what do you do if you have between £6-7k to spend on a boat?

Buy Easy Rider and one string her

Yup - buy this. Problem solved.

And win everything with it - any reason it shouldn't in the right hands?

If you have �6-7K to spend on a Merlin I see it like you have 4 options.
1. Build a new one partially by yourself from a kit - see Keith Callaghan, although you will have to do all the fitting / finnishing to be in budget - Lots of Kudos
2. Renovate a classic, you can buy a wreck for �50 and then give lots of money to a pro-builder to create a truley beuatiful boat that would last another 30 years at least - you may even win some vintage classic prizes
3. Buy a Mk1 Winder - safe bet, there are none on the market thought, so if you are not already a member of MROA join and get the year book (you will have to join anyway if you are going to compete at any level) and look up all the owners of 62WBFS type boats. Some will be thinking of seeling but not yet decided. They should start at �6k in good nick, cheaper if they have been abused. Safe bet.
4. Buy a slightly newer EZ Roller (71FWFfs) like Easy Rider. They are slightly cheaper as they are 'less proven'  than the Winders so demand not so strong - that doesn't mean that they are less good (debate coming I'm sure)

The answer is - depends what you want. If this was you 8th Merlin, you's know what you want, so I presume you are new to this - I know what option I would take and that would be take a good look at 4. but then it would be my 6th Merlin. If it was my first I'd go for option 3. In my own opinion of course.

Definitely a good buy,John has looked after her and proved her boatspeed at a number of opens last year...

Is it easy to one string an EZ Roller?

Two Easy Rollers have been given the one string conversion, in theory easier to do than a Winder as there is more space for the systems to run. Best bet would be Phil Scott.

Fitting a one string system to an Easy Roller should be fairly simple - the system on my boat 3660 Djelibeybi works very well.  She also has the centreboard uphaul / downhaul system which is another worthwhile tweak.

Where is Phil Scot based, got any contact details?

Mobile 07973 720732, he's 10 mins off the M42 just before the junction for M6 toll

Thanks for all that guys very useful. 

It woud be my 3rd merlin although I have been away for a while, not interested in the renovating a classic and that side of things and have looked at the self build with Keith but I stopped sailing the last one due to time so not sure how I'll fit in finishing one off at this time of year! Although it is going to be interesting to see how the boat does and I hope more people look at this option in the future. 

What I really wnat is option 3 but there is just nothing out there for sale at the moment so I am going to hang fire for now and see if anything pops up.

Regards to all.

Bonkers,...the Easy Rider for sale is vastly superior to an entry level Mk1 Winder. It turned up to Chichester a few weeks ago and walked all over the competition.

Well almost, think you'll find Liam and I pipped Jon to the line in the first race the other week. He got us in the 2nd though!

In my view I agree that the EZ is generally a quicker and a more high spec boat than the Mk 1 Winder was. The Winder was only about 11K when came out in '99 compare to 15-16K for the EZ when they came out in'01. The EZ has full carbon decks, internals, foils and Chipstowe rigs (really a must and worth at least £500 over a boat with Superspar), Harken fittings that are bomb proof, ball race traveller, etc, etc. The gap in spec with many of the early Winders was pretty big. (So as not to be bias I have to say the Winder boats have certainly evolved a lot over the last 10 years)!

Recall the success the EZs had between '01 and '05 when Phil King, Will Rainey, Simon Blanke, Glen Truswell, etc sailed them against Mk 1 & 2 Winders. 3x National, 3x Salcombe and 4x Inlands winners. These boats are really not slow!!!

As Barnsie has said things like 1-stringing and perhaps dropping the bow could really make them compete against the new Mk 4 and 5s, but for £4K less.

(Note I owned an EZ for 5.5 very happy years, only moving onto a newer boat this winter)

Sorry Simon Blake not Blanke...

I have to agree with Ross on this point. I very nearly bought his off him but people stopped buying houses and so I am stuck with my Let it Ride for a bit longer (unless you want that then I could have the EZ Roller!). I think the main difference between the two is the weight carrying carecteristics. I understand that the Winders will carry weight a little better but it is marginal and only relevent if your an elephant like me!!

Easy Rider must be your best option at the moment and I personally think it would be even if a MK1 Winder was available right now.