Dear Madam,

I was very interested in this article as I too changed from one to the other; from an 18’ double ended skiff with a heavy iron keel and plenty of inside ballast to a 14’ Midshipman. On balance my preference is now for the plywood box although I will admit it has taken two seasons to make up my mind.

First impressions were rather disconcerting. It was a flat calm day and I moved about in the same way as I would have done in the old boat (it has 6’ beam), and I nearly fell overboard as she reacted so quickly to my changing position. The movement I have found, however, is very small though quick and most plywood boxes have plenty of freeboard to put it mildly!

I find, the greatest advantage of the new boat over the old is the ability to keep sailing comfortably in a breeze particularly when manoeuvrability is required. Provided she is reefed sensibly she keeps going in a docile manner, and due, I assume to her lightness, she is very dry. I find no difficulty in reefing single handed using a simple form of roller reefing. On our return if I miss the mooring, no matter, we are about and ready to try again in no time. In the old one it was panic stations! With a straight keel and reefed sails she might easily fail to come round and my mooring is close to the shore at Chalkwell, Leigh-on-Sea - a steep, man made foreshore of large stones. And oh the struggle to push off if we had gone ashore with a hard onshore breeze. Glutinous mud would be welcome! Conversely, mackerel fishing was much easier in the old boat but you cannot have it both ways.

I am not sure of the wisdom of not lowering a heavy centreplate fully. The designer presumably meant it to be used. I agree the side pressure on a large plate, particularly a light one, increases the tendency to capsize but a heavy plate is ballast in the right place. They are fitted to Redwings for this reason, I believe.

Plywood is tougher, I feel, than might be expected. The local foreshore is very hard on the small pram dinghies etc. which we have to keep to get out to our moorings. In fact they take a bad pounding every time there is a strong on-shore breeze but over the last few years many have bought plywood craft and they seem to do as well as the others.

Yours faithfully,

D Cole