Hello everybody!

This is just a little note to give everyone a heads-up about the state of play at the moment.  As of last Saturday there were 57 paid entrants to the Championships.  As I hope you are all aware, there is a LIMIT of 80 BOATS on the entry this year, for logistical reasons at Looe.  Whilst we will endeavour to squeeze some more in, at the moment the LIMIT is FIRMLY 80 boats, and I would in no way rely upon there being more entries than this available.  So, we have nearly 75% of the entries already taken.  Surely this is unprecedented at this time of year!

However, this has implications.  If you want to go to Looe, particularly if you have already booked your accommodation, then you need to get your entry in ASAP.  Do it NOW.  There are forms to download on the champs website, on the Notice of Race and Entry page.  Alternatively, complete the paper copy which was included in the envelope with the last MROA magazine.

For those of you who have submitted your entries over the last couple of days, and are wondering why you aren't appearing on the website list, Mr and Mrs Dalby have gone elephant culling with a very fancy Nikon rifle, and won't be back until the end of next week.  So, for you, and all of those who are going to enter following this notice, please be aware that entries will be considered in strict date order, as per the postmark, with the earliest received being considered first.  Should there be more than 80 entries, then a waiting list will be started, again in chronological order of receipt.

Those who we have heard may be interested in coming, or may even have accommodation booked are:

Andrew Mills

Dan Alsop

Chris Martin

Gareth Perkins

Paul Davies

James Davies

John Holland

The Woods

Rein Z

Dirtyhands and Dicky

Armed Forces

Ken Duffell

Bob O�Toole

Phil Plumtree

Justin Eddy

Richard Bramley

Lou Johnson

Robin Charles

David Humphries

Steve Leney

Andy Harris

Anthony May

Colin Brockbank

John Bell

Chris Howarth

Alan Fuller

Mark Fuller

Mike Anslow

Calum

Stu Bithell

Boris

Al Warren

Steve Crook

and I am sure that there are others out there.  If you know these people, and if they maybe don't read this august website, then please chivvy them along!

Furthermore the Champs Dinner!  There are only about 50 places left, and we know that some of you who have already entered have not yet booked your tickets, because you are waiting to see if your chums are going.  Well have a chat, and if they are, send in the cheques!  Any tickets remaining will be touted on the circuit from Midland onwards.

All things considered, everything's lining up for it to truly be a champs to remember.  Lastly, it is important to say that if you cannot commit at the moment, please don't give-up on coming to Looe.  We will try and move heaven and earth to accommodate people, however at the moment it's not looking too promising.

Any questions, comments, queries or interest in sponsoring the champs, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

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Still only 57 paid up entries and up to 75 intended so to quote Delia "lets be 'aving you"! Help them to help you. PPPPPP.

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Filling up. Hurry hurry hurry.

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Not many places left now.

Forgive me for posting this on your web site but it seems the best way of getting the attention and involvement of your Merlin Rocket members and may indeed have benefit to the class during your National Championships. As one the largest employers in Looe  (Day Boat fishing and Wholesale Ltd.) we have noted that your class is holding its National Championships in Looe between the 17th and 22nd of August 2008. We should like to mark this occasion, which coincides with Herring Week - the start of the annual Herring Season in the South West of England, by offering  (following the example at French Regattas) the winning crew their weight in fresh fish from the landed catch on Friday the 22nd.  In offering this prize we are sure that the publicity obtained will benefit not only the Merlin Rocket class but also the “Fish Out Of Looe” campaign which runs from April through to September.  This campaign is geared to present the very best of British fish and in particular the herring fishing fleet and you can be assured that the fish offered are caught by Looe fishermen in British waters and adhering to the quota system as per EC regulations BRUSSELS/14FT/CLIN/R/HERR.  
We realise that among Merlin sailors there is a regular and lively discussion of the optimum combined crew weights and feel that the offer of this additional prize may prove an incentive to those more weighty members to perform well on the final Friday.   The company also note from the forum that there are performance issues in the Merlin class depending on age and as it appears that there are three older groups we shall extend our presentation to the winners of these  prizes.
After racing on the Friday the winning crew will be given a suitably inscribed “Fish Out Of Looe” certificate as a memento which they should then present at the market on Saturday morning (see the www.looe-fish-selling.co.uk website for directions) from where they will claim and collect their prize.  There will be a ceremonial weigh in and presentation by a local dignitary ably assisted by Mr Barry Dunning a former Champion Merlin Crew.  Helms and crews will be weighed individually in order that the prize can be divided between them pro rata if so desired.
This prize will involve a substantial box of this healthy and delicious fish and it may be beneficial to peruse the website below in order to gain an insight of what can be done with this health giving fish.  To assist in the preparation of this culinary delight we will also present a folio edition of leading Chef Tom Aikens’ new book on catching and cooking sustainable fish.
http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category_10001_10001_18858_-1?CMP=KNC-GoogleAd&affiliate_id=red+herring

