DRYING OUT TO...ACCESS ALL ANCHORAGES

Ken Endean describes how standing your boat on its own two (or three) feet can open up a whole host of anchorages and harbours otherwise out of reach

- KEN ENDEAN is a retired engineer and pilotage enthusiast who cruises a twin-keeled Sabre 27. He has written several sailing books.

Almost all vessels, in the days of working sail, had to take the ground when calling at destinations around Britain. Some port towns were on estuaries that dried out at low tide; many coastal harbours had walls that did not extend beyond low water, because underwater masonry was disproportionately expensive. Until the Industrial Revolution brought steam dredgers, and also machinery for construction of gated basins, taking the ground was the norm rather than the exception for both coastal craft and ocean-going ships. At some places, small traders were even run on to open beaches, where their cargoes could be unloaded directly into horse-drawn carts.

Their skippers did that kind of thing regularly and modern, amateur mariners must make similar judgements about the effects of wind, waves and tides when beaching their boats. For marina-based sailors, these might seem like non-essential skills, divorced from the everyday world of pontoons and digital navigation, but that would be to ignore the safety aspect. When a storm is threatened, the normal reaction is to seek a sheltered mooring, but in some places there may be no suitable deep-water berths, or those that are available might be seriously exposed —visitor moorings are often in the positions that the locals do not favour, just beyond the best protection. A prudent visitor is likely to look for better shelter in an alternative bay, inlet or creek; if this involves using anchors and parking their boat on the sand at low tide then that is a small price to pay for comfort and security.