Slipways are marked on Admiralty Charts (Small Craft Edition) and on OS Maps (Outdoor Leisure Series). Is it reasonable to expect a trouble-free launch on the basis of this information without a previous exploratory visit? For that matter, can we rely on the brief information given in Where to Launch around the Coast to advise us of potential hazards? Ann and I had the opportunity to put this to the test during a stay in a rented cottage in Cornwall in September 1999. The slipway in question was at St Anthony in Roseland, where we had already sailed in two earlier years. It is listed in WTLATC under Place Manor.

St Anthony is about five miles from the main road at Trewithian, which in turn is fifteen miles from Truro. The last three miles from Gerrans to St Anthony lie along a single-track road. As the passing-places are infrequent and the road winds a lot, driving along it with a trailer can raise your blood-pressure, because there are many cars bound for the National Trust car park at St Anthony Head. This is tolerable at the beginning and end of a holiday, but not more frequently. None of our sources of written information gave adequate warning.

There is a public car park at the top of the slipway, with room for about five or six cars. As this is used by passengers on the ferry which runs in summer from St Anthony to St Mawes, I suspect that the authorities would react badly if it became cluttered with trailers. We kept our trailer at our rented cottage. Beside the car park, the Place Manor Estate provides a small dinghy-park, for which there is a charge of £20 a week. I find WTLATC misleading in these matters.

The bay at St Anthony is well-sheltered in winds from all directions, and the ramp itself is excellent, built of Victorian stone blocks (not concrete, as stated in WTLATC). It is in good repair, about 10 feet wide, almost free from weed, and only slightly steeper than ideal. Unfortunately it ends at about the half-tide line, and the beach below is not as firm as it might be. This is not too much of a problem at neaps, when the water does not recede very much further, but I would not recommend dragging a trolley up the beach at low spring tides, or at least not unless you have a light boat and plenty of muscle.

My answer to my own question is: the next time I consider launching in a place that I have not previously visited, I hope someone will have written about it in the DCA Bulletin.