November

Ian McCreery, whose membership of the DCA goes back to 1965, gave a talk “Another Trip Down Memory Lane”. It was to have included his collection of slides. Unfortunately, our projector played up again. Next time I will bring a spare one and not just a spare bulb! However, even without the slides, Ian’s talk held our full attention.

One of the boats mentioned was Ian’s own Tideway 12’, which was shown at the 1969 London Dinghy Exhibition — the first Tideway shown to the public in the cruising mode. Another boat known to many members only through photographs and anecdotes is Jady Lane — a traditional 14’ clinker yawl, belonging to one of our past presidents, John Deacon. As it happened, John had come up from the West Country and was with us that evening. He assured us that Jady Lane was not only still in use, but was in better condition than when, many years ago, he had purchased her for £35. I had often wondered how the boat came to get such a queer name. John explained that, when he bought her, she was called Lady Jane after the heroine of D H Lawrence’s banned book. Unfortunately, when he tried to register her with the Thames Conservancy, they told him that they already had a dozen boats of that name on their books and that to be registered he would have to give his boat another name. Being reluctant to change a boat’s name because of nautical superstition (as I am), he simply transposed the first letters of each word.

December

“Is dinghy cruising cuisine a contradiction in terms?” was our theme, and Richard Hignett led with a fascinating presentation based on his use of the general service 24 hour ration (as used in yomping across the Falklands). As Richard put it, his feeding involved “no cooking, no preparation and no washing up.” The general service ration (all packed in one tin) consists of rolled oats mix, 2 mushroom soups, chicken and bacon spread, brown biscuit, one tin baconburgers, one tin mixed veg, one beef mix, fruit pud mix, chocolate drink powder, tea, lemon powder, non-milk drink whitener, sweets, chewing gum (to clean teeth), water-purifying tablets, windproof matches and a few sheets of ‘bumf’. This diet is not low calorie, but, of course, calories are needed in active service conditions. Tea is made using the hot water the tins are boiled in.

An easy cook alternative is to use self-heating tins of food, which use hydrated lime as a heating agent. These, however, are expensive. Alternatively, an easily prepared diet can be made up from items purchased in most supermarkets: Alpen, chocolate in sachets, and pot rice or pot noodles (where you simply pour in boiling water). Of the milk powders, Richard said that Sainsbury’s was the best.

Richard does his cooking on a light stainless steel gimballed stove which includes a fitted saucepan. When required for use, the whole gimballed unit slips on to an almost flush bracket screwed to his bulkhead.