V751, interesting stuff: good to hear the Merlin is highly regarded by the operator.
All this is similar to the concerns when we moved from the Wessex to the Sea King, although it was just crew room chat since (fortunately) t'internet was a nightmare yet to arrive! Concerns about downwash were easily rectified by upping the hover height from 30', and any half competent crew is quite capable of getting to the half dozen lilo rescues per decade in one way or another. With so many hours as a SAR machine for the Portuguese and the Canadians, Vie SF, don't you think that you're making a mountain out of a very small molehill?