Capsize off Vementry

Marsali Taylor remembers how she came to grief through going too far out in a small dinghy

- Marsali Taylor

I grew up messing about in small boats. My childhood summers were spent in a remote Highland sea-loch and there were toy boats to sail, then lilos, then an inflatable canoe, and of course our clinker-built 12ft dinghy (with Seagull outboard) which took us on expeditions all over the loch. I still have that boat, and to look at her now it’s hard to believe that our crew of two adults, three children and a Siamese cat wouldn’t hesitate to travel a fair distance aboard!

We moved to Edinburgh just before my gap year, and I got my sailing dinghy, a1962 12ft 6in Graduate called Lady Blue.She was old-fashioned even then, still with the rolled side-decks that everyone else was stripping out, and a wooden mast.

I learned to sail in her, going round the regattas, and as 1976 was a particularly windy summer, I capsized all round the Forth. My crew and I discovered that the despised rolled decks were not only much more comfy than narrow gunwales, but also meant that when she capsized she floated high, and then righted with only a couple of inches of water inside. This in turn meant we could open the self-bailers and sail on while others were still furiously bailing out.

Cramond, our club, was tidal, so we teenagers would meet up as a group of Grads just as the water was disappearing, and explore the nearby islands until the tide let us in again.

When I came to Shetland as a new, very green teacher, I brought