Jools_of_Top_Cat
New member
Dear Sirs,
I have always despised those who write to magazines to complain about content or indeed lack of. My attitude has always been if you do not like something then don’t buy it, so I would like you to take onboard this letter as a group of observations and comments about recent publications of Practical Boat Owner and Yachting Monthly rather than a whiney letter of complaint.
As a subscriber to both I have become detached from either publication and would be happy to ditch my subscription to both, but each time I remember I often find the subs for the next quarter have just left my account. I also have a belief that things ‘might’ get better.
Why do I feel the need for this letter? Well as an active sailor on the North Wales Coastline I feel, as probably many of my contemporaries on this coastline possibly do, that we have been ignored long enough. I hear regularly from locals to leave alone, we are quite happy without an equivalent of the South Coast up here in our quieter waters, but I am afraid in some aspects it is already here.
With recent building of Deganwy Quay marina, planning for new marinas at Fishguard, Beaumaris and a new extension to the already large marina at Pwllheli, existing large marinas at Aberystwyth, Conwy, Holyhead and Liverpool there is already an obvious presence of cruising sailors in this area.
Moving away from marinas which many of the cruising sailors I know like to do there are many safe anchorages and moorings of all types available for the travelling cruising sailor.
Recent articles covering in a sense this coastline seem to forget that there are harbours between Milford Haven and Anglesey and then we can assume nothing until Port Patrick and the Inner Hebrides. The Coverage of the East Coast of Ireland is also miniscule, a reader may be shocked to find more places to stay than Dun Laoghaire.
I would also like to point out at this point that a great majority of cruising boats on this tidal coastline are suited to drying harbours through necessity and are regularly found on drying walls and moorings as part of their summer cruise, be they lifting keels, bilge or multihulls, a subject I will be returning to later.
Is it a lack of correspondence from us, the North West and Irish sailors, or a complete lack of interest about anything that is not in the Solent or has set sail from there. A glance at a map from Cardiff to Lancashire will show what a wealth of history this cruising ground contains, with some of the best castles and areas of outstanding beauty in the country. How many harbours can boast a narrow gauge steam railway, a castle and a modelled village all within walking distance for example.
I appreciate two recent articles covering Conwy and Milford, but these were based around marinas. I have already stated that much of the active cruising on or around these coasts is by smaller vessels choosing more pretty and quiet locations. Places such as Fishguard Lower Town, New Quay (with its own resident dolphins), Cardigan, Barmouth, Porthmadog as mentioned above, Arklow, Wicklow, Wexford, Fleetwood, Preston, West Kirby on the River Dee and many more. Maybe renaming some of these ports to Cherbourg for example might get a mention.
From Barmouth annually we see the three peaks race, from Fishguard the redwing racing and more for the future, from Pwllheli the Honda Powerboat Challenge and Liverpool the Mersey Festival which surely would warrant a decent coverage rather than a paragraph in the ‘around the coast features’.
Pwllheli which is my current home port is possibly the largest harbour for vessels of all kinds in Tremadog Bay, not only home to large dinghy sailing fleets, yacht racing and a healthy cruising fleet, many power boats of all sizes and a large and well used group of multihulls reside here.
This brings me to my second point, I sail a catamaran, as do many of the very active cruising sailors from this coast including trimarans. Pwllheli especially has a large number of multihulls.
I expect it to be assumed that many of your cruising tales will cross the boundaries between half boat sailors and multihullers but I am afraid this is not always the case, we can sail into much shallower waters and can happily dry out at anchor during our cruising, greatly extending our choices of stops during cruising. This is also applicable to those with lifting keels and bilge keels, a number of vessels that more than likely outweighs those with fixed deep keels, though this is my assumption only.
Please can the editorial team look into smaller, shallower boat cruising in this area, some more articles covering multihulls and not just brand new vessels which I am afraid to say are out of reach of much of your readership. I want to read articles that I can associate with, people cruising older non conformal vessels rather than craft from the continent. People who happily traipse through mud occasionally to get ashore, people who don’t go into marinas during their cruising. Last weekend we stopped in Porthmadog on the way home, and it was fascinating to see only one Beneteau on a mooring, the rest of the vessels a diverse group brands mostly with bilge keels and happily drying out.
Sorry for the length of this letter, but please do take heed, there really is a lot of sailing happening everyday away from the Solent and I would like to feel part of it.
P.s. Please feel free to add any of the content of this letter if you feel appropriate to the letters page on your publications.
