Meet thy neighbours
James Stevens’ article on rafting (YM, Dec 2017) covers all the points needed in the wellregulated ports and harbours of the UK, but things were somewhat less organised in the far outposts in the 1980s and 1990s. In about 1990, we were one of a mixed fleet of four boats on a club cruise from Anglesey to the west of Ireland. Reaching Dunmore East, very much a fishing harbour with no facilities for yachts, we began rafting on an elderly and clearly unused fishing boat. As the smallest boat in the group, we were the fourth boat out, a position we were well accustomed to taking. We put out shorelines, of necessity, quite long.
The weather deteriorated, preventing further progress westwards, and more boats arrived. A second raft began to form against another inactive fishing boat ahead of us, and more boats rafted against us. Eventually there were 12 or 13 boats in each raft, very few of them with shorelines rigged. James’s point about meeting the neighbours is a good one. The next boat out from us was a Pionier 10, looking somewhat scruffy. The skipper sat in the cockpit with various disassembled parts of his engine strewn around. I enquired where he’d come from, to which he replied Newfoundland. I was proud of having sailed from Anglesey with a young family but he put it into perspective! Vyv Cox