PY Lag Time

Yup, sometimes they are things of antiquity - that is the point.

Originally posted by RS400atC Does anyone on here actually ever get beaten by a vintage merlin and feel they've been done over, or is this a purely theological objection? As I see it PY should aim to accommodate al boats, intra-class, inter-class or no class. It would be sensible for classes like the Cherub, I14, Imoth to have age related numbers too. But I doubt there is the data to support it or the number of people racing to demand it. I'm a great believer in inclusive racing, if someone wants to race say a GP14 singlehanded, then a bit of guidance for the handicapper can only be a good thing. The issuer of whether older boats should get an allowance for wear and tear, as opposed to design progress is a different question. I can see both sides of that one. A clapped out floppy GRP boat is not going to keep up, but I've not heard of any clubs addressing that succesfully? As for allowances for tired sails, that's a minefield, as lots of club racers keep their best sails for nice days and open meetings.

Edited by Oli - 14 Mar 14 at 4:09pm

Originally posted by JimC I'm not at all sure that is the real sail area of a Merlin. From a quick glance at the rules I think they may be one of the very few classes that still measures triangles, not real sail area, and it does it with a weird formula that appears to relate max sail area to luff length in some way.

I'm sure you're right, but I do recall as a wee young lad that the Ent sails were bigger than Merlins

http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/forum/main/topic.asp?topic=2729&forum=main&comments=5&page=1&sort=5&order=1&search=sail%20area

http://www.merlinrocket.co.uk/forum/main/topic.asp?topic=3103&forum=main&comments=24&page=1&sort=5&order=1&search=sail%20area


Edited by SUGmeister - 14 Mar 14 at 4:21pm

I just had a go at calculating the real area of a merlin sail based on the published rules, but it was more effort than I was prepared to put in. I reckon the total area is at least 1sqm more than the figure the rule gives, and I wouldn't be suprised if it were more.

[later - think I figured out the calcs a bit better, I make it that the roach is a good 2.3m2 extra, then there's also foot round in main and jib, any roach in the jib etc etc.)

Edited by JimC - 14 Mar 14 at 6:29pm

I'm pretty sure the Merlin is just a smudge under 14m2 in real terms.