Get the Geek back on the water!

Yeah, isn't there an old blokes prize at the nationals?

Thats more like it!! Now, all this talk and no action is no good for you! The lack of exercise in a Merlin may be the cause of weighing 22 Stone and having bad knees! I think the best cure would be to come to the nationals and sail in the Classic class. That way you only do half the laps for half the week but have just as much of the fun!!

Go on you know you want to!!

What amuses me most is thinking how many of you know who he really is.....!!!

I think I know?

who amongst us knows who we really are?

I am not sure who i am anymore! The effects of am over bearing boss cause this sort of thing!

Tonight Matthew - Jeremy is going to be -  JACK HOLT!!!!!  Thunderous applause and the Merlin fleet to a man raid the phone in.

Well i'm only just 60 (well + a year!)And its not lack of exercise merely that I love my keelboats and the nostalgia of the Merlin but I'd only do it in a new boat.

I should make it clear to Jeremy who as an Estate Agent? May not understand clear English I am 15.5 stone 22 was my thought of the optimum, all up weight!If he isn't and my English was unclear I apologise in advance!

You are right, i am an Estate Agent and i do understand plan English!
I myself weigh in at 15 Stone and my crew is 10 Stone but we are still competative, it is my sailing ability which holds us back. However at Club level we won every trophey there was available last year! You don't need a new boat all you need is a boat and a crew and to go out and enjoy yourself. There can be only one winner but without the other 80 boats who would they sail against?! We won the Buttercup at the Nationals and i was chuft with that as it was my first time out after a 7 year gap away from Merlins and the fact that we completed all 6 races with the time limits and had a bloody good time at the socials was more than enough for us. At no poiint did i think i was going to win but i went any way just for the fun of taking part.

excellent motivation jeremy, although it doesn't sound as though you are all that bad judging by your results!

I know who he is and he knows I know who he is.

i know that he knows that i don't know that he knows who i am but i don't know who either of us are as reflected by other unknown contibutors who know that i don't know who they are either!

however, i do know that one of you knows who i am (could you please let me know?)

Who are though? that is the question!

Opps1 Meant to be a 'you' in there too!

There must be a real downturn in the housing market if all these estate agents have time to read and reply to this thread. Mr Geek, having a new boat wont give you any excuses for not performing well. Go for the old boat and have plenty.

There is a long story. I never used to have this much time!

I can make a guess at Grey Goose. 1047?

Jeremy,
have you thought about the Rightmove you could make to get more time on the water?

1047, that's me. I'm going back to Merlins and I'm countless years older than you so why don't you have a go? Maybe on a Sunday morning at one of your old clubs. I'm sure someone would lend you a boat.

And what Rightmove would that be?

Dear Grey Goose,
The other thing that contra indicates a serious return is I was never active enough around the boat as one of my old crews reminded me the other day I needed a good active strong fit crew I'm less active (Knees.) and I like my keelboats just a bit too much, though I might be persusaded to do the Bourne End Weekend.
I am after all just about old enough to remember "When the air was clean and sex was dirty!"

I am still looking for a helm for that weekend - relaxed in Secret Water 111.  With my age, your age, boat age there must be some sort of allowance for us.  I promise to do the leaping about!!

Did you get a parcel yet? It's bloody cold here in Palma so you must be snowbound.

Nope - not yet but will look out for it - thanks.  No snow now but actually lees breezy than it was, so, although an easterly, not feeling as cold as it might be.  In fact there is sun now but I guess you can see that too!!!

I know who the Geek is Its George Burns!

Do we have a Zimmer Trophy like the Larks? Highest combined age of helm, crew and boat is the criteria!! Might be one for Garry to target!!

Bald Head trophy at the inlands

Ignore me I'm talking s**t.

ooh.... The Geek is picking up as much acclaim as 'The Stig'  Will we see people is 'Geek' MR t-shirts at the silver tiller events?  We should have a competition for the catchiest 'Geek' Logo at Salcombe week??? Perhaps dedicate part of the site to the History!

Getting the Geek back on the water may not be easy, but Geek Tee Shirts may be answer. How about 'Ancient Geek ate my hamster' or maybe 'The Geek says Relax' or possibly 'My other Merlin is an Adur 6'

Can I just say, I haven't laughed this much on the forum for ages! Single t-shirts are so economical to print nowadays, I may just have to go ahead with this idea....

I will have a unique T shirt then - Sailing a Proctor IX mine will have to read "My other Merlin is a Woottens".   How about "My boat is an absolute clinker!"  There must be many other possibilities.

