What actually is dinghy cruising?

​Dinghy cruising is the use of sailing dinghies for purposes other than racing - which can be anything from coastal sailing to pottering in a sheltered lake.  DCA President Roger Barnes gives an excellent introduction to the world of dinghy cruising in the following article:   https://classicsailor.com/2019/09/living-in-a-dinghy/
Here are some other perspectives on what dinghy cruising means to different people:
Nick Watts dispels some myths in   Nowhere Near The Edge of Fear
I have just spent an interesting three days at Beale Park talking to people about dinghy cruising when they visited our pontoon. ‘What is dinghy cruising?’ was the most common question, along with the statement ‘We thought people just raced in dinghies.’ Those who had some idea usually had a mental image of bearded middle-aged men battling the elements on epic voyages ... ‘We’ve read about Frank Dye ...’
Liz Baker started cruising in her   12'9" Mayfly dinghy  back in the 1980s.   In these two articles she describes how she organised the dinghy for cruising and then tells the story of an adventurous trip she made with a friend around the Isle of Mull in Scotland.  
Cruising in a Mayfly                      Mayfly round Mull
DCA President, Roger Barnes gives us another taste of dinghy cruising in this video:
John Hughes is   Going With The Flow.

On a clear summer's Friday evening after a week at work in a grimy city, the need to get out on the water becomes urgent. After a couple of days exploring the Dee estuary I felt recharged, ready to face another week at work.
You can see more of John's photos here: ​   Cruises, jaunts and escapades
​Keith Muscott tells the tale of how   The DCA Discovers the Baltic.​
While the most popular events in the DCA calendar are the rallies organized by our five regional groups, some of us like to spread our wings occasionally and range a little more widely.
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Nick Watts reflects on a dinghy cruiser stereotype in   Are we a solitary breed?
​I wondered idly why it seemed that the majority of dinghy cruisers seemed to be a solitary breed – when the pastime was manifestly such fun when shared with others.

​Mary Dooley describes what she learned going dinghy cruising with Roger Barnes for the first time.

I had done dinghy sailing before but never had the opportunity to go dinghy cruising until this year when I went sailing with Roger Barnes on Avel Dro. After a couple of short trips in the UK, I agreed to join him for a long weekend living aboard and cruising along the north Breton coast out of Roscoff. This is What I Learned Going Dinghy Cruising.
​Ken Duxbury's   excellent book ​Seamanship in Small Open Boats is essential reading for the dinghy cruising novice. The contents include tides, weather forecasting, navigation, rule of the road, knots and splices and tips on boat handling when things begin to go wrong. As he says in his preface:
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"Whether you gingerly lower yourself into a twelve foot kayak on the rippled edge of a beach, or point the proud bows of a luxury cruiser seaward, you OUGHT to know something about the game. Experience itself cannot of course be passed on... it literally must happen to you before you count it experience... but the knowledge of what might happen, and how to set about avoiding it, or coping with it when it does happen, CAN be passed on."

You can borrow it from the DCA Library.
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​Cruise Accounts by DCA Members

From the very beginning of the DCA, members have written up accounts of the cruises they have undertaken.   Many have had them published in the quarterly Journal and it is great fun and enlightening to read them.   Here are  some excellent examples:
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Lowly Worm in the Hebrides by Alan Glanville :  a    cruise around Mull in a 19ft 2ins Ness Yawl under sail and oar 

Cruising on the Dole by John Gray:   a cruise along the Welsh Coast in a Mirror dinghy 

Passage West and Passage East by Roy Downes: a cruise along the South Coast in a National 18  

The Plan by Ted Jones: a cruise along the  East Anglian Coast in a  Sunspot 15
Teased Out of Time by Charlie Hitchen won the Naylor Noggin in 2012 for his account of the cruise  he and his wife made  around Loch Etive and the southern Hebrides in their Wayfarer.   Here is a video  Charlie has made of that trip..

Useful links for dinghy cruisers:

Weather Tides Ports & Slipways Clubs
Pilotage Notes by DCA Members
  • The Solent - a cruising guide for centreboard boats
    by Cliff Martin
  • ​The Dee Estuary    by John Hughes          
     Coming Soon!      Still under construction.