I wonder if I may use your new correspondence section to ask for members’ advice on the vexed light-v-heavy boat question. At present I have an Enterprise, which in most respects I find an excellent cruising dinghy. Its main advantages over heavy boats are of course ease of trailing and manhandling on shore. One also gets a lot of dinghy for one's money with a mass produced class like this. The doubtful point, on which I should like advice, is the seaworthiness problem. It is-often suggested; for example your editorial in Bulletin No.11, that a heavy boat gives safer cruising than a light one. If this view is correct I feel I should exchange my plywood box for a clinker barrel. Luckily though, I doubt if it is. Perhaps it will be best if I give my views on the matter, and members can show where these are wrong in the next issue.

In dinghy cruising, it is not the wind strength directly which is the limiting factor but rather the sea which it causes. In smooth water, a light or heavy dinghy can be reefed to stand up to at least force seven, if the gear is adequate. The danger is that one will be swamped by the waves, whether this involves being capsized by a breaker or merely being filled while remaining upright. There are thus two parts to the seaworthiness question: (a) to prevent swamping and (b) to survive after if it happens.

On (b) my limited experience of capsizing in light dinghies not in the open sea, suggests that such a boat with good buoyancy gear can be righted to provide a stable raft for its crew even if the waves prevent their baling it out. I feel a heavy boat should do this equally well, but probably no better. The heavy boat's claim to superior seaworthiness must therefore be on part (a) - i.e. that it will survive un-swamped in a sea which will overcome a light boat. Have member’s theories, or preferably experiences, which support or disprove this claim? One cannot of course go by racing experiences when the boats were over canvassed, or cases of gross incompetence or under-crewing.

I would also welcome any advice on handling a dinghy in bad conditions; again if possible, based on personal experience as theory seems of doubtful value here. Do we favour A G Earl's method of 'luff up to a breaking sea' (in a 10' heavy dinghy) or Uffa Fox's of 'bearing away a little for particularly bad seas' (going to windward in a Firefly in St. Catherines Race, described in his "Sailing Boats")? Is one right for heavy and the other for light boats, or does it not make much difference what action one takes, apart from keeping the centreboard partly raised? It would be very useful to hear from people who have actually been swamped in bad conditions at sea, since until this point is reached it is difficult to tell how near one is to it.

The best solution of course would be to try some experiments to bad weather. If anyone knows of an adequate motor boat whose owner would enjoy providing an escort off Chichester or in the Solent, I'd be very glad to hear about it. Slade Penoyre