Sutton Hoo ship: To sail or not to sail - Yachting Monthly yachtingmonthly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yachtingmonthly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
by Bruce Stannard
KRAIG CARLSTROM
After her restoration, the immaculate gaff cutter MERLIN, at 85 years old, sails on a cloudless autumn morning on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Australia.
Like seductive sirens, certain beautiful vessels invariably attract the roving eye of a sailor. Through their sensuous sheerlines, the balanced symmetry in their curving bows and counter sterns, and the elegant proportions of their rigs, they sing the kind of alluring songs that cause old salts to glow in remembrance of times long past, when youth overwhelmed cold common sense and we surrendered to their irresistible charms. MERLIN, a lovely little teak-built British cutter, is just such a yacht. At the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, more than 500 gleaming boats and launches lay before me under a cloud of dazzling, multicolored bunting, and yet MERLIN was the one whose siren call most enchanted me.
TasWeekend: Ride of a lifetime on the magnificent Gordon River themercury.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themercury.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.