Long considered ‘a bit bizarre’ for sailing small boats into creeks and estuaries for adventurous nights of wild camping on board, the Dinghy Cruising Association (DCA) members now find their sport ‘increasingly fashionable’.

As the association celebrates its 70th anniversary year, membership numbers have tripled to more than 1,500 and branches are holding rallies in nine countries, including Ireland, Poland, France, the USA, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

The association’s Facebook group has 21,000 followers and DCA president Roger Barnes’ small-boat cruising videos on YouTube have had millions of views.

“It has taken us all by surprise that people now think it’s really interesting, instead of being weird people who sail in dinghies when they should have proper yachts.

“It’s like the world has caught up with us,” said Roger.

“We used to be a marginal outfit that nobody knew about, suddenly we’ve got really quite well known.

“Now a lot of people are saying that dinghy cruising is the future of sailing rather than all these big white yachts that just live in marinas all the time.

“It’s very much the same as taking a lightweight tent up a mountain, and spending a night there.

“It’s something that has always been done.

“You don’t need to take all the trappings of civilisation to go out to wild places.

“The experience is far more powerful with just a small amount of kit.

“That is what dinghy cruising is all about, to experience the natural world without distraction.”

Travelling light

Roger added: “Obviously we’re not living like savages. We are using modern outdoor camping gear.

“But you do not need to take all the comforts of home with you into the wilderness.

“And camping afloat using a small and light boat allows you to really experience remote places on lakes, rivers or coastal waters.

“With yachts, invariably, you end up going from marina berth to marina berth.”

Explorations into the wilderness – but within walking distance of a pub – are organised every two weeks in the summer and once a month during the winter by the association’s popular Solent branch, where the original rally was held in 1955.

Roger said: “We have a selection of little places in the Solent that we sail to, usually within walking distance of a pub.

“For instance there’s a mooring place which is an abandoned dock surrounded by the salterns of the former salt works of the coastal New Forest, which is now a nature reserve.

“Now, no one seems to go there except DCA members in groups of dinghies.”

The Dinghy Cruising Association’s most-asked question

Unlike with backpacking and camping where shops cater for your every need, with dinghy cruising there’s an element of people needing to “work it out for yourself” to get started.

Roger said: “People often contact us through the Facebook group asking ‘what sort of boat should I have?’

This uncertainty “is a barrier, blocking people from coming in and doing it but it’s also one of the things that makes it interesting – that everyone has a different approach.

“At rallies, everyone is looking at each other’s boats.”

The key is to “start with a dinghy you are confident with, and that has an efficient way of reducing sail.

“Most standard modern dinghies expect you to rotate the boom to wrap the sail round it, but it is better to have a simpler system like slab reefing, which you can do rapidly afloat”, Roger advises.

For sleeping aboard, if lying on the bottom boards is too constraining, you can make plywood bunk boards to span between the seats, and sleep at that level instead, which also keeps you clear of any bilge water.

Boards are usually a foot wide (30cm) and stowed in the stern when not in use.

You also need to carry an anchor to secure your dinghy over the tidal range.

Other gear, like stoves, sleeping bags and mattresses, can be obtained in high street camping shops.

“A lot of people have started using pop-up tents, which are quick to put up, and are a lot more convenient than making a fitted tent for your boat,” added Roger.

Drascombes are particularly good for this, as their two-masted rig provides a clear central area for a pop-up tent laid on bunk boards.

Wayfarers and Mirrors are also popular sleep-aboard cruising craft.

All dinghy cruisers, whether they choose to sleep on the bank or aboard, need effective waterproof stowage bags or tubs, as water will inevitably get into the boat from rain or from spray.

“Make sure they are waterproof against immersion though, as some bags are not.”

Teen dream

Roger, who made his own watertight fitted canvas cover for his 15ft Ilur, began dinghy cruising aged 14 when he and a friend persuaded their parents to tow the family caravan and two Mirror dinghies “and maroon us on the shores of Lake Windermere for a week.”

Even then, 53 years ago, Roger was a member of the DCA and remembers seeking advice about how to put a tent on their Mirror dinghies, although “we never quite managed it.”

He said: “Then we got older and became students and for about 10 years until I was around 30 I didn’t go dinghy sailing, even though it was something I always wanted to do.

“Sadly, dinghy sailing can be a difficult sport for people in their 20s, as they typically live in a shared house and have nowhere to store a dinghy, and maybe no car to tow it around with either.

“You can keep a dinghy in a sailing club dinghy park, but then you are restricted to sailing always in the same place, which negates one of the main advantages of dinghy cruising – which is the ability to sail your boat wherever you can find navigable waters, even abroad.”

For the past 30 years, Roger has sailed Avel Dro (Whirlwind in Breton).

Designed by the French naval architect François Vivier, the 15ft (4.5m) Ilur is a similar size to a Wayfarer dinghy, but designed in the spirit of the sailing fishing vessels of the Breton coast, with a traditional lug rig.

The initially obscure boat choice was inspired by Roger writing a monthly magazine column about dinghy racing, and the thinking that “if I bought a boat that nobody’s ever heard of, it would provide good copy, particularly in the winter when I don’t have any cruises to write about.

