Hi all. David Hollom has produced a new Merlin Rocket design and we are planning to build a prototype for early next season. The design is based on Dave's research into hull shapes which has culminated with a International 14 design which has proved to be a very fast boat. It won't be another Canterbury tales variant as Dave has started from scratch using the existing design to benchmark his against. His prediction is it will be faster than the current boats and his predictions have a habit of coming good. Anyone interested can contact me on 01983 240444. www.compositecraft.co.uk

The year book suggests there only ever have been 17 Courageous owners Keith ;-)

Did this ever see the light of day?

Be interested to hear more if it has.

I spoke to David Hollom at the Dinghy Show last year - he was still looking for a punter for his new design. Not many courageous MR owners these days who would take a chance on a new boat, whatever its pedigree. Gavin Tappenden is a very good builder of composite dinghies.

 
 
 Glen Truswell and Sam Pascoe have just won the Interntional 14 Worlds sailing 1543......'Departure', the same boat as discussed above by Gavin in 2011, designed by Dave Hollom. I am not involved and it has seemily take time to put the complate package together, but well done them!
 
The difference is that 1543 uses V sections in the middle and U section fore and aft inorder to propmote planning and a lower wetted surface....prismatic coefficients etc etc. 
 
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/180935/International-14-Worlds-at-Geelong-day-6
 
Composite Craft have a Merlin design ready to go.....good luck someone.

I have a Hollom N12 built by Composite Craft to the same design philosophy.
If I was as good as Glen + Sam I reckon I would have won a few races at the Champs.
Instead I have got a string of 2s and 3s...
So who has got the balls to have a go?

Pretty confident in saying that Glen's 14 hull has been under the knife since he bought it.

Pretty confident in saying that Glen's 14 hull has been under the knife since he bought it.

Glen did do a very minor change to the first 500mm of bow of the 14. More aesthetic than anything else. It certainly doesn't change the fact that Dave Hollom's design philosophy is obviously faster than anyone else's at the moment.

Gavin,
 
You can take your tongue out of your cheek now.  There is quite clearly not the evidence to make sweeping statements like your last sentance.  Only one dinghy to this philosophy has won anything and it won after a serious campaign by two very talented sailors.
 
Put another way - If Stu B (or Nick C for that matter) won the Merlins with something other than a Winder CT would i learn that a) They are very good - but then I know that already or b) that they must have a much faster boat than the people that they beat.
 
Antony

Gavin,
 
You can take your tongue out of your cheek now.  There is quite clearly not the evidence to make sweeping statements like your last sentance.  Only one dinghy to this philosophy has won anything and it won after a serious campaign by two very talented sailors.
 
Put another way - If Stu B (or Nick C for that matter) won the Merlins with something other than a Winder CT would i learn that a) They are very good - but then I know that already or b) that they must have a much faster boat than the people that they beat.
 
Antony

The race reports give some good detail re how the races played out, capsizes, comebacks etc. The below is taken from the Y&Y write up of Day 4:

“After an hour's delay as the breeze finally built and settled in, the committee boat end of the start line was jam packed with anxious pointscore leading boats. 
Luckily Truswell was at the starboard end so he went back around, just in case. "I believed we were over the line. I was trying to positon the boat and doing a really bad job of it and Sam was absolutely convinced we were over and I had nothing to believe we weren't," Truswell said. 
Devine said McGrane, who was to leeward of him, was panicking a bit on the start and so was Devine. "We thought we might have been close. We checked with the finish boat at the end of race to make sure we were clear, which we were. That was a huge relief," Devine said. 
Truswell got around the committee boat really quickly and then headed right. "We got a clear lane. There were no boats in it and our boat did its magic. We found a huge amount of speed. 
"It was a shifty beat, but we got the better of the shifts. We were nigh on amazed when we got to the windward mark first," Truswell said.”

 
Hi,
 
Does anyone know if David Hollom's plans and/or data files for all the major components are openly available for purchase for scratch building and/or cutting  out in kit form, electronically on a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) band saw ?
 
Ainslie French 

Anthony:
Agreed that it is always going to be hard to determine exactly how much praise to allocate to the design or the sailors. Certainly the guys must have put in a mammoth amount of work/development. I am not in the class but those that are will probably have a good idea. 

Beyond the hull, other ingredients that surely played a part are the mast (stiffer?), the sails (more rounded sections?). I only mention these as they are mentioned in the Y&Y class write ups. 

There is an interesting article that I remember reading ages ago about prismatic co-efficient, the consideration of which underpin the Hollom design.

http://www.devboats.co.uk/99interview.html 

I always loved the contrast between the comments of Paul Bieker and the comments by Julian Bethwaite:
 
Paul Bieker: "In a fourteen I use a baseline prismatic with about 35mm static transom immersion. This is approximately the depth where water will leave the transom cleanly in moderate air."

