SAILING JUST FOR FUN
A fellow small boater from England sent us a wonderful book, Sailing Just For Fun, /High adventure on a Small Budget , by A.C. Stock. This book is about Charles Stock's adventures aboard his 16 foot microcruiser, SHOAL WATERS. Though most of the author's trips took place on weekends on the Thames Estuary, the author, nonetheless, amassed an impressive 60,000 miles of sailing experiences since first setting forth in his diminutive craft in 1963.
The first half of the book is dedicated
to expounding the virtues of sailing in his shallow draft cruiser along
with all kinds of tips for cruising in the Thames Estuary. He points
out many reasons why a little boat is better than a larger one (less
expensive to operate, easier to maintain, shoal draft and so on.)
However, right at the conclusion of the first chapter he simply states:
"All I am trying to prove is that there is plenty of good sailing and
pleasure afloat for the chap who can only afford a modest craft." It is
this statement that shows what Charles is about. He is a regular guy
with a wife, two kids and a modest home. He has a limited budget, and a
finite amount of free time. However, he does a tremendous amount of
sailing in that time with a boat that he can afford. Most of his
sailing is done on weekends with the sailing season beginning in March
and ending in November. His cruises range in distance from as little as
15 miles to as much as 130 miles, though the average weekend trip is 40
miles long. According to his 1996 log printed in the appendix, Shoal
Waters traveled 1609 miles for the season. The most distance traveled
in one season was in 1977, when 3307 miles were completed. (February -
December).
The second half of the book is primarily a collection of short stories
about various trips he took throughout the years. To someone like
myself who has never sailed in England many of the places were
completely foreign to me, and I found myself regularly referring to
"The Thames Estuary" sketch at the beginning of the book to tell me
where the cruises were taking place. However, titles like "Three Days
of Freedom,Voyage into Constable County and Don't Just Sit; See
Something!" encouraged me to read on and learn a little bit more about
this intriguing cruising ground. You would think that the average
person would tire of sailing around the same area for four decades, but
Charles Stock never loses his zeal. With 500 square miles of prime
sailing area, 12 navigable rivers and quite a few canals and offshore
sandbanks to explore, there is plenty of cruising to be done. Combined
with a land rich in history, it is not hard to see why Charles has
spent a lifetime exploring this area. In one of the later chapters he
explains why he loves these waters so much.
"The sheer joy of a little ship wooing the winds to travel over the waves is reward enough in itself, but the small boat sailor on the restless waters of the Thames Estuary gets an almost unlimited bonus from the backcloth against which he sails. Not for him the endless lonely days of sea and sky of the ocean traveller. Hour by hour and enthralling panorama of fauna, flora, trade ancient and modern, relics of wars fought yesterday and a thousand years ago, maritime architecture from St Peter's on the Wall circa 675 AD, to the modern power station at the Isle of Grain and the most enduring of all, sea defenses from ancient grass banks long since breached, to today's massive Woolwich Barrier, unfolds before him."
In conclusion, I'd like to say that
this book offers a lot of advice to the small boat cruiser, especially
as it pertains to the Thames Estuary. It really is amazing how many
miles Charles sailed SHOAL WATERS, and how he has remained content and
faithful to his little boat.
Dave