Merlin Owners - Better than the BBC at Self Harm

I don't read it that way at all.
There seem to be two or three types of owners of vintage Merlins.
There are those who own old boats and mostly enjoy them for the love of wooden boats, and race them but are not driven by the need to win.
There are Merlin sailors who sail on rivers, where the old designs do very well, who are competitive by nature  and want the best boat for those conditions. A new build to an old design suits these people.
There people in between who enjoy close inland racing and find an older Merlin delivers that, at reasonable cost.

There seem to be enough of all these people enjoying Merlins that they stand a better chance of getting meaningful racing than they would in any other class.
There are also several distinct circuits of open meetings with different classifications for old boats. The will always be debate at the edges as to what is eligible for which bits, and about PY's. The level of participation in some of these series puts many of the 'new' classes in the shade.

The Merlins have always had different attitudes to other fleets. I remember the day when, back in the 70s, in ridiculously hot drifting conditions, the Queen Mary Merlin fleet apparently wanted to join in the Queen Mary Cherub Fleet's water fight...

Edited by JimC - 16 Nov 12 at 2:43pm

I agree the forum is active and they allow public discussion of controversy within the class which is also great but I do feel they need to address some of the issues raised particularly they on course behaviour. Standard reply is protest and I agree that should be the answer but in a self policing sport it shouldnt always come down to having to stay after an event with a long drive home to wait for results of protests. There are some excellent sailors in the Merlin fleet and I can only dream of being half that good but is there any pleasure winning if on the way home you wonder if you won by pushing the rules to the limits or is it  win at all costs now? 

It's an interesting debate and it was was only a matter of time before before the issue cropped up. People want the "Ultimate" river boat, Passing Cloud is seen as that design but only about 8 were ever built. Not all of these survive and those that do are not for sale. There is plenty of money down there and inevivitably people are looking at having them built - no problem, it's been done before.

All credit to them for having an open discussion, it certainly wouldn't put me off the class, it's a technical boat in every sense of the word; good luck to them for not pussy-footing around a discussion; I'd lay money on the fact that they'd share a beer in a bar after sailing happy and friendly; it's all just considered part of the game, if you don't like it, buy an MRX or a 400, no worries.