<hr width=100% size=1>Julian
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>
</A>
I have always despised those who write to magazines to complain about content or indeed lack of. My attitude has always been if you do not like something then don’t buy it, so I would like you to take onboard this letter as a group of observations and comments about recent publications of Practical Boat Owner and Yachting Monthly rather than a whiney letter of complaint.
As a subscriber to both I have become detached from either publication and would be happy to ditch my subscription to both, but each time I remember I often find the subs for the next quarter have just left my account. I also have a belief that things ‘might’ get better.
Why do I feel the need for this letter? Well as an active sailor on the North Wales Coastline I feel, as probably many of my contemporaries on this coastline possibly do, that we have been ignored long enough. I hear regularly from locals to leave alone, we are quite happy without an equivalent of the South Coast up here in our quieter waters, but I am afraid in some aspects it is already here.
With recent building of Deganwy Quay marina, planning for new marinas at Fishguard, Beaumaris and a new extension to the already large marina at Pwllheli, existing large marinas at Aberystwyth, Conwy, Holyhead and Liverpool there is already an obvious presence of cruising sailors in this area.
Moving away from marinas which many of the cruising sailors I know like to do there are many safe anchorages and moorings of all types available for the travelling cruising sailor.
Recent articles covering in a sense this coastline seem to forget that there are harbours between Milford Haven and Anglesey and then we can assume nothing until Port Patrick and the Inner Hebrides. The Coverage of the East Coast of Ireland is also miniscule, a reader may be shocked to find more places to stay than Dun Laoghaire.
I would also like to point out at this point that a great majority of cruising boats on this tidal coastline are suited to drying harbours through necessity and are regularly found on drying walls and moorings as part of their summer cruise, be they lifting keels, bilge or multihulls, a subject I will be returning to later.
Is it a lack of correspondence from us, the North West and Irish sailors, or a complete lack of interest about anything that is not in the Solent or has set sail from there. A glance at a map from Cardiff to Lancashire will show what a wealth of history this cruising ground contains, with some of the best castles and areas of outstanding beauty in the country. How many harbours can boast a narrow gauge steam railway, a castle and a modelled village all within walking distance for example.
I appreciate two recent articles covering Conwy and Milford, but these were based around marinas. I have already stated that much of the active cruising on or around these coasts is by smaller vessels choosing more pretty and quiet locations. Places such as Fishguard Lower Town, New Quay (with its own resident dolphins), Cardigan, Barmouth, Porthmadog as mentioned above, Arklow, Wicklow, Wexford, Fleetwood, Preston, West Kirby on the River Dee and many more. Maybe renaming some of these ports to Cherbourg for example might get a mention.
From Barmouth annually we see the three peaks race, from Fishguard the redwing racing and more for the future, from Pwllheli the Honda Powerboat Challenge and Liverpool the Mersey Festival which surely would warrant a decent coverage rather than a paragraph in the ‘around the coast features’.
Pwllheli which is my current home port is possibly the largest harbour for vessels of all kinds in Tremadog Bay, not only home to large dinghy sailing fleets, yacht racing and a healthy cruising fleet, many power boats of all sizes and a large and well used group of multihulls reside here.
This brings me to my second point, I sail a catamaran, as do many of the very active cruising sailors from this coast including trimarans. Pwllheli especially has a large number of multihulls.
I expect it to be assumed that many of your cruising tales will cross the boundaries between half boat sailors and multihullers but I am afraid this is not always the case, we can sail into much shallower waters and can happily dry out at anchor during our cruising, greatly extending our choices of stops during cruising. This is also applicable to those with lifting keels and bilge keels, a number of vessels that more than likely outweighs those with fixed deep keels, though this is my assumption only.
Please can the editorial team look into smaller, shallower boat cruising in this area, some more articles covering multihulls and not just brand new vessels which I am afraid to say are out of reach of much of your readership. I want to read articles that I can associate with, people cruising older non conformal vessels rather than craft from the continent. People who happily traipse through mud occasionally to get ashore, people who don’t go into marinas during their cruising. Last weekend we stopped in Porthmadog on the way home, and it was fascinating to see only one Beneteau on a mooring, the rest of the vessels a diverse group brands mostly with bilge keels and happily drying out.
Sorry for the length of this letter, but please do take heed, there really is a lot of sailing happening everyday away from the Solent and I would like to feel part of it.
P.s. Please feel free to add any of the content of this letter if you feel appropriate to the letters page on your publications.
<hr width=100% size=1>Julian
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>
