doug748
Well-known member
About sailing. I enjoyed this video, put together like a Swiss watch:
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Roger Barnes talks.
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JumbleDuck
Well-known member
He used to borrow my Jouster, years ago, and my CCC book contains some beautiful annotations he did. If anyone is in touch with him and would be willing to pass on my contact details, please PM me.
Adios
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I agree with his philosophy. My first cruising boat was a 13ft fishing dinghy with a cuddy and a cover I made, spent 6 weeks on board exploring over 300 miles between the Deben and Tonbridge and Putney. Its a funny paradox how most pleasure sailors progress onward to every bigger and less pleasurable boats. We progress to boats that are able to float on ever smaller percentages of our cruising ground and have less mooring options as they can't even take the mud if we do really well in our progress.
When I got abroad on my deep fin keel yacht I realised I mostly just like being on the water so didn't need to go that far at all. His point about being able to trail the boat to new water is a very good one. Plop it in the best spot for the wind on that day, if its too windy for the sea make it a river you've never been to. Drift around with an arm trailing in the water as its only a foot away and you don't need to rush to make it back to your marina.
The bit about being more in the elements is obviously true as well. On my little dinghy the cover was a bit claustrophobic compared to the sky so I left it off until as late as possible. I've never spent so great a percentage of my days outdoors on other boats and being as I was usually on my own up the head of a salting creek way past the cluster of anchored yachts, I had for the first time in my life a feeling of wilderness all to myself.
And here she is the boat I probably got the most from. 1996, Dugmore Creek in the Walton backwaters. First night out from leaving the Deben, having a driftwood fire on the little spit of sand between the creek and the sea. I could see the lights of Harwich but it didn't feel close already. This is where the Thames and East Coast rivers wins out over the more picturesque South West. With the mud keeping people well away, the unlandly smell of the saltings and the sound of the birds it attracts, you can so easily reach a far away wilderness.
When I got abroad on my deep fin keel yacht I realised I mostly just like being on the water so didn't need to go that far at all. His point about being able to trail the boat to new water is a very good one. Plop it in the best spot for the wind on that day, if its too windy for the sea make it a river you've never been to. Drift around with an arm trailing in the water as its only a foot away and you don't need to rush to make it back to your marina.
The bit about being more in the elements is obviously true as well. On my little dinghy the cover was a bit claustrophobic compared to the sky so I left it off until as late as possible. I've never spent so great a percentage of my days outdoors on other boats and being as I was usually on my own up the head of a salting creek way past the cluster of anchored yachts, I had for the first time in my life a feeling of wilderness all to myself.
And here she is the boat I probably got the most from. 1996, Dugmore Creek in the Walton backwaters. First night out from leaving the Deben, having a driftwood fire on the little spit of sand between the creek and the sea. I could see the lights of Harwich but it didn't feel close already. This is where the Thames and East Coast rivers wins out over the more picturesque South West. With the mud keeping people well away, the unlandly smell of the saltings and the sound of the birds it attracts, you can so easily reach a far away wilderness.
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lenten
Active member
i have got a 15 foot open dinghy powered by a 15hp outboard -----want nothing "bigger or better" or faster---i have done the river arun from littlehampton to pulborough-----all of the river wey---the thames from the dome to above lechlade including a 240 mile round camping trip in october 2019 when the river was on red boards----round the IOW from chichester-------loch shiel and loch sunart camping-----eigg muck soay skye camping------last year was thinking of norway and the fjords------------i have joined the dinghy cruising association although i am not sure how they will take to me in the flesh when they see i am a strictly an outboard powered member------for your membership fee you get a very good quarterly magazine
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Adios
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I was just wondering that when he mentioned them at the end of the video. I would be surprised if they were as welcoming as if you had a stick and cloth with it TBH but then they don't call themselves the sailing dinghy CA so only have themselves to blame. I suppose most people who join them started day sailing and then cruised while most people with your boat are all about fishing. Do you have a cuddy? I did shelter under it a few times for showers and it helps giving something to build the tent frame off but it spoils the forward view a fair bit and I'm not sure if its worth it, unless there's a forward helm under it and can motor while sheltered but then that takes away from the view as well...
lenten
Active member
i came to this from a background of fishing a hundred pots in a 12 foot dinghy on a reef 3 miles off jersey-----handhauling a mile of rope and 2 1/2 tons of every day for 9 months a year----- ---you would be surprised how much weather a small dinghy can take when you get used to it -------it would take me years ----if ever ---to get enough experience to handle the same conditions in a sailing boat that know i can handle in my outboard powered boat-------i never wanted a cuddy as it spoils your view and makes anchoring and pulling the anchor more difficult-----one of the reasons i joined the DCA was to get knowledge to build a boat tent--------i have slept aboard in a bivi bag ----its very relaxing------when it is dry
Adios
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haha yes I realised that as well. I once promised to hand myself in to an insane asylum if I made it back to land. But the boat could handle more than I could and safely delivered me back without bother. I dare say I would have got used to it as you have but I tried to pick my weather better from then.