Julian Bethwaite: "I have never used prismatics in my life and have no idea of how you would use them to achieve anything worth putting on the market!"
 
Both have achieved so much.

Ben McGrane has a very good level of experience in both the Merlin and the I14 and could probably give an usefl assessment of the Hollom 14 relative to his own. Maybe someone could approach Ben for a comment?

Why do some Forum posts get posted multiple time multiple times multiple times?

I wonder if I might be able to add my twopenneth. A successful sailing campaign is a team effort. It requires a top crew, fast sails on a controllable rig, a builder who is accurate and builds down to a weight and last but not least a low drag boat and foil package.
 
Most important of all, however, are the sailors. Starling Burgess, the famous American designer of "J" class America's Cup boats in the twenties and thirties who, amongst many others, designed "Rainbow" and, together with Olin Stevens, "Ranger, when asked the secret of designing fast boats replied "Finding fast owners" so the majority of praise must go to Glen and Sam for their performance and the amazing amount of work they put in tuning the boat and honing their sailing skills. However, I would like to think that the boat, (Composite Craft), its rig (Seldon Masts) and its sails (Mike Lennon Sails), had some small part to play in this success.
 
As regards it taking a long time to achieve this success, I would point out that the package has been achieving success for some considerable, time it having placed second in the previous Worlds and last year it won the Europeans and indeed it was undefeated over the season.
 
Regarding it having been under the knife Glen did indeed slightly modify the bow as, because of the boats different shape, the bow appeared rather full. (It isn't it just appears that way because the middle of the boat is slimmer). However, Glen later lowered the forefoot slightly and then, in order to fair this mod in, the bow grew back to its original width but, of course, with a slightly deeper forefoot. The combined effect of these mods is to slightly raise the prismatic, which will help the boat onto the plane a little quicker, but at the expense of a little more wetted surface area. Rather than being cut it has actually ended up with a graft but the concept remains unchanged.
 
It is also not the only boat built to this concept to be successful. John is being a little modest when he talks of his seconds and thirds at last years N12 Nats. He doesn't mention that he was sailing with his nine year old son and that at the boats first serious event, the Inland Nats, he came second by one point. Also, the concept has been well tried and proved, over a number of years, on several RC racing yachts.
 
Finally, It is hoped that the boat, in various stages of finish, will be shortly available at a reasonable cost out of China New Yachts and Gavin will be only too pleased to supply a nomex cored de-lux version. The Merlin design is also ready to go. 

I would also add that John's result in 2014 was his best at the N12 champ's in recent years

 Hi Ainslie
 Dave Hollom's Merlin is available in CAD format either as a 3d file or with some work a 2d set of planks and build frames for CNC cutting. I'd love to see this design built and if someone is keen enough to have a crack at it themselves then good on them. Drop me a line if your interested. [email protected] 

No chance you want to entice us by posting some renderings?

I don't think anyone is going to get to excited until they see a few pictures?

 Presumably something like this
 
 http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/photo/88654
 
Best Ainslie
 

It would be great to see the
outline without to much being given away. As we know, the development of hull
shape has gone through key stages, primarily due to material change in rigs and
development of systems where we can control power more readily. Recent designs
such as the Hazard and more extreme Superfast Jellyfish and Genii have shown
what can be possible but have still not broken that magic issue of the speed
bump in marginal conditions. The varients of the CT had done so well due to the
alround viability of the hull shape with slow developments improving
performance over a number of years. With rigs becoming more powerful and drag
coefficents reducing through foil and rig developments, someone will start
breaking the code and make the next jump. The key is to take the fleet's stock
with them and so keep a large stock of valuable boats and good progressive
secondhand market. Whether the Hollman design gets nearer to this, we will not
know until someone brave and good enough is prepared to have a go. I have been
there so know it is a big step, but will not be doing it this time as I am
happy with my Winder Mk5 (3763) which I have yet to line up against the front
of the fleet (not long now). Be brave and have a go, as the I14 and N12 look
like they are on the money, and all the best of luck to that person, hopefully
you will not regret it.

We now have some renderings of the Merlin Rocket from several different angles showing the shape and also a short explanation of just why it is that shape.
 
It does not seem possible to show the pictures here so if anybody who is interested contacts either myself at:- [email protected] or Gavin at:- [email protected] we will forward you the file by return.

 Apologies for the delay. I've worked out how to upload the document to the library now!
 
Please see http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/docs/David%20Hollom%20Merlin%20Renderings%20Feb%202015.pdf
for the 3D renderings and accompanying text.