Many thanks for sending me the DCA Bulletins. It was interesting to see the sort of cruising members are doing these days.

I gave up being a member of the DCA some years ago, as I no longer cruise in dinghies. However, I have been lucky and so far I have been able to do some dinghy sailing every year, and also a few trips in cruisers.

My wife and I have a 13 ft Marlin dinghy, GRP with 105 □ft of sail designed by Proctor, and I am afraid rather tippy! We have now had her 11 years and so far have managed to keep her upright, by being careful, and she has given us a lot of fun.

My elder son also has a 17½ ft Javelin racing dinghy, 170 □ft of sail plus 170 □ft of spinnaker, with trapeze! I sometimes crew for him and we have done some good long trips in her. Twice we have taken her round the Isle of Wight from Chichester and back non-stop. The first time it took us 15 hours, as we were becalmed some of the time. But the next time we did the 70 miles in under 12 hours, even though the tide was foul all the way from the Needles to Cowes. It was great fun and quite exciting; winds up to force 6. With three in the crew we even managed to have our supper sandwiches and hot drinks while we were planing up the Solent!

My sons have managed to set her spinnaker when racing in force 8 in the North Sea, so she is no butterfly! A good crew can get to windward in her in force 7 still carrying full sail. It represents a completely different form of sailing to the more conventional dinghy cruising, but it is not as daft as it sounds. She is not easily overpowered and, because of her great speed, she can often do a trip while the weather is moderate, when a slower boat might get caught in worsening weather. You may know the class, as most of the Javelins sail on the East Coast.

My younger son has spent 3½ years building a 33 ft Tuphglass cruiser from an empty shell. He has fitted her out beautifully for long distance cruising and we managed to launch her this summer. She is not quite finished inside yet, but is operational for sailing. My sons took her to the Channel Isles for a week’s cruise and I have had several good day sails in her. A reward for all the hard work my wife and I did helping to build her!

Eric was quite right, I gave my original dinghy to the Bognor Sea Scouts many years ago. Unfortunately I have not heard of her since, nor the Albacore my son cruised to Falmouth and back, which we sold about 10 years ago.

Hope you and the DCA have a good season in 1981.