I missed out on the early learning stages of dinghy sailing in my active youth. I came to the water at an age when moving my (not inconsiderable) body weight to balance a fast, tippy boat was an inconvenience and I much prefer to be admiring the view without the ever-present danger of a clout from a wayward boom.
It might seem strange, then, for me to be to be extolling the virtues of boats which require the helmsman and crew to sit to weather to keep the boat sailing upright in a blow. However, I am convinced that, despite the degree of comfort and stability offered by your average white 30-foot cruiser, they are not for me.
Where would I moor it? We live in Sherwood Forest. The East Coast is a tedious three- hour drive away, the Solent further still. Most of the time the boat would sit expensively on its mooring or pontoon, while its owner is at home trying to work out whether it is worth travelling that far, on a week-end when the weather or tides make sailing uninviting.
I know some people with a Maxi in Poole Harbour. They drive the 600-mile round trip “most week-ends” and spend all their holidays on her. Last year's main event was a two-week cruise to the Scilly Isles. It rained. A lot! They had to motor all the way back because there was no wind They have an intimate knowledge of the bit of water 20 miles east or west of Poole and can tell you which motorway service areas on the route serve the best coffee.
I admire their determination to own a “proper” boat and envy their disposable income needed to maintain it. However, it is really rather like having a big Hymer camper van parked 250 miles away, which you occasionally use to drive around the Isle of Wight.
Some give up on owning a boat in the UK altogether and hire a cruiser based somewhere with a more attractive climate for their two-week holiday. No maintenance problems, a new cruising ground each time ….but what to do for the other 50 weeks in the year?
All this is laughable to the Frank Dyes of this world. Cruising dinghies have several advantages. They are simple. You don't need to be a plumber, electrician and engineer to keep all her systems running. Just rig, launch and sail. You can keep her in the back garden if you wish which makes maintenance much more convenient. Why spend all that cash on a bigger boat when it is possible to cruise to Iceland in a Wayfarer?
Maybe for Frank open water cruising in a dinghy is a challenge, but with my level of expertise it would be downright irresponsible! I'm not about to risk a cruise around the local duck pond in a tippy, open boat, let alone be caught out of sight of land, in shipping lanes, in a force 9 gale.
So having ruled out the extremes of size and displacement, is there an acceptable compromise available? Obviously it's the good old trailer sailer! No mooring fees. Keep it at home. Change cruising grounds at will. What more could you ask?
Get yourself a 28' trailable cruiser and, if you avoid all the floating caravans on the market, you could have a seaworthy RCD Cat. A boat that could take you across the Atlantic with a reasonable expectation of getting there in one piece. But you'll need a crane to get it on and off the trailer and a dirty great 4x4 to tow it, slowly, from place to place.
For me a better option is something that a family car could tow long distances, will fit on a cross-channel ferry without costing a fortune, can be launched and recovered single-handed from a muddy slipway and, (most useful, this), can be unhitched and trundled around cramped hotel car parks as easily as a wheelbarrow.
Are we back to a dinghy? Not quite. My 19' Cardigan Bay Lugger sleeps two in the cuddy, possibly two more under a cockpit tent, if I had one, has RCD Cat. C certificate, gas stove, chemical toilet, effective ground tackle, sails at 5 knots in a light breeze, reefs down to cope with F5/6 winds in comfort and can motor all day (if you want) at 6 knots with the 4hp engine at half throttle.
True, I wouldn't be very happy sailing her across the Channel in a gale but by using ferries for the nasty bits I can be lolling around in the Ionian in four days' time! I've towed her over 7,000 miles in two seasons without burning the clutch out and, in between trips abroad can happily sail her (engineless) on my local reservoir.
Versatile as she is, she's not my “ideal” boat. We all need something to look forward to, after all, and these are the key improvements I would like:
- To make absolutely sure she's self righting from a knockdown my ideal boat would be well ballasted, not with lead, but with a variable water system to make sure she's also as light as possible when towing. In the event of a 180° inversion -perish the thought -asymmetrical side tanks would make sure that she's unstable upside down
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A 20' boat with, say, 300-400kg of water ballast would be stiff on a reach and carry her momentum well going to windward in a chop. The extra couple of feet on the waterline would increase her hull speed (and by extension, her cruising range) and make a bit more room in the cabin
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I wouldn't want a bigger engine (at 22kg the Yamaha is as much as I want to heave around) but the many benefits of 12v electrics would be nice. I'd like a self-draining cockpit with dedicated lockers for the external fuel tank and for a second anchor (for bows to mooring) and lastly, a really good tow-proof boat cover to stop everything getting coated with road grime on the motorways
However, I must be careful to limit my wish list to avoid adding too much trailer weight. Anything that detracts from the ease of single-handed manoeuvrability off the water is as bad as a boat that is unhandy on the water.
There aren't too many boats of this type to choose from and none, as far as I am aware, have all the features of my ideal boat - so how about it, all you designers? I'm pretty sure that quite a few others would be interested in a cruising boat that could really go places.
