A LITTLE bit of magic has been worked on Merlin. Deft touches by a team of local boatbuilders have wiped away the years for the venerable old lady and returned her to her prime when both she and the Windermere 17-foot class yachts were young.

Devised specifically for the lake exactly 100 years ago by Percy Crossley, the elegant 17-footers evolved over the years, with their wooden-masted gaff rigs eventually giving way to high-tech alloy spars and the more efficient Bermudan sail plan.

Today the thoroughbred descendants of those early boats still race on the lake on summer weekends, but for one long-time enthusiast for the class the time has come to hang up his racing hat and opt instead for some gentle cruising around the lake he loves.

Michael Hopkinson has owned and raced Merrymaid for years with his long-time crew Gordon Pitt, but his family association with the class goes way back to the early years of the class when Merlin was built in 1908.

His grandfather owned her and, after his death in 1946, she was sold to someone in Southampton.

Twenty years later she was rescued from being a hulk in a muddy estuary by another owner who patched her up.

More time passed and Mr Hopkinson heard that she was available free to a good home and he had her brought back to the lake.

After another four years of deciding exactly what to do with her, he came up with the idea of restoring her to traditional gaff rig.

Local sailor James Nield, who works as a boatbuilder at Shepherds, was entrusted with restoring the wooden hull, which included laying smart new pine-planked decks over the existing plywood.

Meanwhile, Open World Yachts, of Hawkshead, fashioned a massive new mast and spars from single pieces of Douglas spruce; Steve Goacher designed a new suit of sails; and finally Windermere rigger Phil Evans set the whole boat up in traditional style.

Now, proudly displaying a class number one on her sail in deference to her age, Merlin is back on the lake where she belongs and made a fine sight among the fleet when they paraded before Princess Anne when she visited the Royal Windermere Yacht Club recently to mark the centenary of the 17-foot class.