Roger Barnes, November 13, 2025 – Just a Day on the Tamar
I go for a day sail with my mate Mark down the river Tamar and out into Plymouth Sound
We see the place where the people on the Mayflower left for a new life in America, where they discovered turkeys and cranberries. Not much else happens, other than a couple of beers and a Cornish pasty. Just an autumn day out in an ordinary dinghy!
THE GULL DINGHY
Mark’s dinghy is a GRP Gull, designed by Ian Proctor.
- Hull weight: 88 kg (194 lb)
- LOA: 3.35 m (11.0 ft)
- Beam: 1.44 m (4 ft 9 in)
AVEL DRO, my own boat.
Avel Dro is an Ilur designed by François Vivier, and built of clinker plywood by Les Charpentiers Reunis of Cancale in 1994. I bought her in France in 2003 to import her into the UK, and more recently returned her to France again. The design is based closely on the traditional inshore fishing boats of Brittany in the early years of the twentieth century – hence her simple boom-less lugsail rig and lack of a mainsheet horse, (sometimes controversial among my viewers). Although rare in Britain, Ilurs are relatively common in France. Modern Ilurs are slightly different from mine, as they have more built in buoyancy. The name Avel Dro is Breton, Avel = wind, Dro = to turn – so it means a whirlwind.
- Length 4.44 m
- Sail area 12.2 m²
- Beam 1.70 m
- Draught 0.25 / 0.86 m
INTERESTED IN DINGHY CRUISING?
- Read Roger’s books, The Dinghy Cruising Companion and Sailing The Shallows
- Join the Dinghy Cruising Association
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