Having just joined your Association, I am not sure of the correct form in addressing myself to the Bulletin.

I have been moved to write after noting Mr Palmer’s query in the summer issue concerning a method of landing on and leaving a beach with an onshore wind. I have got some consolation discovering that experts find this a problem and that I’m not alone in seeking a solution.

The answer may lie in his sentence which ends, “while tending the anchor and suchlike”. One thing seems certain: on a small dinghy when one is working forward, the boat is often not under control. The extra weight forward upsets the balance of the boat, and I have not yet managed to predict my boat’s behaviour.

If I am right, then the conclusion must be that, whenever possible, one should remain in the cockpit and arrange to raise the anchor from there and not to stow it until one is in a favourable position — probably on a run. On several occasions I have had the anchor dangling from the bow fairlead making dents in the hull because time did not allow stowage. I am tempted to fit a foam rubber pad to protect the hull and arrange that the anchor warp can be hauled in from the cockpit. Not knowing a better solution, I often simply use my outboard to get me out of difficult situations, but it always seems an admission of failure.

However, as Mr Coleman says in the latest issue, “small boats cannot hold their ground to windward in a strong blow”, and we must accept this as a fact and all it implies. I have come round to realising that my Tricorn cannot make headway above force 4 if there is a real chop on the water unless I have the outboard going flat out. Perhaps this boat is an exception, but I doubt it. I have toyed with the idea of fitting lead ballast to the end of the centreplate, but that is another story.

I will be interested to see if any other members have anything to offer in the way of a remedy. Yours sincerely, Graham Knight