I should like to differ from the claim by Alec Barge that we only dinghy cruise for 3 or 4 years before graduating(!) to a cruiser or retiring married. This is probably true for those who sail light dinghies and racing craft because although “fun” to sail during the daytime when conditions are pleasant this begins to wear a little thin when one begins to feel jaded and irritable after beating for six hours or so and a shore trip is necessary to recover, The necessity to sleep and cook ashore may strain one’s sense of humour still more when arriving at a muddy creek at low water with a herd of bullocks gazing down from the bank… On the other hand the cruising dinghy with its greater stability is a cruiser at night having comfortable sleeping and cooking facilities whilst retaining the versatility of a dinghy during the daytime without the strain that a light boat entails. Most people cruise at weekends to relax from the strains and worries of the week. To owners of such boats the idea of a yacht, with its high overheads, is not particularly attractive and if they wish to “go foreign” for their holidays, it is usual to charter one. For mixed company the privacy of a yacht may be desirable in which case an enclosed cuddy is an answer.

Of 23 dinghy cruisers I can call to mind 3 sailed less than 5 years because of marriage and 6 bought yachts. My dinghy has served very well to explore the South Coast and Thames Estuary and now that a cabin has been added longer trips are possible and should keep my wife and I going for the next 2 or 3 years after which we may need a boat which can carry supplies for a month or so i.e. a 5 or 6 tonner. Yours sincerely, Eric Coleman

Dear Madam,

May I beg to differ from the suggestion in the last edition of the journal that dinghy cruising is a passing phase and soon one either graduates to a cabin cruiser or goes out of sailing?

At 35 years of age my old boat, a heavy ballasted clinker C.B. bought in 1948 for £75 complete with O.B., motor (which I sold) has just about disintegrated. Nevertheless it has lasted long enough to show that my eldest youngster (7) is keen on sailing. I cannot afford a big cabin job either as capital cost or the greater maintenance cost of bigger thicker ropes and larger tins of paint (not forgetting the boat tax that must come one of these days!) I don’t want to go in for dinghy racing. I do want:-

To take my tribe out day sailing. To cruise and sleep with one or two children. To pass under bridges and into shallow creeks and rivers. To be able to sleep while sailing and cook when possible and use a toilet with mixed company. To be able to lash the sheets, heave to and reef singlehanded. To be nearly uncapsizable.

My favourite cruising grounds lie N.E. up the coast at Harwich and thus the boat must be fast enough to beat down the coast on one tide. I want a boat that will see me through to the 0.A. pension perhaps being doubled up with fibreglass. I hope that a 16ft. boat fitted with the bare minimum cabin (toilet and galley just inside with fold-back bunks reaching under the foredeck) and a tent over the cockpit where two more can sleep occasionally will fulfil this purpose. Thus I am sinking most of the available cash into a Fairey Falcon hull with centreboard fitted at £137 delivered home. I hope to fit a cabin for about £50 and use my existing sails and spars for at least one year.

In this craft I hope to be able to sail off on the ebb tide from Maldon Friday evening, with one or two friends, sailing all night, watch keeping ocean racing fashion and well on into Saturday, eventually mooring up for the night within reach of the moorings on Sunday’s sail home. The difference between a trip up the River Blackwater with a gentle S.E. breeze and force 6 S.W. has to be experienced to be believed, but there are many side creeks one can explore on the Sunday if the wind comes up astern.

Such a craft should give a variety of sailing pleasure greater than will ever be known by the dinghy racing fanatic, the out and out ocean racer and most cabin cruisers costing many times as much. I think (and hope) it will be money well spent. Yours sincerely, Charles Stock