Discovering some Real Magic at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show
by Dougal Henshall 4 Feb 2015 18:47 GMT
28 February - 1 March 2015
Real Magic: 70 years of the Merlin Rocket by David Henshall © David Henshall
Some twenty years ago, with dinghy sailing firmly in the grips of what would be called the 'Skiff Revolution', all the talk was on how the future of the sport would be based around boats with asymmetric spinnakers. The populist view went even further, as the suggestion was that in just a few years, the older, so called 'traditional' classes would be consigned to history. Yet, as the entry lists at this year's Great Lakes/Sail Juice series has shown, far from being dominated by the new designs, the backbone of the UK dinghy scene is even more firmly entrenched in those traditional classes, with the asymmetric classes struggling to reach a fleet sized critical mass.
If there is one dinghy that epitomises this re-emergence of the symmetrically spinnaker rigged boat, it has to be the Merlin Rocket. Back in those days of the skiff revolution, the class toyed with changing to a smooth skinned hull, fully battened mainsail and asymmetric spinnaker, yet instead made a virtue out of those core attributes that had made it into one of the most easily recognisable of UK classes. Throughout its history, the Merlin Rockets have allowed carefully considered changes, such as the adoption of a larger spinnaker and longer poles. Despite these changes, there are clear lines that cannot be crossed, with the rig staying essentially the same and the supposedly 'old fashioned' iconic clinker construction being seen as a big part of the attraction of the boat. Today, the Merlin Rocket is a superbly evolved, high technology racing machine that rightly holds the high ground, in terms of offering the best in both competition afloat and social life ashore.
Right from the earliest days, competition in the Merlin Rocket was fierce. Yet, at the same time, the class has an enviable reputation for fun and frolics ashore.
The story of the Merlin Rocket, a class that celebrates its 70th birthday this year, could well be taken as a history that charts the development of the racing dinghy in the UK, from the immediate post war years through to the present day. From the outset, the innovation that first surfaced in the class would go on to enrich the wider sport of dinghy racing, from the core structure of a class association, through self-bailers, transom flaps and the popular adoption of spinnaker chutes. Just about every dinghy designer of any note has tried his hand at designing for the class, with varying degrees of success. This search for success also led to a number of top sailors entering the fleet, including the best of our Olympic helms. Yet despite this rich history of innovation, there is a strong perception from outside the class that the boat is now in essence a one-design fleet. However, the reality is very different, with no less than four top designers all having state of the art designs on their drawing boards.
There is a popular misconception that the Merlin Rocket is a de facto one –design. The reality is very different! FRP boats mixing it with wooden ones and an amazing variety of rigs. The Merlin Rocket remains one of the cornerstones of innovation.
Correcting these misconceptions is just one part of telling the story of the Merlin Rocket. To really understand just how the boat has remained so successful for 70 years, it is important to go right back to London in the wartime years. This is just what writer and dinghy historian David 'Dougal' Henshall has done. In documenting the history of the Merlin Rocket, he went back even further, to the last days of peace in the late 1930s, when the ideas for a new boat were first discussed. He then progresses forward, year by year, recording the events, the boats and the people, who together ensured that the new class would become such an attractive boat to own and sail. Drawing on old records, along with personal interviews of those who have been involved in the class since those early days, Real Magic, 70 Years of the Merlin Rocket, advances forward in time, through glued ply construction, metal masts, terylene sails, through to first GRP, then FRP hulls and deck stepped, carbon rigs. Backing up the well-researched text is a series of superb hull line drawings, which show why various designs succeeded (or did not!!). Supporting the text of Real Magic are a large number of high quality photographs, some going back the full 70 years, that comprise one of the most exciting collections of dinghy sailing pictures yet pulled together in a single work.
Each chapter in Real Magic contains a number of hull line drawings of the boats that are featured at that stage of the class timeline. The drawings give details as to why the boat succeeded (as in the case of the Hexagon, shown here) but also why some failed to make the front of the fleet.
Nor is the story of the Merlin Rocket rooted in the past, for in documenting the history of the class, ample space is allowed for details of the latest developments that are taking place in design, rig and foil technology. If you would like to know more about the rich heritage of this amazing Class, come along to stand C62 at the Dinghy Show, where there will be plenty of well-informed class supporters on hand, to help show off the boats that represent the latest in development and construction. For those who would also like to read the story of the Class, copies of the book 'Real Magic. 70 Years of the Merlin Rocket' will be available from the stand. If you cannot make the show but would like to get a copy of the book, which contains more than 350 high quality pages in a 'coffee table' style layout, then drop an email to the author at .