The rally was attended by three DCA boats :- John Dalby’s Rebell } both junk - rigged Antony Sluce’s singlehander } The O’Halloran-Brown’s Wanderer

There were also nine boats and over thirty people from Toddbrook SC. The weather was almost a repeat of last year’s rally with a stiff south’westerly, accompanied by occasional short showers on the Saturday and finer weather on the Sunday (the two days I was there). We all camped at Glanllyn Park at the southwest corner of the lake. All the boats were easily launched in spite of the water being shallow for a good way out. People ‘did their own thing’ until the mid-afternoon when there was a fairly concerted effort to run down the lake to the café at the public launch site near Bala town. My pal’s GP14 ran swiftly under genoa only and we arrived in about half an hour. The return beat took about twice as long, but I’d brought waterproofs and the barbecue which followed was very enjoyable with Antony and John joining the Toddbrook mob, while the O’H-Browns who had started sailing later, gave their two wee boys an early night. There was loads to eat and drink and even strawberries and cream for afters.

Next day, some of us felt a little fragile and felt disinclined to repeat the trip to Bala. We were delighted when John invited us to sail with him in his Rebell. We had a little trouble getting off into an onshore breeze, because John had broken a rowlock and we were reduced to paddles. The Rebell has a cuddy which gives the bow a lot of windage, but after a struggle we had a very pleasant, high -performance sail, thanks to John’s home-made junk rig. The sail is made from a brown, woven, plastic material, of the kind now used instead of canvas for tarps and covers. A surveyor gave it one year but it is still in very good condition after ten. Sailing in a Rebell is a rare treat. John only knows of one other.

After a late and not-at-all-frugal lunch most of us pulled out in ever-improving weather and began to think about alternative venues for next year, where the midges are either less numerous or less persistent. That rules out Scotland then! David Morton