Some of your members support teams may be interested in hiring one of our member’s boats for the day or week for spectators, this can be arranged at:
www.looedirectory.co.uk/boats_for_charter.htm

We hope you enjoy your weeks sport in the seas off Looe.
Sincerely, 
Clupea Rosa

Nice one!. But you forgot to put your clock forward an hour.

So a fishy tale will be had. Sounds a great idea. Can we also make sure that we sort the gear guide this year as the last one was rather embarissing as many people have asked us when on other circuits. All the kit could be registed at the weigh in if a form had to be presented on arrival at the scales or a requirement of registration. The data could be a very useful thing for the class and potential purchasers.
On a closing note, Herring under the bonnet rings a bell. So who will be the winner!!!
BFN
Barnsie

I take it this is the first April Fool's of the day ??!!??

160kg of fish in the car journey home on a hot summer's day..........lovely !!

It was a dog-fish!
However:
This from North Sails this am.
Minden, Nevada, USA: 
A secret sail manufacturing process pioneered 
by North Sails at their Nevada desert facility is secret no longer 
as a team of U.S. government scientists from nearby Groom Lake has 
been flown in to contain what one sailmaker has described as "an 
apolcalyptic event". "We have been working on a new sailcloth that 
has a memory... literally. Using an amalgam of carbon fibre, 
microprocessor chips and certain organic materials, we hoped to 
create a neural net cloth. A sail that would learn from windspeed, 
direction and point of sail in order to store data and, in effect, 
trim itself and build a knowledge base." 
Code named 3N (North Neural Net), the sail membrane was undergoing 
wind tunnel testing when programmers discovered that rather than 
sending data out, the sail was absorbing information from North's 
super computers... and from the internet. 
"We noted megabytes, then gigabytes, and then terabytes of data 
flowing not FROM the sail membrane, but INTO the membrane. At some 
point on the evening of March 30th, the 3N sail gained self 
awareness and began communicating with us... simple one line command 
code, then questions, what appeared to be Zen koans ... and then a 
near constant stream of mathematical and chemical formulas, followed 
by what are, according to Dr. Stephen Hawking, the solutions to the 
questions of dark matter, gravity and the Unified Field Theory." 
3N's IQ is now at least 300 and climbing. Terrified scientists 
disconnected the membrane and all North computers from the internet. 
Turning off the power to the facility had no effect (other than 
making the membrane a bit petulant), as 3N has learned to generate 
electricity from the internal movement of subatomic particles and is 
now fully self generating. 
"We are playing Mozart 24x7 to it and have a team of scientists 
reading 3N the entire Harvard Classics library and all the world's 
books on philosophy and religion in hopes that it will decide that 
kindness and goodwill towards man is the way to go. If not, we have 
to figure out how to kill it before it kills all of us..." 
northsails.com/armageddon/

78 boats and nearly there. This has got to be a first.
Question is how will it be perceived in the Championships league table.
Whitstable next year should be interesting to say the least.
BFN
Barnsie

It will be recorded as a 80 boat championship ... the fact that it was limited is a detail in a table that just measures entries ...

Why not just say attendance was 100% full as is Salcombe.Will there be a limit at Whitstable as we cant make Looe ?

There speaks an estate agent!

Do not see any reason why there should be a limit but no doubt JC will confirm.
No reason for saying interesting as it would be great to see a fleet break 90 plus boats and bearing in mind WYC will have 18+ Winders next year, the home fleet would add possibly 10 boats to this year's number as Looe does not have a home fleet.
BFN
Barnsie

Not Estate Agent - you should always put a positive slant on things!

It's already been explained the limit is storage ashore - boat parking - you could always leave your boat on an offshore mooring! Long gone are the days when you can just take over a bit of beach.