David Henshall's article

The trouble with vertical bows is that it gets very tricky to fair in nicely to a flared mid section. That underside view of the D0 was not its most photogenic view, and some Merlins approach snake swallowing apple status. A spoon bow like the Bethwaite boats generally makes for easier lines from odd angles. Conversely slab sided boats like most catamarans and modern Canoes have better waterlines with a vertical bow.

Edited by JimC - 22 Dec 14 at 7:08pm

Originally posted by timeintheboat Boats where the bow is straight, like the Merlin and N12 and dare I say D-0 always seem to look more classy than those that do not.

It's all in the eye of the beholder and affected by fashion and many other factors that have nothing to do with aesthetics, isn't it? There's a very interesting snippet from the great G.L. Watson around the time of the launch of his famous near-sisters, Valkyrie and Britannia, where he says that while the sailing community had finally come to accept that a clipper bow was as good looking as a vertical stem, there was no way that anyone would ever come to like the looks of the spoon bow of his new boats. Others called Valkyrie and Britannia's spoon bow "gratuitously ugly" IIRC.

Edited by Chris 249 - 22 Dec 14 at 8:17pm

Why do people keep trying to tell Merlin sailors how they should change, instead of coming up with something better?
Why try to change the (arguably) most successful fleet, you can only make it worse?
They account for only a few hundred UK sailors, surely there's 10,000 or so sailing other classes who might be more likely to want something new?

I don't think there's much to be had in piecemeal picking at the Merlin rules, I think abolishing the need to make real planked prototypes mght be good, but if you're going to break away from the legacy, then I'd suggest changing nearly all the rules. A bit narrower for towing, longer, lighter, self draining, no arcane limits on 'rise of floor'?
Symmetric or Asy?
21st century RS400 if you're not careful?

It's funny how a few classes get a lot of discussion on here, while other classes with at least as much development going on get hardly a mention. When was the last I14 thread? 18fter? Cherub? N12 even.
Plus all the detail development that goes into OD classes.

I guess the real discussion is more within classes?

Back to the point, I enjoyed the article.
It would be good to see similar from people with backgrounds in different classes?

Take the weight out of the boat and you will reduce the competitive sailors weight to below that of normal people, one of the unforeseen outcomes when the 12's did it.