Merlin Sails into the New Year

In October, when last we left the saga of Merlin’s homecoming to Santa Cruz, she had just had her new keel attached and her rig stepped, and she’d been splashed. Since then, the legendary sled has been competing in the SCYC Midwinters and has taken some charter customers out for daysails. We caught up with her owner/designer Bill Lee over the New Year’s holiday.

Merlin had her first sail back in Santa Cruz waters on a foggy, light-air, mid-November day. Yacht designer Alan Andrews had come north from SoCal to attend the Stanford vs. Cal Big Sail at St. Francis Yacht Club and took advantage of the opportunity to go for a sail on Merlin. The boat is certified for six-pack charters. The first two paid charters had three passengers each aboard, plus Bill, three volunteer crew and one paid professional, a USCG-licensed captain.

Regarding the work so far to restore Merlin to Pacific Ocean racing trim, Lee said that "The rig’s come out super." They changed out the diagonal shrouds but didn’t do much more. The rig was new before the 2005 Transpac, so it has one Transpac on it. "The next owner didn’t use it much." Then Merlin had five seasons on the Great Lakes. "It was taken apart and stored indoors each winter."

About the rudder, Lee says, "It must have been ordered with the instructions ‘I never want to round up again.’" Like her new keel, the rudder’s a 7.5-foot long Alan Andrews design. "Lots of people say the rudder’s too big, but that’s okay."

When Bill bought the boat back in October 2015, a "huge number of sails" came with her, including 10 spinnakers. "We put away two good jibs. The main is from 2009 and has had very little use. I called Minney’s Yacht Surplus and got Chuck Ullman on the phone. Chuck is Dave Ullman’s son, and he’s working at Minney’s. He found an old TP52 main. I had the holes filled and adjustments made at Hodges’ [Ullman Sails in Santa Cruz, ex-Santa Cruz Sails]. We’re using that main for charters. It’s four feet short on the boom but full hoist. We also have a small Dacron delivery main."

"We’ll sail it to figure out a lot of deck gear to change," said Bill. "We haven’t decided yet, so haven’t started drilling holes yet. None of the winches are older than 2000. The winch pedestal is fine. The traveler’s in the way, but we’ll probably keep it because it’s a big project."

Merlin will sail in the Santa Cruz Wednesday night races once they start in March. Bill anticipates entering the Spinnaker Cup and Coastal Cup too, and the ultimate goal is the Los Angeles-Honolulu Transpac in July. In addition to daysails, race-training charters are available. See www.fastisfun.com.