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harrier dinghy

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Medway Maniac View Drop Down
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    Posted: 19 Oct 13 at 12:18pm
How did the Ghost go? I remember drooling over its entry in "House's Guide to Dinghies" back in the day.  Looked great to me then and I always wondered how it matched up to its spec in reality.
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gordon1277 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote gordon1277 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Oct 13 at 11:49am
Hi Nipper and Dougal
We had a Ghost turn up to Lee on Solent regatta a couple of years ago, much to the surprise of race officer Malcolm Jaques an Ex Cherub national Champ and mate of the Gregory's. Rob has a Laser he sails of the beach at Hillhead and raced in a couple of interclub event last year.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Nipper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 10:27pm
I bow to Dougal's superior knowledge of Merlin shapes and designers, I have only followed them from a great distance, as they have never been a Class on the Solent in my sailling lifetime. ( I know that very good Merlin sailors came from HRSC in the 70's before anyone points this out)
In 39 years of sailing, I have only ever crewed a Merlin once.
 However, I do know a bit about Greg. Before Merlins he designed Cherubs, and they were very sucessful especially when sailed by his brother Rob. have sailed 3 Greg Gregory designs, the wide Cherub that I owned, another mid 60's normal width Cherub that had a spinnaker with wire down the inside of the leach tapes, so you could pull the pole down hard and create what in effect was a symetrical Code Zero. Only problem was that the shape was largely triangular, so not so great  on a run. Finally I once sailed a Ghost which was Greg's design of his late 60's Cherub scaled up to 16ft. ..... It was actually about the same speed as a 505 in certain conditions, but only about 10 were built I think, as it was up against the 505 and Fireball which were both strong classes on the South Coast at that time.
 
 
39 years of dinghy racing and still waiting to peak.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote fdsailor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 8:37pm
Pics Leedsy?  Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Quote leedsy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 8:27pm
 Now getting to grips with Harrier 36. Bought as a bendy/floppy project. Glassed in spine and ribs, mainsheet towers removed,Laser type system now used. Fireball mast cut down to Harrier size, with lowers. Bar from rear spine to top rudder fitting. Fireball rudder, Cut down White Phantom main. Foot size ok, luff shortend at head above top batten.(now looks like a merlin sail!). Hull epoxy faired and paited. At the moment still with the standard bouyancy. The rig depowers in the gusts quite well, speaders in the same place on the mast,( it was shortened by cutting off the bottom)Still working out rig settings but helm is very light. I also sail a Phantom (1394) and did not want to end up with Harrier + so I have kept to the Harrier luff and foot sizes. The hull is now very stiff, the rig works and the rudder keeps it pointing the right way The next job is to work on the helms competence. Will take some photos this weekend to post.  

Edited by leedsy - 19 Oct 13 at 9:40am
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Dougaldog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 5:58pm
Many of the problems talked about really were down to the rig.  As Jim C said, the original was a nightmare, upwind in breeze it flopped all over the place and was pretty much uncontrollable. If you got caught by a gust, unless you were bolt upright the boat would make huge leeway and that more than anything seemed to bring the water in over the leeward side. Once you put a better rig in there that you could control, the boat was transformed; A decent centreboard and a deeper section rudder (as was made clear by Jim C - another ex-Harrier sailor) and the boat became a pleasure to sail!

By the way Nipper, you are way, way off the mark when talking about Greg Gregory and 'wide' Merlins. They were wide way before his 'signature' design, the Ghost Rider. His later design, the Echo, well, it may have been a boat for the lighter helm but it still scored plenty of great results. Greg is yet another of the great innovators from the 'golden' era of dinghy expansion, yet sadly is one that all too few (outside of the Merlins) would even recognise.

Dougal Henshall - Pure Magic, the book of the Merlin Rocket 1945- 2015
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Post Options Post Options   Quote AlanH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 5:13pm
Original poster, I recently saw race results for a Harrier at Tata SC, S Wales. I would try to trace that owner and ask his thoughts.
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JimC View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote JimC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 2:34pm
The Harrier luff length is a bit longer than the Solo, but as I recall when I laid two sails on top of each other the feet were the same length and even the leech profile much the same until the Harrier top batten. Over fifteen years ago now tho, memory might be at fault.

Edited by JimC - 18 Oct 13 at 2:35pm
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Telltale Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 2:06pm
Regarding the rig, somewhere in the back of my mind I think that someone had tried a solo rig on a Harrier.
Also I think, but its worth a check, that a 420 rig will fit, stayed and tapered mast.
The transom is ply so I think as a rule you should expect to replace it. That might fit in with the the mod to self drain.
There is a bit of a thread on Harriers here, (Jim C posted on it !)



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Post Options Post Options   Quote Rupert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 12:40pm
Still plenty you could do with an old ebay banger, provided you had a bits box with some spreaders in it, or could get those and other parts cheap, or perhaps find an old mast with spreaders already on. Lowers are easy to fit. The buoyancy is another matter, but I'm sure could be worked on. Chances are the stern tanks would be cracked anyway, so you'd need to do something, anyway!
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