Roger Barnes – Sailing the Shallows

Roger Barnes, October 29, 2025 – Sailing the Shallows
A return to the landscape of my youth, a place of mountains and lakes, of artists and writers and deep thinkers.

I tour the landscape around Coniston Water in Cumbria, visiting Peel Island and Brentwood House, and cruising on the steam yacht Gondola. And I reflect on the extraordinary literary and artistic heritage of the Lake District, of John Ruskin and Arthur Ransome, of William Wordsworth and WG Collingwood.

THANKS

• to Chris the skipper, and the rest of the crew of SY Gondola.
• to the staff at Coniston Holly How YHA.
• to the people at Brantwood.

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 book, The Dinghy Cruising Companion
• Join the Dinghy Cruising Association