It might seem like disloyalty to the Association, but I would like to see many more of us getting articles published in commercial magazines. The quality of pieces appearing in our Bulletin has risen considerably over the last decade or so, and I feel many of them would delight the wider public.

Those of you who buy Practical Boat Owner will have been pleased to read Dave Sumner's recent account of crossing to the Isle of Wight. A couple of years before this, PBO brought Brian and Anne Main's exploits in Rebel (Eric Coleman's original boat) to its readers. And before this, another member, the late Jeremy Beare, told of his difficulties on the bar at Blakeney. Our President, Roger Barnes is no stranger to writing for the commercials either. Have you seen his latest in Dinghy Sailing Magazine, or do you remember the previous one in Boatman?

All of these are superb publicity for the association.

Many of today's sailors learn their boat handling skills on 30 – 35 footers and, just as we're told that new car drivers often purchase a vehicle like the one they learned in, so many of today's sailors seem to think one couldn't possibly consider a boat of less than 30 feet long! Not surprisingly, many of the articles emanating from these sailors deal with big-boat problems. You can easily imagine how an editor of a commercial magazine must get heartily sick of stories that tell how it blew up to a force 5, making it far too dangerous to sail and so the skipper went over onto the engine, whereupon the diesel fuel was found to be contaminated, and/or the VHF wouldn't work for some reason or another, and/or they had to send up flares to call out the lifeboat! Don't laugh! I remember a period where just about every one of the 'Learning from Experience' type stories seemed to be of that kind. I fancied I could almost hear the editor crying in the corner of his office, banging his head on the filing cabinet, and asking the Almighty where all the real sailors had got to!

I vividly recall sailing my Mirror back from a Walton Backwaters rally years back, in company with Stanley Dean in his 14 footer. It blew up on our way to the Orwell and within minutes, every one of the bunch of nearby yachts, brought down their sails and went over to the diesel. Stanley and I were the only two sails left. Needless to say, we both arrived safely, having enjoyed our trip more than the larger yachts did. How these editors must rejoice when they get a bit of real sailoring written up!

There seem to be two secrets of getting into print. One is topicality or an appropriate follow-on to discussion points in previous issues. The other being simply the uniqueness of the trip, or the boat. PBO's editor used to go off in the evening, sailing his 12 footer round Poole – no doubt to cool down after yet another exasperating thirty footer/diesel/VHF day – and is a dinghy man at heart. He must have loved Jeremy Beare's mouth-drying experiences in his Roamer – and like many of us, probably learned from that experience.

When Brian Main joined in the series of articles on 'downsizing', the Editor must have breathed a sigh of relief. Here was something different! Everyone else's contributions about the problems of coming from a 35' to a 25' boat, was that it had no hot water, central heating or an oven in the galley – but they managed! On the credit side, only a few more pounds left in the bank account seemed to justify the change. Doubtless this made Brian's article a 'must'. He simply wrote enthusiastically about this small trailer/sailer that had encouraged him to sell his much larger boat.

And when a cruise in one of the smallest - but none the less extremely well organised - of boats, by Dave Sumner, came along, they must have loved it. We know how Dave coped with the difficulties of that weekend, and now, thanks to PBO, so do many more people.

From each of these authors, I have learned just how helpful the magazines were. They supplied a photographer, and in Dave's case and had him cruising around Christchurch, while he was snapped. The rough drawings and photos of Dave's gear and his modifications were painstakingly redrawn by Dick Everitt. They couldn't - Dave tells me - have been more helpful. Jeremy and Brian's articles were illustrated from plans of Rebel and Roamer loaned by us.

Keep your eyes and ears open for these opportunities. Try PBO, Dinghy Sailing Magazine or Free As The Wind on the Internet – although you won't get paid for the latter. Send them your experiences – giving a hefty plug to the DCA of course - and let the sailing world know about us. Let everyone know that enjoyable, exciting, sailing doesn't have to be a bank-breaking hobby.