The new Merlin Rocket from Kevin Driver's Wrecked 'em Boatyard could be worth putting your money on at this year's national championship. Sue Pelling takes a look at the odds...

Second place at the Merlin Rocket national championship is, in most competitors' eyes, a position to be proud of. But for Phil King and Kevin Driver who, sailing a wooden modified Canterbury Tales design, have been beaten in to second place by the new Winder-built boat for the last three years, it's a matter of unfinished business.

Driver, who's been building quality specialised racing dinghies including National 12s, Melin Rockets and International 14s for over 15 years, served his apprenticeship at a couple of the best known dinghy boat yards in the country including Jon Turner and Rowsell and Morrisons. Six years ago he had the opportunity to go it alone and he set up Wrecked'em Boatyard at Beer in Devon. His first commission was for top Merlin sailor Phil King in 1996. Fortunately the boat was a hugh success winning three successive national championships.

As time went on however, and the cost of building wooden boats became increasingly high, Guy Winder's new glassfibre, off-the-shelf Merlin for £10,000 became best sellers and the building of wooden Merlin Rockets practically dried up.

Keen not to be left scraping around for the next wooden boat order, and spurred on by the success of the emerging Winders, Driver made the decision to also go down the plastic route. Teaming up with Phil Morrison and Linton Jenkins (Full Force Boats) he has spent the last eight months designing and building a new glass/carbon boat which he believes could be the best in the class.

Working on the basis of his previous wood design (a modified Canterbury Tales), Driver has tweaked the lines slightly to improve it's all round performance. 'I was actually fairly happy with my original design,' said Driver, 'because it was incredibly fast on flat water. However, the modifications we've made which include making the transom finer by taking it in on the third and fourth planks, should make it easier to sail, particularly offwind on the sea. We've left the rocker alone however, to ensure the boat keeps its nose above the waterline when the going gets tough.'

As well as tweaking the shape, Driver has kept the weight of the boat right down thanks to the clever use of glass foam sandwich on the outside hull and carbon fibre throughout the internal shell. 'The idea,' says Driver, 'is that we add approximately 20kg of correctors to each boat, so if the class ever decides to drop the overall minimum weight, we should be okay.'

Plenty of attention to detail has been paid to the overall finish of the boat to make it as user friendly as possible. 'As a crew,' says Driver, 'I do a lot of rig control work so rather than having all the lines led to the back of the thwart where it's often more difficult for the crew to reach, we've designed a new staggered control line system.' This neat idea means that all the major control lines including the kicking strap, shrouds, lowers, jib halyard, cunningham are led to the top of the thwart and the staggered cleat arrangement is set into well near the centre line. The control lines are then led outboard along the top of the cut-away thwart to a takeaway system under the inwales. The crew or helmsman can easily reach the lines from the sitting out position and the takeaway system keeps all the loose ends out of harm's way.

As far as the rig goes Driver has decided, for the time being, to go for an Alan Jackson (Chipstowe Boatyards) carbon fibre rig, which he believes has loads of potential. 'We couldn't quite get the Proctor singing,' said Driver, 'so we've decided to go for a rig that's already proving itself on the circuit. Mike Calvert's been working closely on the carbon rig with Alan for a long time now and he's certainly got lots of speed. We're also going for Frank Rowsell sails. He's designed a wacky, new the radial, Mylar mainsail which is definitely coming out a lighter than a conventional sail.'

The first boat, owned by Will Rainey, has already hit the water and the next is scheduled to follow in a few weeks time. 'We are really happy with the results so far,' said Driver, 'but it's early days yet. We hope to have three new boats at the championship so it should be a very interesting time for everyone. There are lots of good sailors and good boats on the circuit, so it really is a matter of watching this space!'

So, if you're looking for a racy, hi-tech, well-sorted ready to sail Merlin Rocket, the new Full Wrecked'em Force version is definitely worth a look. At £13,000 you'll get a complete boat fully fitted out with Harken deck gear and radical new rig, which should get everyone talking.

Still in the mould while the internal work is being completed.

The fancy control line staggered cleat system and cutaway thwart means that all the rope work is kept away from the floor.

Hull nearing completion awaiting the control lines.

View looking forward showing most of the Harken deckgear in place.

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