifle rounds. We would lay them on two housebricks a couple of inches apart and put a lit candle or some other form of fire between the bricks. After a few seconds they'd explode with a very satisfying BANG! I apologise sincerely to any neighbours in Aldborough Road that we killed or injured. |
Back to the Merlin Book - I tried to borrow it from the British Lending Library through my work Library and - yes!! They do have a copy BUT they don't lend it out but for those who live in London I guess that you can view it. Reason was given why I couldn't get it on Inter Library loan - something to do with it being their only copy (or perhaps they want to flog it on ebay/Amazon). |
When I was lad, technical classes ranged from making steam engines, from raw materials, casting etc.. to building fibreglass canoes. I don't suppose you're allowed to use lathes or light the furnaces these days. let alopne test the canoes. All this and physics, pure and applied maths etc. - a good all round education! |
Ever tried putting shotgun cartridges on the log fire? No bang as such just a very violent PUFF follwed by a fall of soot thus saving on a chimney sweep! I also recall a TA night excercise in the deep mid-winter when I the organiser of said "Scheme" was back early and warming myself in the hut with my feet on the bogie stove when the lads crawled onto the roof and dropped a few blank rounds down the chimney! |
CCF camp early 70,s on exercise with regulars, Norfolk; they did much the same with a thunderflash! result 13 youngsters all very impressed 3/4 off changing their underware.Big bang stop play! |
Some of you greybeards will remember Derek King who now lives in Sydney. Always an exuberant character, during his National Service he talked himself into a commission in the Royal Engineers. In those far off days THE place to be was Minima YC at Kingston. One Guy Fawkes night Derek turned up with a bag full of thunderflashes. It was dark and we soon discovered the best place to explode them was in the Thames where they made a loud WOOOMPH and created brief but brilliant underwater mushroom clouds like those of atomic bombs. We had a lot of fun that night but I bet the fish didn't! |
You don't think that the poor old whale got hold of one of those that had failed to go off. |
Terrible |
On a site which reveres all things Merlin, |
My goodness, I'm going to have to create a 'poetry' section in the library next... |
That sad young whale was seeking only fun, no more than that. |
The ghost of McGonagal lives in Robert Harris! |
We used to order Whales in the chip shops of Leeds. I guess they swam up the river Aire. |
Whales in Leeds is pronounced a bit like werls so you may have been ordering that well known dish and favourite of Jamie, Turkey Twizzlers! They do taste a bit fishy I am told or is it the ingrdients that are fishy? |
I saw it on line as where I currently am its 3 days before the UK papers arrive!www.Dailytelegraph.co.uk |
Since this "post" seems to be rambling and us Grumpy Old Men are free to be reactionary and nostalgic please do something about Saving the "Radio 4 Theme Tune" or "Sailing By" will not be far behind followed by The World Services "Lilybolero" "Mark Tully" "Something Understood" and then Empire really will fold "The Archers"! E-Mail the BBC,ITV, Gordon Brown, Tony(Townie) Blair, David Cameron, Whoever the Lib Dems have not outed yet The Grauniad, The Torygraph, The Pink Un, The Thunderer, even the Sun. |
I have already signed the petition on save the uk theme website. What a sad git I am! However as a regular insomniac I have to say that hearing it brings to an end an ordeal and is most welcome especially in winter's dark mornings. |
Banning 111 and 1728 on account of varnish - is this the double whammy they all speak about. It's a tricky one - wooden (renewable resource boat but varnish on a regular basis (environmentally unfriendly?) or plastic boat (a one off ice cap hit?). Discuss!! |
"dangerous activities such as sailing" - er????? its not exactly dangerous what we do is it? unless the newspaper was referring to the social activities like bar diving. |
Well, I'm not sure I'd agree with that Mags, if Garry is going to go around hitting ice caps with a plastic Merlin. Sounds dangerous enough to me |
Always remember water is dangerous stuff: |
Now I didn't think fish did that but whales do I am sure. However they all do something else! |
I'm not sure they do either but it was W C Fields great warning about not to drink water! |
As a child did you never have a goldfish in a bowl (obviously a bad shot at the fun fair) and wonder what brown stings were? |
We always liberated our goldfish in the pond where the herons ate them! As to prowess as a shot, Ashburton Shield for my School, can still do a 4" group at 100yds with my Stalking Rifle 7X57 admitedl;y with a telescope sight! |
Never was good shot, though my wife was a real Annie Oakley with my old Airsporter. Used to manage to hit cows bottoms with plastic pellet shot from a Diana air pistol, the one where the barrel extension shot out on a spring. They wandered past my bedroom window whilst I was meant to be studying for "O" Levels (remember those) and presented such a fine target. I had an old silk top hat on a pole as a target as well. Sort of knock off a toff game. |
Re Goldfish did you read Craig Brown in Today's Daily Telegraph I've just seen it on line! |
Right then, here we are at goldfish. What next to keep this thread going? Don't forget THE BOOK which is where this all started. How many copies have been printed since we started? |
Never mind how many copies - what % price increase has there been!! Perhaps I should get a Goldfish card!!! (Is this lateral thinking!!) |
Are there any 'on demand' printers in the UK? http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000014.php |
I have one for sale offers? |
You have a 1986 Merlin Rocket Book For sale? Why would you want to sell it? I would be interested at a price but otherwise i will stick to borrowing my dads until a new one comes along! |
Could try Anthony Rowe. http://www.writewords.org.uk/articles/self_publishing10.asp |
Found it - helps if you spell it right! http://www.antonyrowe.co.uk/ |
Jeremy, It would be nice to have my book back some time!!!!!! |
Having got Swindon library's copy on inter-library loan I was told that booksellers often put out of print books on sale at ridiculouds prices to see if they sell. Once one copy sells expensively they know they are on to a winner. |
I used to work for a book wholesaler and I’m not sure that is strictly true, having said that looking at Amazon you may well have a point. It seems though that from the response from this feed that there would be a market for a reprint or even a revised edition of the book, which could be a nice money-spinner for the association |
but if you only sold one copy to every member (who else would buy one?), would that be sufficient to justify a re-print? |
Just like all those people who said they'd go to Scotland at Easter? Cash up front, In God we trust but...... |