Ed Wingfield has written several interesting, and informative, articles in the Bulletin about dinghy cruising in the north-east, and he has now produced a Firth of Forth Dinghy Cruising Pilot — two copies of which he has kindly presented to the Library. He requested that I write this brief appraisal of the document, and I was pleased to do — I hope that I have done it justice!

The booklet comprises 17 pages of, as Ed puts it, ‘dinghy-specific’ information covering the area from Dunbar in the south-east and Fife Ness in the north-east, to the limit of navigation at Stirling, and consists of an introduction and three sections relating to different parts of the area covered. The introduction, apart from describing the scope of the booklet, contains useful tidal information for the whole area, details of local conditions likely to be experienced, a note on commercial traffic in the area, and a mention of the chart and Ordnance Survey maps relevant to the places described. Ed comments that a copy of Imray chart C 27 is essential, and that it contains a number of detailed chartlets to which his Pilot makes reference; he stresses that his Pilot does not duplicate information contained on the chart, so it is necessary to have both.

The Introduction also contains a useful key to the facilities available, where appropriate, at places described within the three main sections of the Pilot, and these sections contain brief, but concise, notes on over 60 places to be visited within the area — ranging from quiet bays to villages and towns; as well as making reference to the Imray chart, he has also included a number of chartlets — in colour — of his own. Many of the places described are, as he writes, ‘…havens seldom or never visited that are absolute gems.’ And his description of them makes you want to go there at the earliest convenient opportunity! In some cases there is ‘no current information’ on the place mentioned, and Ed is hoping that members cruising in the area will send information back to him so that the Pilot can be updated, corrected and extended on an annual basis; in effect, a new edition will be published each year.

At the end of the Pilot, a number of launching sites are listed and there are notes on where further information can be obtained from — including Ed himself. And as well as the Pilot being available to borrow from the Library, he tells me that he is prepared to send copies by e-mail if requested — his e-mail address is <edwingfield@hotmail.com>; since the Pilot was produced on Word 97, it would be best if it were to be received on similar software. Inexpert as I am, I would consider a copy of Ed’s Pilot to be an essential piece of ‘equipment’ on a visit to the Firth of Forth… my only hope is that his work will result in other members putting ‘pen to paper’ to give detailed sailing directions for cruising areas with which they are familiar; there is no doubt that he has constructed an excellent base on which to build, and his efforts are to be applauded.