T shirt logo  'NEVER TRUST A MAN WHOSE PLANKS OVERLAP'

Point of order was an Adur 6 ever a Merlin Rocket?

Were they the ones that didn't measure?

Correct.

As the man who knows everything I think he should be renamed Absorba the Geek!

I thought the Adur 6 being built for me in 1962 was a Merlin Rocket until some young whippersnapper phoned me late one night to say otherwise! 

Fortunately the Adur 7 I eventually received from the builders was probably better than the out of class 6 and nowadays they're much sought after by Vintage enthusiasts. So please, does anyone know the whereabouts of my old Adur 7 No. 1502 Helgel?

Of course the Adur 6's were Merlin Rockets, built to the rules of the time. The fact that the rules were ambigous was no fault of the builder, the designer or the measurer. It all hinged around the word 'girth' Is that the distance around the hull or the distance across. Debate!!! and I will let you know the decision made at the time.

Girth - definition is the distance around something. Got this off Google but they didn't have the internet then.

I wasn't there, but doesn't seem ambiguous

girth    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (gûrth)
n. 
The distance around something; the circumference. 
Size; bulk: a person of large girth. 
A strap encircling an animal's body in order to secure a load or saddle on its back; a cinch. 

tr.v. girthed, girth·ing, girths 
To measure the circumference of. 
To encircle. 
To secure with a girth.

They had dictionaries though.

And one would have thought a greater understanding of English - however I believe that the new phonetic system (which I vaguely recognise as the old phonetic system)will make girth sound less like width (even when tapped out in a mobile phone text format!)

What happened with the Adur 6 and the rules. If people were confused between girth and width, why, mathematically it is difficult (impossible) to get a girth less than twice the width and boat approximating a semi circle - girth would be approx 2.5 times width. 

The conclusion can only be -  either all Merlins were previosly up to 2.5 feet wide (false) or Adur 6 was up to around 18 feet wide (Also false, I presume).

My Adur 6 was to be the next one when meticulous Minima YC measurer Robin Fowler declared David Child's new 6 to be out of class in the autumn of 1962. Having paid a substantial deposit to Adur Boatyard I tried very hard to persuade myself and others that Robin and the RYA Dinghy Committee had got it wrong.

The redoubtable John Stokes was Chairman then (and by chance my immediate next door neighbour!), he and the committee did not agree with me. The rule was quickly changed to what I guess it essentially still is. At the time that seemed to be a point in my favour of my argument. 

I was very upset throughout that winter but the replacement Adur 7 helped my wife Helen and me to 3rd place in the 1963 Champs and I've long accepted that John and the committee were right.

Well, the then committee ruled that the girth was the distance across the boat and not the distance around the hull for the measurement of the rise of floor. The Adur was built quite narrow on the waterline the measurer, Hugh Gawthorp, also avery particar and meticulous, resigned over the decision. They proved to be very fast both upwind and down. The committee's  interpretation was contrary to the Oxford dictionary definition of girth. All part of history and they probably made the right call for the future of the class. The Adur 7 was also a good boat but not as fast as the 6's

How do you know that? The 6s and 7s (that's appropriate!) would never have raced against each other. Or, were there some secret trials?

The 6's raced against the 7's for more than two years at SMYC and the 6's nearly always beat the newer 7's. Up the river and at sea.
The 6's couldnt do open meetings because they had been outlawed but they did carry on racing for some time.

I guess there were some pretty determined Adur 6 owners at SMYC in 63/64.

Anyway this thread is all about getting the Ancient Geek back into a Merlin Rocket so what are you doing to help with this endeavour?

P.S. There is a Debenham 'Broad Scoter' in the T C boatshed.

Is 22 stone still the optimum weight for a Merlin Rocket? Theres an Adur 6 hull on the lawn at Shoreham!

Is that the flower bed?

I have offered AG a sedate sail later in the year but to date no takers.  Perhaps (as is his wont) he knows some intimate detail about the boat and is reluctant!!

So are there any photos of this Adur 6 design. Did it look wierd and out of place? Or was it just 'similar' to others of the time but just didn't measure?

In fact very similar to the Adur 7 it had a very deep keel piece and planing that down to the minimum 7/8" meant it was only a "nats crotchet" away from being ok. But it was thus a smidge thinner at rise of floor than the 7.

I'm looking through my draws for a photo of an Adur 6. Anyone got one?

Almost certainly, but not scanned as I've promised someone else I'll get to it when I get home and before 30tyh when I'm away again I'll send any pics to Mags for on-pass!