I am the proud owner of a beautiful Jon Turner Merlin, 3381, Seventh Wave. I love her for what she was, what she is and what she will be as I slowly bimble her back to a pristine condition. I lust after the Lotus Engineering boat and one day I might be fortunate enough to own Dark Star. Keep the development going!
It’s the diversity of the class that attracts me. I’m a competent sailor, but never going to win much at the back of the boat, but I can compete and do compete with other Merlins, mostly on the Thames and have fun debating the advantages of wide boats v narrow boats. How strange that the top sailors in wide boats always seem to win!
It’s a fantastic class and wish that I had joined it earlier, rather than flogging round the circuit in an RS400 for 11 years. I used to describe The RS400 as modern Merlin. It's not!
Posted: 07/07/2011 14:57:41 By: fribbs |
The main point about the class is the availability of old boats. Here at Thames we have the fastest growing club Merlin fleet based on vintage boats. Note a third of the entrants in the DeMay series are Thames boats. Unfortunately Fribbs (Commodore at Thames,)even though his has six fingers, couldn't work out his dates when he got his boat and it doesn't qualify as a vintage for another few years. All old Merlins welcome to the CVDRA event soon at Thames.
Posted: 07/07/2011 18:30:25 By: Patrick Rayner |