Merlin Rocket Mast Auction - sponsored by Selden
by MROA 1 Mar 2016 22:08 GMT
Stand B16, 5-6 March 2016
Demelza Mitchell upwind at Salcombe © Peter Newton
In conjunction with this year's National Championships, generously sponsored by Selden, you have the opportunity to bid on their latest S1 High Modulus carbon fibre mast.
Here's why you should place that bid...
Tim Fells has been racing a Merlin Rocket for 5 years having previously won a number of World and National titles in the B14 and Lark classes. At the beginning of 20-15 Tim teamed up with Oli Wells of P&B, using their sails on a Selden S1 High Modulus mast. We asked Tim for his views on the mast following a successful first season which culminated with a third overall at the National Championships:
"From the outset I was very pleased with the all-round performance of the S1. We opted for the soft-medium specification as it was designed to have similar bend characteristics and gust response to our previous Selden mast which had been pretty quick. Oli and I swing down the scales at around 23.5 stone which is at the medium to heavy end of Merlin crew-weights, so wanted a mast that we could power up quickly in the lighter winds but with enough flick to work well in a choppy seaway, which we were expecting at Whitstable."
"We were very pleased that we were quick out of the blocks without having locked down our rig numbers, showing the mast was inherently fast. As we refined the spreader settings we moved up a gear and were delighted to be one the quickest boats in 5-10 knots and hanging in with the big guys in a breeze."
"Overall this is certainly the fastest twig we have had and we hope to find a bit more during our 2016 campaign."
For your chance of winning a new Selden High Modulus mast please submit your bid to
The winner will be announced 12 noon Sunday at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show on March 6th, stand number B16 in the main hall.