What is a dinghy? There was considerable discussion about this at the A.G.M. and from time to time there is disagreement about which of our members are true dinghy-cruisers. A dinghy is an open boat, one would say — yet our list of rules for boat safety recommends at least a foredeck. When the foredeck reaches aft of the mast and is raised to form a place to sit in as well as to store gear, has the fourteen footer ceased to be a dinghy? When an open sixteen-foot boat is altered to have a cabin added, does it cease to be a dinghy?

One might say that a dinghy is unlike a keel-boat in the way in which it is sailed. There is no ballast other than the weight of the crew and perhaps an iron centreplate. In fact, some small open boats do carry ballast, and I have an eighteen foot cabin boat which has to be sat up like a dinghy. The old fashioned heavy open boat, ballasted, and too heavy to be hauled up a beach by her crew, was a very different kind of dinghy from those usually built now. Those crews who enjoy the excitement of balancing between wind end water to make the boat carry her full sail area in a fresh breeze might find the older type dully unlike their idea of a dinghy.

There is no complete answer to this argument. The Association has no intention of making dinghy-ownership a test for membership. Yet some of us have fairly strong views about it — perhaps we shall soon be hearing from some of them in this Bulletin?