CONISTON RALLY — 13-14 July 1987

Once again the weekend was a success, with seven boats and a number of members without boats. There were three Proctor-designed boats — Edwin’s Seagull, Bob Buttle’s cruising dinghy and my Pirate. The family likeness was apparent. Apart from Cliff’s Sussex Cob, the other boats were Drascombes. Does DCA stand for ‘Drascombe CA’? Albert and Joyce sailed with me because their boat had been taken over by a broody duck and her eggs on their mooring on Windermere.

We all rafted together in the lee of Peel Island for tea on the Saturday. The wind was gusty and the bottom rocky, so there were a few moments worrying about dragging.

Back at the little bay near the club where we beach the boats, we had a big cook-up organised by Edwin, and then repaired to the pub, as the club was full of wind-surfers.

On the Sunday we had another good sail. Peter took some good action shots of our boats under way. We were pleased to welcome Gordon with his Dabber to their first rally, and hope it did not give them a false impression of the pleasure of NW Area rallies. The Coniston rally has consistently been successful, just as the Ullswater one has usually been too windy. Antony Sluce

ULLSWATER RALLY — 5-6 September 1987

At Ullswater my crew, Nick, and I arrived on Saturday about 10 am to launch at the farm and met Gerald Harrison launching his Lugger. Dennis Rushton and his co-Lysander owner were on the campsite with GP14, and David Chatterley arrived alone with his Dabber.

It was rather squally and wet with sunny intervals as we beat up to Shelly Nab, beyond which it looked rather rough. After the afternoon’s sailing we ran back to the beach opposite the sailing club with Gerald and anchored for the night, after meeting the new owner of Chris Hodgson’s Sussex Cob and saying goodbye to David, who had to leave, at the farm slipway. We told Stewart (Sussex Cob) about the DCA and he promised to bring his boat out next day. Dennis went back to the campsite and later met us in the pub near the beach, where Nick and I got a good meal.

After a convivial evening, Dennis took us back in his car to the campsite, where we slept in the car — a lovely starry night!

Next morning Gerald came across for us and returned us to our boat, and we all went up to Shelly Nab on engines, as the wind had moderated, to allow us to sail to the SW end of the lake — more sunshine and very nice round the islands!

On returning in the early afternoon, Gerald was able to take two adults and two children off the inverted hull of one of the sailing club boats as they had been there a long time, wet and cold, and nobody else paying any attention! Club safety boat not much in evidence. He returned them to shore and we had our lunch and recovered our boats about 2 pm after an enjoyable weekend. Cliff Laycock