Merlin Rocket bits - 950

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Ancient Geek
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Ancient Geek »

Acquired taste maybe but from say 1955 - say 1980 it was the way it was done until someone thought up a more complicated way, like all kit it needed monitoring and maintaining, ALSO before spinnaker shoots were the norm, you could get a rally neat light weight one that ran smoothly on PTFE bearings with shockcord round the small axle and your loose end of the spinnaker haliyard on the drum it took up the slack and kept it tidy, never a snarl or knot.
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Brookesy
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Brookesy »

I would also suggest that you give the drum a trial before throwing it out.
FD GBR350 the last Superdocious of '84 vintage had these drums for shrouds, lowers, kicker, cunningham and outhaul, I was skeptical of them until I used the boat in anger and can honestly say they worked very well, the boats new owner has also retained them and seems to be doing well.
From memory I seem to recall the drum gave a 12:1 advantage in Holt Allen form.
GBR74 ex custodian of
GBR384 Mickey Finnale (Taylor,wood)
GBR455 Rubber Duck (Taylor, grp)
FD GBR350 Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious
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Ancient Geek
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Ancient Geek »

The only thing is that if using in a high load situation you do need to beef up the axle with a engineering push fit thicker wall tube or even solid alluminium to prevent wall crushing and distorting under load like Rodney did and we've all followed.
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JimC
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by JimC »

roger wrote:These systems are horrible and we replaced the one on the Hornet with a Cascade as soon as possible. i always found i had wound the wire the wrong way or it all jumps off and got tangled around the shaft. Best place is the recylce bin.
That's just because *wire* is horrible. I was gobsmacked to see one used on Dave Roe's (about to be) multiple Championship winning Cherub in 1989, but with modern rope instead of wire the thing worked a treat.
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Ancient Geek
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Ancient Geek »

I am never a luddite but for all its minus points wire has one advantage that you can see well in advance of its need for replacement and because of it resistance to abrasion its MTBF is higher anyway.
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Stephen Hawkins
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Stephen Hawkins »

Here is the plan then:

1. Run as is with wire.

2. If I do not get on with it, that replace wire with 'modern' rope/cord.

3. If that still does not work, look at other options.

I would prefer for it to work as it is a fair lump on the bottom of the mast that looks difficult to remove. And I hate carrying redundant kit.

Having said that I would prefer to run the boat as it was delivered. I am in possession of its original sails, numbered 950 and dated 1959, plus a spare set.

Just to state my history:

1. Learned to sail at 13, sailed a few dinghies before dad went 'big boat' down the coast. Crewed big boats for a few years.

2. 20 year lay off - occasional sail of club boats during time in RAF - not everyone gets the chance to play sports all their RAF career.

3. Come back to sailing 9 years ago, old Heron (1959), old Miracle (1978) and now old Merlin Rocket (1959). Sailed some others as well. Occasional racer.

So this will be by far the most powerful boat I have owned. looking forward to it. Although it will be a while before I get it set up right, no doubt.

Cheers

Steve Hawkins
Steve Hawkins

1967 National 12 2383 "Sparkle"
Garry R

Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Garry R »

I had a drum kicker on 1728 Merlin and it had a little arm which acted as a lock. I found it easy to use I have to say although you had to keep an eye on it. I think the wire I had was too stiff to go round the inner axle properly but I did like the idea.
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Brookesy
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Brookesy »

Sorry to disagree but I would advise 2.5/3mm dyneema over wire every time. Unlike wire it does not have a 'memory effect' in that it does not try to coil when off the drum spindle, and is certainly much easier to handle. I found it improved the efficiency of the drum systems on my FD and allowed much easier adjustment as it released easier.
The main advantages however is it lighter easy to splice whereas the wire had to be swaged etc if a loop end was required, and also cheaper.
GBR74 ex custodian of
GBR384 Mickey Finnale (Taylor,wood)
GBR455 Rubber Duck (Taylor, grp)
FD GBR350 Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious
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Ancient Geek
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by Ancient Geek »

It is a matter of the correct wire, which I will admit is hard to get it for perfection should be crane/lift construction 19X19X19 Harvey Churchward of the Racing Dinghy Equipment Company (No longer with us in either case.) had a vast quantity made up in dinghy and keelboat sizes (He overordered by a factor of 10!) and a lot made it's way to specialist riggers like Harry Spencer at Cowes it is near indestructable - not cheap and if doing it yourself (If you have a swaging tool for roll swaging terminals or talurit or similar press for the cheaper eyes made with ferules you need to solder it before cutting it is not preformed it is however the dog watsits. It hand splices to rope or itself (Eyes and strops.) easily. I only trust dyneema where it gets handled, modern materials are fine but the failures are frequent and spectacular especially in the big boats and why drive a hundred miles or more to retire hurt from an event? Even if you so just go for the sail.
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alan williams
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Re: Merlin Rocket bits - 950

Post by alan williams »

Hi
I must support Brooksey on the use of high tech rope rather than wire. Several advantages.
1 The crew doesn't get scalped tacking.
2 No or low stretch.
3 Broken stands of wire cause cuts to skin.
4 Runs better on the winch with less friction.
6 When I have raced Super ..... FD 350 have found it far easier to set up equal tension on the shrounds and lowers, due to low stretch characteristics of modern material rope .
7 Wear on the drums is considerably less.
8 Easier to renew and as Graham has already pointed out splicing is a doddle.
The only time I would choose to use wire is for Standing rigging as it gives notice of failure.
However a lot of the high performance classes for example the INT14 even use hi tech material rope for standing rigging,. However you must use the correct rope for the task. Consult the manufacturers and not the dolly bird or the guy behind the counter at the local chandlers’.
Cheers Al Shed loads of boats
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