“So I bought an Ilur and because of me it’s become quite popular!”

Roger, author of the Dinghy Cruising Companion and soon-to-be-published autobiographical book, Sailing the Shallows, is a likely part of the upward trend for the DCA and small boating.

A trained architect, he was trying to grasp YouTube’s capacity to boost his small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME) 15 years ago and experimented with some sailing videos while he figured it out – now he has 40,900 subscribers on his @RogerRoving channel and will soon be experimenting with drone footage now an Achilles tendon injury has mended.

Roger, who is in the middle of restoring an old town house in Brittany, which he also makes videos about, added: “I have also been blamed for raising property prices here in Douarnenez”

Challenging first night

Travelling further afield in a small boat and sleeping on board can take some getting used to.

“The first time you sleep aboard, you will probably feel exposed and vulnerable.

“It’s very different from sleeping in a room ashore, or in a land tent. There is the noise of the waves and the movement of the boat.

“Lots of people don’t sleep at all the first night afloat,” said Roger.

The benefit of camping on board, rather than beaching a dinghy and erecting a tent on the shore, is that you do not need to worry about trespassing or tidal range.

Roger added: “In some places, like Scotland, wild camping is legal, but in others it can be problematic, whereas if you camp on the boat you can stop and anchor anywhere for the night, even in the middle of a beautiful view.

“For instance, in the Kingsbridge estuary, if you sail beyond the deep water yacht anchorage off Salcombe, there are miles of idyllic empty waters where a small dinghy can spend the night anchored afloat.

“All you need to worry about is the weather. It is true liberty.”

Delicate matters

While wild camping, the historical method for going to the toilet ashore was to take a spade, dig a hole, do your business and cover it over, or on a boat you could “bucket and chuck it.”

“That’s what happened on dinghies, while everyone on yachts used to have a Blakes sea toilet that flushed straight out into the sea,” said Roger.

“Now it’s becoming more problematic, and a lot of yachts have blackwater tanks to avoid discharging in coastal waters.

“The trouble is that dinghy cruisers are always in coastal waters, often close to a bathing beach. There’s a delicacy about it but everyone has to go!

“Now, the normal thing would be to have a lidded bucket with a bag in it, after you’ve been to the loo you can tie the bag up and put it in the refuse like you would a dog poo or nappy.

“With a close-fitting lid on the bucket, it can be perfectly sealed until you can get to amenities ashore to dispose of it.”

Companionship motivation

The DCA was founded to promote the idea of dinghy cruising, share information through the journal and organise rallies.

It enabled people who often sail alone to meet like-minded adventurers.

Roger said: “Dinghy sailors don’t usually go to harbours, they go up muddy creeks with just one or two people on board, and back when there wasn’t social media, it wasn’t so easy to meet up.

“Companionship was a large part of the motivation.”

Roger’s 20-odd years’ service as president is “typical of the DCA, we have a staying process.”

Another stalwart, Joan Abrams was editor of Dinghy Cruising, the quarterly journal of the DCA, for 50 years.

Founded in 1955, the Association was initially just British with a few hundred members.

For many years, membership stayed around the 400-500 mark.

“Now we have 1,500-plus all around the world. It’s all happened quite recently,” Roger said.

The journal used to be “all smudgy, printed on a Banda machine and stapled”, but now, under Keith Muscott’s editorship, it’s a 100-page glossy, professionally printed magazine.

DCA membership costs £30 a year for Brits, £35 for overseas.

Roger said: “All voluntary associations are having to change to respond to a changing world.

“As the DCA has become larger and more international, we have started new initiatives and also have new concerns.

“We now have a Facebook group with 21,000 followers, which is free to use.

“But for our paying members around the world, the journal remains their main point of contact, and the membership fee essentially pays for its publication.

“The DCA also provides information about dinghy cruising techniques, promotes the activity in boat shows, and organises rallies across the UK, Europe and also the USA.

“A growing concern is our potential liability in different legal systems, and we are liaising with similar organisations around the world to address that.

“The DCA’s tradition is to be informal, laid back and anti-establishment, and our members enjoy that.

“But inevitably we are having to become more professional.

“Yet we remain at heart a friendly and unpretentious group of people who enjoy messing around in simple small boats.”

‘The Dinghy Cruising Association has given us real happiness’

Rather than having one big event to mark the platinum anniversary, DCA branches are all celebrating locally.

Festivities began at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show at Farnborough International Centre in February when members gathered to cut a cake.

At the show, the DCA stand welcomed visitors aboard a John Welsford-designed Walkabout cruising dinghy built by Ginny Harvey to her own modifications with two offset centreboards that provide a large clear cockpit space for Ginny’s dogs, and for camping on board.

Graham Neil’s home-built Morbic 12 Sistership, so named as it is crewed by three adventurous granddaughters, was also on display in full camping trim with bedboards fitted and galley box open.

Ginny and Graham, along with Joe Murphy and other DCA members spent the show answering questions about the adaptations and skills needed for dinghy cruising.

