Raid Bassin d’Arcachon

[Graham W]

Roger Barnes has posted another of his splendid videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdABAdG9KHo.  This one concerns a distinctly non-competitive raid in the Bassin d’Arcachon, a large shallow tidal area in SW France, not far from Bordeaux.  Two of the participants were BR20’s, GuiGui and Rhiannon.

[MarkDarley]

Love his school-boy french accent, not that mine is any better, and his vocabulary must be much better than mine!  Roger really does show us all how we might be using our boats if we really wholeheartedly committed to it!

[jonno]

Roger really does show us all how we might be using our boats if we really wholeheartedly committed to it!

You’re right Mark.  We can certainly learn a lot from Roger Barnes.  But much of his sailing is quite restricted by Bayraider standards.  Bayraiders, twice the volume of Barnes’ boat and with water ballast, are arguably much more versatile and capable.  If one really wants to see how our boats can be used, one need look no further than entries on this website.  Therein are inspiring examples.  There are accounts written by singlehanders voyaging off the West coast of Scotland.  There’s a description of a two-up trip north along the Norwegian coast into the Arctic Circle.

[Cappagh]

Roger really does show us all how we might be using our boats if we really wholeheartedly committed to it!

You’re right Mark.  We can certainly learn a lot from Roger Barnes.  But much of his sailing is quite restricted by Bayraider standards.  Bayraiders, twice the volume of Barnes’ boat and with water ballast, are arguably much more versatile and capable.  If one really wants to see how our boats can be used, one need look no further than entries on this website.  Therein are inspiring examples.  There are accounts written by singlehanders voyaging off the West coast of Scotland.  There’s a description of a two-up trip north along the Norwegian coast into the Arctic Circle.

Hi All,

I wholeheartedly agree with you both,Mark & Jonno. Roger Barnes’ videos have encouraged me to return to small boat sailing. His sailing ability and enthusiasm,combined with an appreciation of nature & the basic fundamentals of dinghy cruising,is inspiring. It has been rewarding and educational to rediscover the simplicity of such cruising in today’s world of consumerism. Simply rigged,traditional wooden vessels crossing our waters have the ability to tear at our heart strings which is also part of the videos’ appeal. As a result I often feel the desire to build/buy one after watching an episode!  And yet… given the choice of making a passage in my home waters of the South or Southwest Ireland I wouldn’t change the BR for a 15ft. dinghy.

Roger Barnes sailing and cruising skills would far surpass mine but nevertheless I wouldn’t like to be caught out in a good blow in these waters in a 15ft dinghy. I would gladly sacrifice some simplicity for the water ballast alone. Our boats are still relatively uncomplicated and very safe under a competent helm in challenging conditions. As Jonno has said, the voyages made in Western Scottish & Norwegian waters are testament to this and I might also mention Claus Riepe’s cruises around the Western coasts of Ireland. All this and the BRs can do everything a small dinghy can do in the shallow waters of creeks and rivers. Obviously,a properly equipped dinghy under a skilled helm will be safer than a larger boat sailed by incompetent crew.

Although this means that our passage planning can be somewhat expanded over that of a small dinghy,  our ethos and objectives are the same. We gain the same amount of enjoyment and satisfaction from a sail or cruise and isn’t it wonderful that we have a great range of boats and dinghies to fulfill this purpose.

Stephen Foyle

[Ged]

Roger really does show us all how we might be using our boats if we really wholeheartedly committed to it!

You’re right Mark.  We can certainly learn a lot from Roger Barnes.  But much of his sailing is quite restricted by Bayraider standards.  Bayraiders, twice the volume of Barnes’ boat and with water ballast, are arguably much more versatile and capable.  If one really wants to see how our boats can be used, one need look no further than entries on this website.  Therein are inspiring examples.  There are accounts written by singlehanders voyaging off the West coast of Scotland.  There’s a description of a two-up trip north along the Norwegian coast into the Arctic Circle.

I fully agree with everything you're saying about the seaworthiness and versatility of Bayraiders , but you are overlooking the fact that the sense of adventure is inversely proportional to the size of the boat. 

[jonno]

I fully agree with everything you're saying about the seaworthiness and versatility of Bayraiders , but you are overlooking the fact that the sense of adventure is inversely proportional to the size of the boat.
[/quote]

Ged, I wholly agree.  My other boat is a Swallow Sandpiper.  Under 13ft long; two and a half feet wide.  It's an adventure just getting into the thing.

[MarkDarley]

Ged, I won’t debate that the smaller the boat the greater the challenge for a similar passage, but we can make that right by going further in more demanding conditions as the boat gets bigger.  No end of challenges. The sea is so large…….

[Ged]

Ged, I won’t debate that the smaller the boat the greater the challenge for a similar passage, but we can make that right by going further in more demanding conditions as the boat gets bigger.  No end of challenges. The sea is so large…….

Absolutely.

I seriously considered a bigger boat last year, as fitting two large blokes with enough kit to survive a week camping wild in Scotland, into my Storm 17 requires quite spartan levels of comfort.   

But I had two experiences last year that dissuaded me. The first was a seemingly simple sail in my boat from Tighnabruaich to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran to get a bottle of whisky.  What looked like a straightforward 24 mile return trip across open water turned into a 10 hour battle against contrary winds and tides... it was an amazing day of wildness and challenge... one of my best sailing days ever.

Later in the year I crossed the channel in a friend's 36 foot yacht from Lymington to Cherbourg... apart from being spectacularly seasick on the way out, we spent most of the weekend motoring or motorsailing only to arrive in an average French towns to eat in an average French restaurants and spend the night in a not very attractive marinas.  Not exciting, challenging or wild at all.

So I decided that (for the moment at least) the further I go from dinghy to yacht the less enjoyment I am likely to get from it.  I like the freedom to pull up on deserted beaches, the ability to row rather than motor and the sense of adventure that comes from sailing a small open boat.

My friends loved the trip to France... there's boating available for everyone.