Emmanuel

We came to wooden YWDBs in a roundabout way. I was born at Barton-on-Sea opposite the Needles of the Isle of Wight, so was fortunate to have access to the sea from an early age, but as I came from the poorer ‘septic-tank’ end of the village (we still had gas lighting and outdoor amenities) most sailing was well beyond my means and to be fair most of the yachts and boats were owned by the dreadful yellow welly brigade. So I spent most of my free time on fishing boats or had powerful inboards and eventually went on to dive ribs.

Of course this meant I had always looked at yachts with a little distain and felt that dinghy sailing was for old folk. Well surprise surprise I never expected to live this long – with all the abuses I put my body to (I have acquired a small scrap yard in my legs and always have the fun of setting off the airport alarms) – and I have now come to the realization that the days of bouncing around in a rib off the tops of waves has come to an end. We decided after much deliberation that we had to find some other way of going out to sea; the idea of a ‘put-put’ was definitely at least two steps too far (I am 54 not 84) but sometimes the sea out of Plymouth can get interesting to say the least, so we needed a boat that could take at least two people and was a good sea going vessel Easy you would think but no, my other half gets sea sick so a yacht was out of the question, also we had our last rib on moorings which was great for convenience but oh my, convenience does not come cheap.

So a Dinghy it was to be. As well as having bad legs another small problem was that I am 6’ 5” and 21 stone (big bones!), and I had never been sailing before! To add to all of this we are very picky, it is not only the getting from a to b but the way you get to your destination that is important – this is mirrored by the fact that we have a 1922 Rover and found that we weren’t slowing traffic sufficiently on country roads so we stuck a vintage caravan on the back. I digress. So after much research we decide on a YWDB; it was purported to be stable and fun. Of course there was no question for us, it had to be wooden (I am lucky to be good with my hands and I have done woodturning and wood inlay work).

I’m glad that we decided on a wooden YWDB. The feel of wood as opposed to plastic or fibreglass is indescribable, it’s like I try to explain to non-vintage car people, the feeling of nostalgia and pleasure. It’s smiles for miles. So as someone who was sceptical to say the least we have been converted, and we now have two wooden YWDBs, one sailing and one in repair mode.

You see, you can teach old dogs new tricks.

Happy sailing.

Michael
DB351 / DB562