Paul Rayson and Chris Hill won the Merlin Rocket Open hosted by Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, on March 16, 2025, with a second and win and a well placed discard.

Ten boats lined up for the start of the Merlin Rocket Open 2025, part of the class South East series, sponsored by Allen, with 3 races scheduled on a sunny and fresh March Sunday.

The first race, with the start line between Phoebe and an orange buoy just by the club’s pontoon, was meant to take the fleet upwind to Fairway 3, across the river to an orange mark on the North shore and then up towards Cliff and Canewdon, saw 3 boats OCS, with only one returning.

The fleet stayed relatively compact all the way Cliff, with 9 boats choosing, bafflingly, to pay a visit to Cliff Reach, allowing local sailors Ben Harden and Steve Hall to gain a huge advantage and win the first race, followed by Paul and Chris in second and Mark Shockbridge and Tre Jacobs in third.

The second race, a committee boat start, a couple of laps around Cliff and Canewdon, then a detour between Bridgemarsh and Tony Glaze, up to Cliff and back to the committee boat for the finish, saw Ben and Steve take an early lead, which they masterfully defended to the end, unfortunately skipping the rounding of Tony Glaze and being marked DNF, along with 4 other boats.

The first sailors to actually sail the proper course were the RCYC members Stuart Mears and Ally Hall, however they couldn’t hold the lead against Paul and Chris, who took the win, with Stuart and Ally in second and Paul Dean and Hannah Burt in third.

The last race of the day took the fleet towards Cliff, then Crossrail, back to Cliff, around Canewdon, Cliff again, Bridgemarsh, passing Fairway 15, up to Fairway 5 and back to the finish line between the committee boat Phoebe, at the end of the RCYC pontoon and an orange mark.

Due to time constraints, the race, quite animated until the last dash towards Fairway 15, had to be shortened, with the intention of not rounding the Fairway 5, yet, despite the best efforts of the media boat, not all the fleet took the message, which led to quite long deliberations after the end of the race.

Eventually, it was decided the order the boats passed the transit between Phoebe and the orange boy to be the final order, which meant Mark and Tre got the race win, with James Goodfellow and George Major in second place and Pete Nicholson and Alan Krayling in 3rd.

Overall, the event was won by Paul and Chris, followed by Mark and Tre, with Ben and Steve in third.

Paul Dean, Merlin Rocket class vice chairman, thanked the Race Officer, Edwin Buckley, and his team and expressed keen interest for next year’s event.

Official report

Link: https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/284535/Merlin-Rocket-Allen-South-East-Series-at-Burnham