Reading the notes of the A.G.M. in the spring Bulletin, the reported remarks by John Deacon about new members mainly being interested in ‘pottering’ set me thinking, particularly in view of the remarks passed about membership turnover, which I think was also made at some time last year.

Who in fact does go dinghy cruising? Perhaps before that question can be answered it may be better to ask what sort of boats we can go sailing in? Not counting power boating, rowing boats, fishing boats etc., it seems that broadly speaking we can sail in dinghies, pocket cruisers, or those magnificent expensive yachts we see at the boat show, that make you realise that the money is there to be made, somewhere, but obviously not by me.

Now, who sails those boats, who goes with them, what are they like and what do they do? If you buy a big boat, you can use it as a floating caravan and have all the relatives down for holidays if you like. Also, if you have the ability and the stamina, you could probably enter the same boat for the Fastnet. You can also do this sort of thing in steadily increasing discomfort in the pocket cruisers as they go down in size. By the time you get down to the size of an open dinghy, you might get your friends to come out with you once if the weather is fine, but after that, especially if the sun goes in and the wind gets up, the only time they will see your boat again is if it appears on your holiday slides. So sailing a dinghy, any sort of dinghy, requires some degree of skill and stamina, and anyone who ventures ‘off-shore’ in an open boat, even for a short cruise, can find the demands both physical and mental made upon them very high. The other factor is simply knowledge; those people who have been lucky to have been in and out of small boats all their lives have a vast store of information they can draw upon, and so cruising a small boat to them is relatively easy. On the other hand, the man who has only ever seen the sea during his fortnight’s holiday may not even know if it is safe to launch his boat.

People who go dinghy cruising are evidently able and fit. What about the rest of us?

However experienced or inexperienced we are, our imagination draws us on; the thoughts of our own boat, the blue sky, places to explore, the open sea, islands, estuaries, old harbour-side pubs, they lure us on. What then stops so many people from doing it? Two things mainly, I think: lack of knowledge through lack of experience, and lack of enthusiasm from the rest of the family.

Why this lack of enthusiasm from the family? The sea, and I think water in general, is a totally unfamiliar environment to the majority of people; dump someone in a small boat on a piece of water and they will feel apprehensive. The boat won’t stop moving, there is a cold wind, and — worst of all — the boat heels over. I think if I had never been near or in a car before and was taken for a ride for the first time, I’d be a frightened man afterwards. Thinking about it, sailing is probably far safer than driving anyway. We all ride or drive about in our cars, and apart from the occasional ‘near miss’, feel perfectly relaxed; we are thoroughly familiar with it.

It is this lack of familiarity, I suspect, that probably accounts for the apparent lack of family enthusiasm that so often seems to hold back the budding sailor. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the high D.C.A. membership turnover?

What is the solution? You can, of course, go and do it by yourself. You can give up sailing. Or you can try and adapt your sailing to suit your family. This adaptation can take the form of ‘pottering’. Given that long distance cruising because of its demanding nature is going to be for very experienced and durable people, what of the rest? Among the ‘potterers’ there must be many who would like to extend their sailing without monopolising their family holidays and weekends.

How about a D.C.A. holiday week or fortnight? What are the ingredients required? Good sailing water for both experienced and new sailors, and good accommodation and camping facilities close to the launching spot, so that children and wives or husbands can go and do something else instead of sailing. Where can you get all this? What about Scotland? There are camp sites at the water’s edge on both sea and inland locks, there is sheltered water for ‘pottering’, and the cruising ground for the expert is superb, and would be backed up by the knowledge of having a base to cruise from where there were people who knew where you were in the event of emergency. As an added bonus, it’s something you can easily do with a dinghy; the majority of keelboat and pocket cruiser owners will never sail among the Scottish islands and locks. How about it?