Joe said: “There will be lots of cake-cutting this year to celebrate the DCA’s 70th year.

“The organisation was formed by sailors in racing clubs who wanted to do cruising and independent sailing, get together and share knowledge, and really pioneer what we now find is a really growing sport in the country.

“Instead of one big national party, or I should say international party as we have members in America, France and the Baltics, we’re going to have a series of parties.

“In the South for example, we’ll be having a celebratory rally at Folly Inn on the Isle of Wight in July.”

He added: “Like a lot of sailors, I learned on the Thames in a racing club and I spent nearly 20 years going around the cans, thoroughly enjoying myself but always thinking I really want to go further afield.

“It’s hard to know where to begin when you’re inland especially, but joining the DCA meant I met fellow sailors who would take me on small sails, say from Itchenor to East Head in Chichester and before long we were doing bigger sails to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.

“After a few years, my wife and I were cruising down the Jurassic Coast in our Wanderer, stopping off at places like Lulworth Cove, a place that we love and had never been to by sea until the DCA showed us the way, and that was real happiness.”

John Perry, who is also chairman of the Amateur Yacht Research Society, is a long-standing DCA member.

He said: “I started sailing across the Channel as a summer holiday in my 15ft boat in the 1970s. I made the boat to my own design and never had a problem with it, although I wouldn’t go in rough weather.

“My boat is self-righting with a lead centreboard.

“I worked as a heating engineer but in my spare time, I’d go to the Channel Islands, Normandy, Brittany, through the canals of France to Morbihan, as far as Brest.

“Then I met my wife Josephine and she wanted to join me.

“We went to the Isles of Scilly, to the West Coast of Scotland, and towed the boat to Croatia, Venice, Spain and most of Europe.

“It’s still going strong. We’re going to Morbihan this year.”

70th anniversary events

• River Wisla rally in Warsaw, Poland, 23-25 May, as part of the Wooden Boat festival, DCA boats are invited to take part in the small boats regatta on Saturday and celebrate the DCA’s 70th anniversary with a cake and a group photo. Sunday participants can also sail through the city centre.
• La Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan rally, France, 26 May-1 June, the DCA’s 70th anniversary coincides with many members participating in the famous sailing festival. French members have organised a number of commemorative and celebratory events to take place during the festival.
• Folly Inn Camping Rally, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, 5-6 July, the site of the first ever DCA rally, 70th anniversary celebration of the inaugural event.
• Traeth Bach, Dwyryd estuary, Gwynedd, Wales rally, 26-28 June, camp at Llechollwyn, scenically beautiful location on the south shore of the estuary opposite Portmeirion. There will be cake at a celebration picnic on the Llŷn Peninsula if tides permit or upriver at Maentwrog.
• Hartlepool Bay rally, 1-3 August, launch at Tees & Hartlepool Yacht Club to sail in Hartlepool Bay and explore the North East coast. Celebrate the DCA 70th Anniversary on one of the days. There is limited camping and car/campervan parking at the club and participants are able to use the club’s excellent facilities.
• Many more DCA events will be taking place throughout the summer season, worldwide, the rallies listed here have been specifically described as platinum year festivities: www.dinghycruising.life

How the Dinghy Cruising Association began

In the early 1950s, several dinghy sailors were actively cruising off the South Coast of England but could not find a sailing club to suit them as they did not wish to confine themselves to racing.

One wrote to PBO’s sister title Yachting Monthly (YM) in December 1952, complaining of this, signing off as ‘Clubless’.

Eric Coleman, later to become president of the DCA until 1964, replied as ‘Lonehand’ to say that he liked the idea of an organisation through which he could meet other enthusiasts, sail with them and exchange ideas on technical and safety matters.

About a dozen people declared an interest and Eric invited them to a succession of four rallies.

No one attended so he gave up the idea.

In January 1955, Michael Lawes of Lymington picked up a two-year-old copy of YM in a doctor’s surgery while he was waiting to be inoculated before sailing his dinghy to Malta.

He read Eric’s letter, contacted him and urged him not to give up. Eric wrote again to YM in March 1955 and got a better response. ​

Although the DCA had been imagined as a South Coast club – one idea for the name had been the Chichester Cruising Club – there was a lot of interest on the East Coast too and a Joan Bentley (later Joan Abrams) organised a section there.

So the DCA, with its thriving regional branches, was born.

The inaugural meeting of the South Coast section took place on 30 May 1955 and that of the East Coast section on 24 July.

The first rally was based at the Folly Inn, Medina River, Isle of Wight, on 31 August 1955. The membership had risen to 75 and the subscription had been set at 2s/6d – two shillings and sixpence.

Now, 70 years later, the aims of the DCA have changed little from those laid down in that inaugural meeting:

• To provide a channel for the exchange of information on all aspects of dinghy cruising and to enable enthusiasts to contact each other.
• By holding rallies, to enable enthusiasts to meet each other.
• To assist novices to take up dinghy cruising.

Read the Naylor Noggin folder of DCA history at: www.dinghycruising.life/naylor-noggin

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