by Antony Sluce

The rally was attended by two boats and nine people: Cliff and Mary Laycock, Peter and Alex Filshie, Joan Abrams, Talbot Kirk, and Phyl, Rachel and Antony Sluce. Colin Bell tried to attend but had wheel bearing failure on the trailer — a recurring problem for the trailer sailer in my experience. The weather was not quite raining and not quite not raining with a fitful breeze. Everyone had a sail on the Saturday changing boats in mid lake, Alex in his sail powered lilo. A pleasant evening was spent in the Coniston Sailing Club who we thank for their hospitality. On Sunday it looked as though there was going to be more wind, but I left early as everyone else set off.

by Joan Abrams

We had a most enjoyable sail down the lake and back on Sunday morning, with close-up views of the magnificently gold Gondola, the lake steamer plying up and down with a shipload of tourists. Then, when we came ashore, the rain began again in earnest.

NW AREA RALLY — HESWALL — 22 May 1982 by Antony Sluce

The rally was attended by 13 people in total. My boat was down in Christchurch awaiting auction, so I crewed for Colin Bell in his Drascombe Coaster. Harry Hough and his wife sailed with Mary and Cliff Laycock in their Sussex Cob. Di Roberts sailed, with Joan and John Worthington, with Edwin Dewhirst in his Seagull sloop. The only single-hander was Dennis Royston in his GP14.

On Saturday morning we met up with most of the boats. Edwin had arrived the previous evening from Beaumaris via Holyhead. The day was showery and the wind came in various strengths from the Welsh coast. Colin and I left first, and made down to Thurstaston to see if anyone else was there. No one was, so we set off for Hilbre Island having a chat with the Sussex Cob on the way. They, unfortunately, had gear failure a little later and returned to Heswall. We took the precaution of keeping the boat standing off and on whilst we each separately went ashore for a walk.

During a leisurely lunch we realised we were being set onto the West Hoyle, so we hastily set the mainsail as we were joined by Edwin and the GP14 under reefed Firefly main and jib. We then had a splendid cruise in company round into the Welshman’s Gut, down to the Point of Ayr and running into the Wild Road for tea at anchor with the channel buoy high above us on a sand bank. As the tide made, we threaded our way through the sand banks back to Thurstaston with the plate and rudder up as we were set over the submerging spits between the channels. As the wind was setting in strongly, we later ran up to Heswall. In all, we had sailed 18 miles over the ground, mainly under jib and mizzen, and were underway for 12 hours. This was the most satisfactory day I have spent on the Dee. Provided you can stay afloat on the falling tide there is a fascinating maze of creeks and channels to explore, but it does make a long day. The latest Admiralty chart is of some use, and most of the buoys we saw were afloat.

On Sunday we had a brief sail in the morning in rainy squalls, and recovered the boat just after high water. Edwin decided not to sail back to Beaumaris, and Joan and Di had a sail up from Thurstaston.