David Henshall's article

A little bit of 'right of reply'!
Rupert - you really do need to check your facts; carbon is NOT allowed in MR hulls!

Gruf....."I don't get it"! Well, as this is the panto season, there has to be the camp ugly sister out there, except that instead of shouts of "behind you", we get "he doesn't get it" to which the audience reply "oh yes he does"!!!! So, you will be saddened to know that I do get it, but it is not my place in the proceedings to shout this from the rooftops. It is not the role of the reporter to be making sweeping and contentious opinions, there are those on here that are far better at that than I.

I should though offer a word of explanation; The reason why the Merlin Rocket appears to be over represented in the text is simple. There is no class in the UK where there is such a wealth of high quality data charting out how technological development, social change and the imposition of policy reform have impacted on the growth and success of the boat. If you want to see cause and effect in action, head for the Merlin Rocket archives. Indeed, in Part II of the article, which will be in the form of an Xmas special (you can read it and comment instead of watching Mary Poppins or the Great Escape for the nth time) will focus on the Handicap issue and yes, again the MR will be in there. The good news though is that these articles are sparking a great deal of debate, both here and elsewhere and I am sure that there is a lot more to come. Once again though, there are no right and wrong answers, with Gruf's views being as valid as all those other posters.
Just remember that it is the festive season, post your comments with a bit of Christmas cheer (or Bah Humbug...either is fine) and - Happy Christmas to you all!
Dougal, Isle of Wight

I think most accept the Merlins today will never be that radical as to go all 'smoothie' and lose the clinker !  Perhaps the pioneers would have done so if they had had the choice though ....

OK - lets try something else - why do they drag so much 'corrector' weight around today ?   The vast majority of todays competitive Merlins easily make minimum weight and drag loads of lead weights around.  The older ones don't stand a chance against them anyway and seem to have gravitated towards age related 'classic' handicap numbers in any event.   Shed 10kg of lead for a start surely !  and yes maybe a further 10kg in say 5 or 10 years time ?

Mike L.

Originally posted by Rupert The IC is a really interesting case. Freeze the hull design for nigh on 40 years, then open it up again and see what happens. Had the freeze not been there, would we have seen a much more gradual transition of evolution rather than the revolution that has taken place, but ended up in a similar position, or would the boats (somehow) be well ahead of where they are now.

Oh they'd be ahead of where we are now, I'm sure. There's nothing resembling a consensus on Canoe shape other than 'make it minimum beam'. I think aerodynamic drag is going to be a big thing when the hull shapes are sorted, I suspect the boats are fast enough upwind for it to make a significant difference. But its a really fascinating time at the moment.

Interestingly the hull chosen for the one design wasn't really state of the art. It had been the most popular for a few years, but I suspect there were advances. But the class took many years arguing over the one design. I'm reading some old documents at the moment, and there does seem to have been a continuing background murmur of "should we go back to open rules".

The other thing that's amusing is that (if I've got all the dates and details straight in my head) the first worlds after the one design came in were not won by a one design, but by a grandfathered Swedish (and the Swedish Class president was very vocal supporting one design) hard chine Canoe which was similar in speed to the Nethercott in most conditions.

Amazingly I believe that 1970 built world champion boat is still active at West Kirby SC: there must be few champion boats of that age still active. The rig and gear is, I think, somewhat younger. And that 1970 hard chine design is available as a one design starter canoe, with an active fleet at West Kirby, so lets give them a plug... http://www.damesblonde.co.uk/news.php

Originally posted by Rupert So, which ODs really broke the mould?

I think you have to say the Laser, but for the promotion and management rather than the boat.

Edited by JimC - 19 Dec 14 at 2:42pm

I'll be able to disagree - I'll just not have the joy of you answering back - until we guess what your new ID is... I bet you can't resist correcting me!

Turnturtle; When this one comes out I'm heading off into the witness protection scheme. IGRF's comments I can live with - a hit squad in the pay of the RYA is something else!