Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Wednesday 15 December 2021

RYA dinghy Trails for SW England

 You can find these here https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge/dinghy-trails/sw

Two in my local patch - one for Plymouth Sound and one for South Sands Salcombe.  Nice idea, well written and well laid out. 

The Plymouth Sound one is a nice day trip but choose your weather carefully if you are off to Bovisand. Westerlies can cause a few waves into that little beach. Be aware of some hidden rocks on the beaches of Kingsand and Cawsand.  I'm not sure I would try to haul out on Jennycliffe beach either given all the rocks and gullies just off that beach (perhaps a lighter, shallower draft dinghy might be able to do it in fairness but I would certainly keep a sharp eye out on the approach in). Similarly, going through 'the bridges' from the north on an incoming tide can be an 'interesting' experience against mid tide flows. 

Go on - ask me how I know all this!!!! Some 'hard' learning experiences! 

Clever little set of very useful resources. I might try out the Brownsea Island one next year with Arwen.  Well done to the RYA and all those who contributed to the series. 




2 comments:

Frank said...

Hi Steve I have just watched another of your videos and you happen to specifically lament about the "Dreaded Diagonal Crease".
Mate (I'm an Aussie) if you can't get rid of the crease - and even cause it to appear on the other diagonal simply by putting a bit more beef into the downhaul - mate something needs serious fettling!!!

Seriously,

Frank!

steve said...

hey Frank - Merry Christmas - of sorts - given the state of things - downhaul isnt the issue - which is why we are now looking at lots of other options like how the sail is tied to the top yard, the arrangement of the sprit boom - it isnt the boat or plans - i'm just doing something stupid and I havent the nous to work out what!