Wacky races

Sail Caledonia is funsailing with a difference. Maxwell MacLeod joined the other motley crews for a few days of mindless hedonism

It's early on a rainy Sunday morning in the Scottish Highlands and more than 50 shouting yachtsmen are gathered around (and indeed in) Neptune's staircase, the remarkable series of canal locks that lies near Fort William.

The subject of the yelling sailors' obsessive shouting is their 16 wee immaculately presented sailing dingies that are being tossed and bounced around roughly in the rushing waters as the lock fills with water, raising them 20 feet or so in 10 action packed minutes.

Their shrill voices call urgently against the mad roar of the waters. “Donald can you loose that painter? See, it's snagging on Marcel's cleat... Peter you'll need another fender aft... Henrick, you'll need to hold her off the wall with a boat hook...” But it's friendly, happy, shouting and there's a good deal of laughter mixed in.

The boats are fabulous, many designed by their owners and in many cases have been home built (usually in around twice the intended time frame) in garages and even spare rooms across Europe.

There's the green one bought by the Edinburgh doctor from a famous boat builder (Iain Richardson) in Orkney.

Another is a just finished traditional Basque fishing boat, its paint hardly yet dry, its owner constantly mopping out his precious new baby with a sponge.

Then there's a Dutch boat named after the builder's pretty girlfriend and six big ‘Drascombes' – rugged family boats much favoured by those with both limited budgets and clumsy teenage sons.

The sailors' pla...

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• By : Maxwell MacLeod
• In : Destinations
• Issue : 23
• Page : 54
• Words : 1,531