They attended the 1995 Worlds in Toronto and 1996 Worlds in Brazil, but mostly trained at home in the United States since the Olympics would be held in Savannah. Most of their time was spent in Miami at the United States Sailing Center.
At the 1996 Olympic Trials, Josh and Bob placed 2nd behind Morgan Reeser, although half way through the regatta they were winning.
In 1997 Josh decided not to attempt another shot at the Olympic berth but Bob had just begun his journey toward his goal of the Olympics. He called Morgan Reeser to see what his plans were. Morgan's crew of nine-plus years, Kevin Burnham, had just become a first-time father which may or may not explain why he declined to campaign with Morgan for another quadrennium. Regardless of the reason, Bob had a new skipper - and a silver medalist at that - to learn from. Together Bob and Morgan sailed in the Miami OCR, the Skip Whyte Regatta, SPA, RIISA and the 470 Worlds in 1997.
After placing 16th at the Worlds behind Paul Foerster, and for other reasons, Morgan and his old team mate, Kevin Burnham, decided to reunite with their aim at Sydney. Bob, once again without a skipper, turned his attention to coaching the University of Rhode Island team and working on his Mechanical Engineering degree.... at least for a short time.
The rest is history. In March of 1998 Bob Merrick teamed up with another United States Silver Medallist, Paul Foerster, and together they will train in numerous international and domestic regattas to reach Gold.
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