I had wanted a sailing dinghy but at that time they were much more expensive, not like now when you can buy a perfectly decent GP14 with good sails and a trailer for a couple of hundred as I did last year. But just as well or I'd have capsized and died of hypothermia. I knew nothing about boats, I was going to buy a van and spend the summer in it before going to Uni. But a friend was a shipwright and suggested I buy a boat and spend the summer on the Norfolk Broads. I bought the boat and put it on the Deben to start and one day followed a fishing boat out over the bar. Once at sea I realised the boat had more potential and ended up coast hopping and ditch crawling just about every inch of available water on the east coast rivers. Absolutely amazing experience. It didn't take long to realise the importance of knowing what I was doing so while waiting for tide or weather I read all I could find on the subject while being in the environment to put it into practice straight away which was an excellent way to learn.
I think having the smallest possible boat to start with is absolutely the best way to start. I've since known people who's first boat was much bigger and it was a lot of stress for them. Largely they bought bigger to emulate friends and the desire to be a "yacht owner" as they imagined one not because they needed it for where they were going. I bet a lot of the boats we see that never go anywhere is because the owner bought too big a boat.
Greenheart
Well-known member
It may not be their standard approach, but I don't think they'd mind. I'm sure I saw 'Paradox' designs which have cabins, on their cruises, and they're not really dinghies at all.
They go out in conditions when I wouldn't consider launching, so it's not impossible you might be regarded as a safety-boat...depends how you'd feel about that. I should say I'm not a DCA member, yet. I don't have enough (or any) of their fearless independence.
Also, I would think with 15hp, your boat is pretty brisk, and the DCA members' boats mostly aren't. In your position (which I envy, rather) I think I'd get a pair of long oars so I could silently maintain the other boats' pace on calm days. Makes conversation easier too.
Note to self...start constructing a bracket to attach the Tohatsu to the Osprey.
Sandy
Well-known member
He does have some great adventures in his dingy. Wonder if he does public talks?
Adios
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Thats the thing exactly. In a dinghy its an adventure.
I bet he would if invited and expenses covered. Seems like that sort of chap doesn't he, slightly evangelical about the joyous method he's honed.
Greenheart
Well-known member
Definitely seen (on Youtube) Mr Barnes speaking to the assembled about dinghy cruising, maybe at a dinghy show.
If you have half an hour, the article linked below is a very nice read, about his journey down the Loire...
Dinghy down the Loire - Classic Boat Magazine
...though I think he nearly bit off more than he could chew when he emerged from the estuary and made his way up the coast, first in darkness, later in hard weather, to join a Morbihan festival. Alarming to reflect that he did this before ever capsizing that boat, so he did not know the trouble he might have found himself in, with the heavy boat on her side, offshore in the grey Atlantic.
I think this chap below is funny, he cruises his Mirror in interesting places like Chichester and the Medway...doesn't make any fuss, seems to sail regardless of the forecast, and always packs a few beers (and cigars) even for a morning sail...
If you have half an hour, the article linked below is a very nice read, about his journey down the Loire...
Dinghy down the Loire - Classic Boat Magazine
...though I think he nearly bit off more than he could chew when he emerged from the estuary and made his way up the coast, first in darkness, later in hard weather, to join a Morbihan festival. Alarming to reflect that he did this before ever capsizing that boat, so he did not know the trouble he might have found himself in, with the heavy boat on her side, offshore in the grey Atlantic.
I think this chap below is funny, he cruises his Mirror in interesting places like Chichester and the Medway...doesn't make any fuss, seems to sail regardless of the forecast, and always packs a few beers (and cigars) even for a morning sail...
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Adios
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I'm liking his style. Keep it simple. Can't help wondering if it would get a bit tight if his inside out lifejacket went off though
NealB
Well-known member
Thank you doug748, and respondents, for a really positive, uplifting, thread.
I gave my old Graduate away a few years ago, and she's been unused since: hmmmmmmm..... got me thinking!!!
I gave my old Graduate away a few years ago, and she's been unused since: hmmmmmmm..... got me thinking!!!
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Greenheart
Well-known member
I was just thinking, for less than the price of a third-rate mountain bike, it's possible to pick up a dinghy that'll give decades of fun.
Stacks to choose from. The road trailer is usually the costliest bit, if you don't plan keeping her by the water.
Stacks to choose from. The road trailer is usually the costliest bit, if you don't plan keeping her by the water.
Tomahawk
Well-known member
If everyone started doing it the RSPB eould be up in arms and howling like banshees.
Adios
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Actually everyone has started doing it with inflatable kayaks. Scanning around google earth these days most out of the way spots have a couple of kayaks there now. The democratisation of the water. Its not the price of entry that was keeping people away I suspect it was the storage aspect. A decent kayak costs more than you'd need to buy a GP14 or Enterprise etc with trailer but they don't fit in the back of a car and I suppose are seem more complicated to use. Often the thought has occurred to me how amazing it is on a small island of 66m that I'm the only one there at that beautiful spot on that hot day while the beach at durdle door is rammed with people who'd love to be where I was if they knew how to do it. Now a few more of them do!
