Last summer, I discovered Traeth Bychan and the gorgeous Red Wharf Sailing Club, which is but 15 minutes drive away from me. Reconnecting with dinghy sailing was immediately slotted into the Anglesey Life Plan, filed under "when things calm down a bit"!
Fast forward a year and I have met Dee and discovered a shared love of dinghy sailing in our pasts, both of us having owned a GP14 when the kids were younger.
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| A very young Noel, Rob & Andy |
So I guess that I was thinking a bit harder about getting a boat, but realistically I didn't have a lot of time left to sail in 2025. But I was thinking about what sort of boat I'd like and decided it would ideally be around 12', so not too much of a handful to single hand; ideally be fibreglass so less maintenance involved; and ideally be more of a displacement style cruising dinghy rather than a racing dinghy, so you could sit in rather than sit on and not be in fear of capsize all the time.
As happens in my life, the ideal thing came up on Marketplace, just 20 minutes away and, of course, I ended up buying her. Amazingly, she doesn't require restoration!!
She is a 12' Tepco 12, which is a fairly rare beast, but similar to a Tideway 12 in size and style. Nice and beamy and round deep hulled so should be nice and stable. The sails seem to have little wear and she has been lightly "restored" a few years ago, which I think means revarnished / painted and new ropes. She is certainly a pretty little boat and open-decked so loads of space inside.
I joined the sailing club and secured a berth, then Dee and I went to collect her.
The priority now is to make a launch trolley for her as, at the moment, it will be fairly difficult to launch her across the beach in anything but a high tide. Watch this space....
