Matt and Jillie Dale are living proof that you don’t need a big boat to cook, sleep and live aboard as a six-day cruise round Cornwall and Devon in their 19ft Yamarin 59HT demonstrates
You know how it is; you work out a foolproof plan, execute it and then realise you have overlooked something vital. Such was the case when I found myself swimming 300m to Cawsand beach brandishing a bag containing my clothes above my head. All part of the joy of small boat cruising.
I am a farmer who is lucky enough to farm a peninsula overlooking the Carrick Roads and the Fal Estuary in south Cornwall. Whilst I have done my share of shooting, riding and rugby, my main passion is the sea. In it, on it, under it, or just beside it.
The boat is my escape from the farm, I can feel myself relax as we leave it behind and head down the Carrick Roads. I grew up mackerel fishing and setting nets for pollock and bass from my father’s oyster punt – asturdy 15ft wooden rowing boat originally designed for the hand-dredging of oysters.
Sporting a Seagull Silver Century outboard, my mates and I did miles with the bare flywheel spinning behind us. We put the fish we caught in a box on a go-kart and sold them around my local village of Mylor.
Now married to Jillie for many years and with two grown-up daughters, boating is still our main hobby. It is our thing, our joint pastime. Although it has always been part of my life, Jillie had done very little boating before moving to Cornwall from Kent. But that soon changed.
After various boats over the years, we now have Sula, a Yamarin 59HT – absolutely our best boat to date. Until five years ago all of our boating had been day trips only; partly because it is what I had always done, and partly because we had never owned a boat suitable for overnight stays. It was also down to the ease of getting onto the water. I keep Sula on a trailer at the farm and tow it behind a 1976 Leyland tractor that my father bought new. I get the boat from the shed, Jillie organises the victualling and we pile it into the boat and trundle 400 yards down the hill. After launching, I park the tractor and trailer at the top of the beach – my mate owns the beach – and leave it there for the day. If we are away overnight I park it in our old quarry part way up the hill. Returning is just a reverse of the process and Sula gets rinsed and flushed every time before being parked back in the shed. We did have a Coastworker 21 for a few years, which lived on a mooring but it was such a faff by comparison.
After more swimming and sunning we headed to the marina. It felt strange to be
