Merlin Rocket Vintage Open at Hunts Sailing Club

by Mike Liggett 21 May 2010 16:49 BST 15 May 2010

A total of 8 Merlins from as far afield as Shearwater SC in the west, and Hollingworth Lake in the north, came to Hunts for the second 2010 qualifying De May Trophy event. As usual there were a variety of designs ranging from Holt Riants to a Mike Jackson wide Superstition. Nick Crickmore was sailing his beautifully restored Mk VI “Buzzard” on her first outing for many years.

A total of 3 races were sailed in a light to moderate north to NW wind. Courses were set offering good up wind and off wind legs, making the most of the lake.

Line honours went repeatedly to Charlie Morgan in “Lady Anne” (Procter IXb) who pulled well away from the chasing bunch in all three races and was able to maintain this position on handicap. Further down the field there was plenty of action and quite a lot of place changing. “Squirrel”, the only ribbed boat sailing, was just able to squeeze out “Sprite Full” for 2nd overall.

This year this event was combined with a CVRDA meeting and Merlins took 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th places overall.

Merlin Results:

Pos	Sail	Boat	Helm	Crew	Club
1	1978	Lady Anne	Charlie Morgan	Hayley Manning	Tamesis Club
2	235	Squirrel	Mike Liggett	Les Young	Hunts SC
3	507	Sprite Full	Chris Barlow	Lois Barlow	Shearwater SC
4	1066	Ten Sixty Six	Tim Bury	Pat Kuenzler	Banbury SC
5	552	Buzzard	Nick Crickmore	Jon Thompson	Waveney & O B SC
6	2121	Half Cut	Sandy Lavelle	Pat Jones	Shearwater SC
7	2410	Atilla the Hunt	Ian Laing	Thomas	Hollingworth Lake SC
8	1357	Chimp	Mervyn Allen	Anna	Ranelagh SC