Having done two shortish trips in my G.P. 14 with different crews I had got some idea of the type of person I wanted for my cruise to the Isle of Man. Eventually, I mentioned it to Ian Garrard, and he agreed to come and so plans were prepared. There were really only two dates which were acceptable and that was Whitsuntide weekend and August Bank Holiday weekend, since this was when the cruisers from the club were racing over to the island and I felt it would be prudent to go when I was certain of some company. However, the dinghy was not ready by Whitsuntide owing to examinations so we settled on the August Bank Holiday.

The trip involved a distance of 62 miles as the crow flies, 20 miles of which we could guarantee being out of sight of land and the dinghy used was a Merlin Rocket Mark XI, no. 916, equipped with more than adequate buoyancy, transom flaps, and a centre main sheet.

We decided to leave early Saturday morning at high tide (0315 hours) in order that we should arrive during daylight at the island. Friday night, 25th August, we stowed our gear, flares, food, torch, fixed in the compass, completely rigged the dinghy and after a drink in the clubhouse retired to our bunks at 2300 hours, after setting the alarm clock for 0200 hours.

At 0200 hours the alarm clock was roughly silenced with a sweep of the arm onto the floor and after hearing a favourable forecast of S-W 3 — 4 veering to W later, we had breakfast and then made our way to the club. We launched the dinghy and by 0325 hours with a light breeze from the south-west we left the jetty and made our way down river. As we were sailing out of the channel we noticed a cruiser motoring up behind us and hoped that he was going to the island since all the other cruisers in the race had set off on the Friday afternoon tide. However, when we reached the end of the channel at 0500 hours he turned off to port and disappeared down towards the Welsh E coast. We, in turn, set our course of 295º (mag) which was a close reach.

At 0600 hours with the sun just beginning to show we hoisted the spinnaker, as the wind had dropped slightly and for the next half hour we managed to keep it just filled until the wind freshened slightly and unfortunately had to drop it. The forecast at 0645 hours gave us exactly the same as the 0200 hours one so we continued in good spirits hoping that for once their homework was correct. By 0800 hours Blackpool Tower, a very prominent landmark, had disappeared from view owing mainly to the sea mist which was about and not our speed which we found rather difficult to estimate. At around 0900 hours Ian felt sure he could see the island ahead but I think the Red Barrel was having its effects on him because we did not sight the island until we had been out 11 hours.

At 1000 hours the sky began to darken and we started wondering whether it was too late to turn back . However, the wind increased to a beautiful force 4 and for a hour and a half we had an exciting plane, unfortunately though, getting rather wet in the process. We had, during this time, great hopes of arriving in Port St. Mary in record time but unfortunately the wind died to a gentle force 2 — 3. About this time we were deciding where eventually on the island should we make our landfall.

Port St. Mary had many attractions, including the cruisers who had raced over, but it meant going round Langness Point where there is a nasty tide race. It would have been alright going round in the light wind we had then but we had to think of our return voyage as well. Anyway, we decided to leave the final decision until we got a little nearer.

At 1230 hours I saw what appeared to be a lighthouse on the horizon as it did not move and took it to be the Chicken Rock lighthouse because it was in the right position and I had great confidence in my navigation. However, about three quarters of an hour later we realised it was another yacht. I was off watch then (we did two hours on the helm each) and shortly after dropped off to sleep. Not the most comfortable of dinghies to do this in. When I awoke at 1415 hours we were only about a quarter of a mile from him and quite quickly caught him up, only to find that it was one of the cruisers from home which had set out from Lytham 12 hours before us. We went alongside him and after passing a few words and he had given us two cans of ale (may Long Life live long) we parted company.

At 1515 hours we at last saw the island, but could not make out which port we were looking at. We held our course and at 1645 we were able to pinpoint ourselves and found that the tide must have pushed us further to the north than anticipated. We hardened in the sheets but were unable to quite lay Langness Point. By this time we had decided to go to Port St. Mary since we felt certain if it did blow up on our return we would be able to find someone at the Isle Of Man Yacht Club to trail the dinghy to Douglas in order to avoid negotiating Langness Race.

We were about one mile off Langness Point when the wind completely died on us and I had visions of us drifting helplessly with the tide out towards Chicken Rock. We started paddling and just as we were going through the race, which was relatively quiet, the cruiser we had passed earlier came up to us motoring (I think we had hurt his pride a bit by saying we started 12 hours later than he did) and offered to tow us. We accepted although at first I was in two minds as to whether my pride would accept the humiliation. He towed us about half way across Castletown Bay and then a breeze from the west sprang up and we dropped our tow line and sailed in the rest of the way arriving at 1900 hours much to the amazement of our club members.

At the social that evening at the Isle of Man Yacht Club it was suggested by someone that we were both put in strait jackets and put on the first plane for home!

We had every intention of sailing back on the Monday but our Commodore asked us if we would accept a tow from one of the cruisers. So to keep him happy we agreed and on Sunday night we lowered the mast and lashed it but we still made it simple for us to raise it quickly as soon as we were out of sight of our commodore. It turned out however to be rather fortunate that we had accepted a tow because when we left Port St. Mary at 0430 hours on Monday there was no wind and a thick sea fog. About 40 miles after leaving Port St. Mary at 1330 hours a gentle breeze sprang up and Ian and myself decided we had better be departing from our cruiser as they were going to Fleetwood and we wished to go to Lytham. So we got kitted out, raised the mast with the dinghy alongside and after finding our correct position and the course we required we parted company at 1415 hours.

With the spinnaker set on a fine reach we made our way on a course of 150º (mag). After an hour however the wind dropped completely and for the next two hours we took it in turns to paddle but even so Blackpool Tower which we could see never seemed to get any closer. At around 1700 hours a breeze rippled its way over the water towards and with spinnaker just drawing on a close reach we began to get closer to Blackpool beach. By the time we were off Blackpool it was too late to go up the River Ribble since the tide was ebbing and so we beached the dinghy at Blackpool at 2015 hours and rang up home to ask them to bring the trailer I own.

The trip altogether had been blessed with marvellous weather even though the winds had been rather light. I am certain now, although I was virtually convinced before, that the Merlin is not the ideal cruising dinghy!! However, one has to make do with what one has.