Our boats, sad to say, almost all spend most of their time in their packed-away state. Few of us can, like Talbot Kirk in his Cornwall days, or John Laughland in the eastern Mediterranean, live and sail on their boats. That is the excuse for estuaries packed with mooring trots and yachts by the hundred tied up to the piles. We read of the troubles of those who can find no alternative to the rip-off marinas which charge their customers the whole of the fortunes which few of us will ever have. These unfortunates could surely do with a bit of marina-users’ solidarity to counter the greed of their tormentors. We, however, have a better alternative — more than one — open to us. There are still shallow drying bits of mud in sheltered places, if you look for them. Away from the popular coasts you only need to fill an old tyre with concrete and bury it and no one will charge you anything. It would be nice to have a spot of mud like that at the end of the garden. Most of us, though, live far from such places and choose to keep the boat safely at home. This is not a pain-free way out: who enjoys the trip on crowded main roads? Once there, the boat has to be rigged and launched and the trailer can be more of a worry than the boat to maintain. The law is ever stricter about what we can take onto the roads. Still, those who trail have the choice of all cruising areas and can have the varied sailing which the yacht tied to a mooring only achieves in a long cruise. The west coast of Scotland, for instance, becomes a possibility for a long weekend. Even there, of course, the marinas threaten, but overcrowding of that beautiful coast is still, thank goodness, a long way off.