Merlin III

Current boat name

Merlin III

Boat class

7516

Function

Sports and Leisure

Type

Length (m / ft)

5.08 / 16ft 8in

Beam (m / ft)

1.92 / 6ft 3in

Propulsion

Engine

Designer

Maloney W

Design date

1960's

Date of build

1968

Place of build

Ringwood

Present use

Museum/NMMC

MERLIN III, is a part of a whole family of fast motor boats with good performance in all conditions which were designed by Bill Maloney beginning with the 12ft Sorcerer in 1961. The inspiration for the design came from a study of the flying boat hulls of the 1930's such as the Saunder-Roe A 17 'Cutty Sark' and led to the development of a family of 12 'warped bottom Vee' hulls from 8ft to 25ft giving speeds up to 60 knots. The development of these craft was achieved by building a series of simple plywood hulls to perfect the shape. Both the 15ft MERLIN and the 20ft BEWITCHED were very successful in Offshore Racing. One of the first reports of MERLIN racing is of her powered by a 50hp Mercury finishing 7th overall in the Bristol Channel Trophy Race on 18th Sept 1966. In this race she was driven by F Jutton and her designer W Malone. MERLIN was also very successful in 1967 & 68. In 1967 two Malone designed craft BEWITCHED and LA SORCIERE were entered in the Cowes Torquay Race, both did very well with BEWITCHED, the smallest boat in the race, finishIing 6th overall beating many larger and more powerful craft. The designs have continued to be produced by various builders, including Kelvin's of Rayleigh, the last to build the craft in wood before the introduction of the GRP Scorpio 'Sorcerer'family cruisers and ski boats built by David Harber between 1966 and 1970.. The original hull form is still being used in the Sorcerer 760 RIB now being produced by Sorcerer Boats at Ringwood. It is likely that MERLIN III is one of a group 16 or so 16ft plywood hulls built c1967 BEWITCHED was fitted with an inboard V8 in the 70's. Re rebuilt in 1994/5 she is believed to have been advertised for sale recently. MERLIN III is now in the NMMC and being prepared for exhibition GH Sept 2013 Images 2 and 3 Under restoration July 2014