You are welcome to use my "wallpaper" picture from 2006 which perhaps shows that the old and the new aren't all that different.

David

I have quite a few pictures stored on CD which I had given to me when I was Editor of the MR mag 2001 -2004. I can send over to you if that helps as a starter for ten? There may be one or two which you might find helpful. Possibly copyright permission required. Most of the material was very kindly donated by David Harding of Sailing Scenes and Mike Rice of Fotoboat. Both very nice chaps and sure they wouldn't mind.

Loooking forward to the finished product. Good luck.

Richard

Straw Poll? I want mine for Xams but will happily wait until the Boat Show!

Dougal - I was in one of the workshops at Hamble Point recently when I was working on the newly acquired Terabyte and was shown two identical classic Merlins that had just had total professional restorations.  I think they are mk 9s or similar and looked incredible.  They're destined to be mounted in cradles on the deck of a very large classic motor yacht and craned in when the guests want go and have some jolly fun!!!! How awfully nice...... Anyway i'll see if it would be OK for you to come and have look and take some photos if you want to.  Just let me know.

Does anyone out there have a magazine or report covering Salcombe 1987 - this was won by Chris Powell. If so, could you scan it form me please and I'll give you my email address.

As the timescales start to compress (they always do as the book moves towards completion) I'd like to make the 'first call' for pictures. I need to start compiling photographs so that I can work out what I've got - then I can start chasing what I need.

Any help will be fantastic...

Dougal/Pure Magic; 70 Years of the merlin rocket.

Richard. Fantastic! Some of the pictures from the first book will also appear in the second, but if I can 'do better' then this is the opportunity to do so. So far I have only had one refusal of help, all other enquiries about pictures - and, it has to be said, assistance, have had great responses. The latest 'news' is that there are now publishers keen to proceed, but the overall plan of the book is causing some concerns. Large landscape format adds to the production time, as does embedded colour pictures AND then full page line drawings. The end result is that far from handing the book over late summer - as in 'post nationals' - I'm going to be pushing my luck if I delay until after Salcombe.

So here is a question for you all! Timescales. The accepted wisdom with a book like Pure magic is that you aim for Christmas, then partners have an easy solution to the question "what do you give someone who already has a Merlin Rocket and therefore needs little else in life?" You could however delay until after Christmas and have the book ready to launch at the Dinghy Show 2015 - which one would imagine will be something of a birthday celebration event.

There is even a school of thought that suggests slowing down the whole process and not launching the book until late season 2015 so that all the birthday events get included.

I'll PM you with my address anyway but - I'd also like to hear views on 'what you want and when'!

Dougal
Pure Magic; 70 Years of the Merlin Rocket

Robert,

Thank you! If I can have pictures - complete with the permission to use them, then that will help the task along hugely! As someone who worked hard to get this project from an idea into reality (or at least, 80% of reality and growing daily) what is your view on the timescales.....and also of sponsorship.

I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on both of the above

Dougal
Pure Magic: 70 years of the Merlin Rocket

Andy....have been documenting their progress as Jim W worked to make them the best restorations ever completed - they are simply 'beyond description'! Have them photographed and filed away..... FYI, one is a W&C XII, the other is a IXb. But I agree, stunning boats! But thanks for the heads up anyway! PS... you were going to hunt out the picture of your father sailing.....

Cheers

D

Good morning Dougal

Several of my photos are in the photo section on this website. They include the first Jack Holt 'banana boat' 'Lucky' no. 177 owned and sailed by Brian Appleton and my late Dad's 'Dizzy' no. 490, both were taken in the 1950s. 'Dizzy' was a throwback to the 'banana' design and was very successful in the mid 1950s. There's also a much later photo of 'Passing Cloud' no. 1079 and several others. I probably have more tucked away.

Hi Richard (Battey). Despite the efforts of the wonderful, newly privatised Royal Mail to deliver your package to some other Isle of Wight, it has finally reached here - covered in a scrawled note apologising for the incorrect delivery! I'm less than pleased as this is the second lot of material for the book that as gone astray like this. That said, the important thing now is that I've got then discs and they are superb. What I will probably do is pull out a number of shots that I want to use (one of 'Gangsta' leaps up off the screen for starters....) and then we can start getting the okay to use it!

So a huge word of thanks - one this the book won't lack is top quality pictures. A few of them might have been in the first book, but the rest are all 'new' and apart from the early stuff, in colour!

Right - remind me again...I must get back to the writing!

Cheers and thanks

Dougal