So what is all the gossip I am hearing about a new design to be built by winder? Who has designed it and how radically different is it from the tales? Are we finally going to get some development in the class????

There is already an option (in wood at the moment) Keith Callaghans Hazardous series, has turned in some good results when its sailed. It will be at the inlands,salcombe week and the champs.
Of course there is Jon Turners new creation too.
Just need to get people to get their wallets out and try something different.
There is gossip of a Foam sandwich Hazardous light under construction

I hear it similar to the new GP14 :-)))

Not forgeting my Dad's new boat-the first to be planked foam sandwich with super faired Bilge keels!

And over here on the Island Joe Richards is planking up another design, if he delvers a design to the same quantum leap as his 12, & gets it into production a few choices will need to be made! Interesting days.

What effect Would a top end winning design have on the fleet assuming it went into winder production? Assuming it was groundbreakingly different and much faster, like the n12.  What has happened in their fleet?

I) fleet participation
ii) 2nd hand Market

It's a funny old world:
Development in the Nation 12 classs has caused havoc.
Some one-design classes are reinventing themselves by allowing changes to the hull shape (eg Wayfarer).
The Merlin Rocket development class wants to become a one design.

The beauty of a "restricted" class is that people CAN develop new ideas within a framework that controls and restricts this development so that older boats are not immediately made redundant. We are not and should not move towards a situation where we become a one design. Of course, recent history suggests that market forces - and the excellent Winder product - have moved us towards a one design state. Even then there has been glorious exceptions - BAU, Dark Star, Wicked, Highlander to name but a few, admittedly few and far between, but there never the less. Remember that the Winder product has evolved and continues to evolve. If you cannot accept this design evolution, or the fact that someone somewhere somewhen could introduce a completely new design that changes everything, then don't sail a restricted class.

I am in the process of trying to open up the Class Rules to reduce the economic barriers to introducing a new design, for which I will publish more details once I have clarified a few things. The proposal should go to the AGM in July. Hopefully, this would allow MORE development.

Don't forget that Olly's Uncle Jon caused a lot of head scratching with Dark Star at the Champs. Is this design the start of a new bloodline in the Merlin development, moving us away from the Canturbury Tales? Not sure, but I so liked two of the features on this boat that I have incorporated them into BAU for 2011. Whether BAU is any faster will be determined once I have finished her paint job.

Andy, I wish you well with your efforts to open up the Class Rules. Reducing the economic barriers to introducing a new design is in my view key to continued development in the MR class - but does the majority of the MR establishment want that? We shall see.

I thought the first foam planked merlin was Pat Blakes 3640 built by Laurie?

I think that 3640 had planks made from plywood which had a foam core (distributed by Wessex Resins). It's the nearest that Laurie has got to working with plastic.ienc

The ply / foam was from Martell Wessex - 1.5mm skins on a 3mm PVC core if I remember correctly. I spoke to my contact at Martell and it was a real pain that they have not repeated.

Keith is right. It was a foam core (see link)which Laurie then coated in e-glass internally & externally for extra stiffness. When I followed the build of 3640 for the Magazine, (late 2003), Laurie found this material very easy to work with which reduced the planking time by half! The hardest part of the build of 3640 was the carbon sheathing of the deck! Fortunately for Laurie the weather played perfectly into his hands and temperatures for the time of year remained remarkably high so the epoxy/carbon cooked rather well in his 70's prefab workshop!:-)