Dinghy Cruising the cheap way to sail 

Please click on the Community tab to answer my poll questions, thanks Paul

The boat intros is excellent, and greatly adds to the video. Many thanks

Fantastic boat meeting! Great to see all different designs in the same show.

From Holland where at last the temperatur is dropping and we are preparing for a holiday with our boat I am allready looking forward to the fall and winter, when I’m going to restore my 12 foot dinghy. Your video’s and those of Roger Barnes encouraged me to. Yachtsailing is nice, but looking at your video’s I want to take up sailing with a dinghy to. Thanks for the inspiration.

Delightful. Lovely pocket sailing watercraft. It’s a pleasure to view pals sharing the moment together. Perfect. 🌞LG…Miami Beach

Lovely boats, lovely video. I always feel inspired, and more than a little envious, watching your videos. Thanks Paul! I might just hit the replay button now ...

Now that you have told us about certain native bird songs n calls. I certainly recognize the voice of the “Bell Bird” in your wake up pan of nice clips of what mornings are like at your anchorage ! Thankz Paul. Another great video as I slowly plow thru n often rewatch some video trying to learn the boat names n dinghy types.. sometimes I think 🤔 I’m the 77 yrs old dingy trying to learn something new. Cheers 🥂 mate. Papa J

I'm with Bruce love the slow motion and other special effects, you are getting more creative with every video. Thanks for your efforts it's very enjoyable viewing. Cheers Steve

Great to see another Stornaway...!

Great video Paul. Interesting to see the different types of boats participate in the Raid. Enjoyed your commentary and the contribution of the other sailors. Thank you.

Really enjoying the interaction and the information along the way not to mention all the different dinghys out there

Thanks Paul another great vid plus heaps of new boats 👏👏👏👏

what a balm for the soul, thank you!

Great video thanks Paul. Interesting to see the different boats and their fit-outs. Looks like you were blessed with another great winters day of sailing & moonlit night around the fire.

Another great episode Paul. Thanks!

Great job as always Paul,loved the slow mo sequence. Cheers Bruce

Really enjoyed that, as you guys are living the dream!

Such a delight to watch your videos. Beautiful photography. Great storytelling. Thanks Paul.

I love small boat sailing. Your video and storytelling skills are such a pleasure. I am very happy to subscribe.

What a great collection of different boats. That makes for an interesting sail (and video!) Thanks again for the effort of putting together these presentations, they are most enjoyable! See you out there again one day!

Great vid, so much fun to watch. Thanx.

Most enjoyable. Cheers.

Excellent videos chills me out and inspiring keep em going ⛵️👍

Another great sail Paul Wonderful diverse group of boats won't be sending any boat pictures at my age the best I can do is my cuddy cabin power boat but you and your mates bring back fond sailing memories thanks again for the sail along cheers

Beautiful video of a nice variety of boats. I’m inspired. Thanks.

Gorgeous small boats, so much character! 🤩

Just plain fun!! Sailing company just good happenings.

The fleet just gets bigger and better! That is a nice idea to get people to send in pics of their boats, I will try and do that too.

Boy, that breakfast of spinach, onions, eggs and mushrooms smelled good!!

I was pleased with myself when I correctly answered your question Paul... 🙄🤣🤣😁. Yet another great video and I seem to be commenting daily as I'm binge watching and catching up. You really do document your adventures beautifully.

Hi Paul. Got to say, very inspiring! I love to watch your videos. Im building my own Stevenson Weekender, will be ready by the end of this year.

From the UK, fabulous video, nice to see so many people enjoying small boat cruising. Just sent as requested a pic of my boat, cheers Mat

What a beautiful fleet!

Excellent 👍🏼

I'd send a picture of my boat but I don't have a boat... I have to live out my dreams through videos like yours! don't stop. It helps keep the dream alive.

Excellent video, thanks.

Nice video👍 Its great you have a group of guys to go sailing with. Top stuff! Nigel

Another lovely video

I lived in Blackalls Park for a bit. Used to hangout in Toronto . Fished in Lake Macquarie and drove all around the lake and that whole area. Loved it there and miss it and the people.

Without doubt, the best dinghy cruise video productions on the planet. Thanks Paul, I will quiz you later about ‘full moon over fire’, bellbirds and whipbirds, and whether you are experimenting with a 360 camera. Thanks again, I needed that!

Another brillian video. Keep them coming! Love from Denmark

So nice! Thx for sharing with us :)

Really enjoyed the video thanks Paul

Watching again…You guys in Australia love to sail. Thank you for talking about the types of sailboats going out. I haven’t decided on what kind of sailboat I want. I think a trailer sailer, cruising boat is where I’m going. There is a Great Loop around the eastern half of the US that I might like to do. We also have some other nice islands down the east side of the Gulf of Mexico / South America. I don’t know what is too much. I don’t know how long it takes. I don’t know how dangerous and difficult. Thanks for sharing…from east Tennessee.

That paradox really is something, it's weird seeing a rather modern looking hull with a rather ancient style of sail, looks like it works fantastically though

Wow, this video felt really different! Loved the shift in story telling. Can’t wait to bring piccolo north one day to join in :)

Very inspiring. Wish I'd see something like this in my home waters.

So enjoyable, thanks for taking the effort to post! Lake Erie

Great video Paul, a really nice watch⛵️

Beautiful wooden classic design, I really like it, thanks for sharing Greetings from beautiful Hawaii islands ⛵️ 🏝

This is excellent! I now know what I want to work towards. Can’t wait to be out there sailing like this.

Excellent Video photography

Paul - you’ll find that you can scandalise your main by easing the peak halyard and you’ll find you don’t need to reef. Leave your throat halyard as is. Great for those moments when you’re thinking “I should have put a reef in”. This is very effective - just might not look quite so pretty. I was working in the United States and sailing a Cat boat which didn’t have any reefpoints and it worked great. Great vid 😀😃😄😁😆

Thanks again for a great video - amazing variety of sailing craft in one place! i have an old wayfarer, dont think you want a picture of that - i would love a winkle brig, but they are like hens teeth...

I'm not a sailor; I was on a sailboat once and enjoyed it, though. This is very well done; I particularly liked your use of music - the music itself, the volume you set for it, the amount of time you gave it... superbly chosen and implemented. The video quality is also excellent, to boot. A delight to view.

Love it guys. Need to get a group together to do the same thin here. When the guy with the Day Sailor showed up, my heart skipped a beat. Our second boat when I was a kid was a DS. That brought back memories. But, again, our first boat was an Silhouette. Wooden boat from England that my dad was so in love with. We lost it in a storm within a year of buying it. My dad was so sad to see it bashed up from the rocks on the Tennessee river. I don't think he ever got over it.

Always look forward to and love Paul's videos. Something unique that I didn't expect. The towing vehicles (shown at the 54 second mark) are all so normal (well maybe not the flatbed pickup, which I love) compared to vehicles required to tow larger craft. For me, this is one of most important aspects of dinghy cruising, and one of the primary reasons I sold my Rob Roy 23. Just use your regular car. Ironic that Paul is almost embarrassed about the one hour launch time of the whole group. The 23 footer I used to have took two people three hours to raise or lower the mast (and a lot of fear & muscle); I don't miss that drudgery one bit. Dinghy cruising is evolution.

Thanks for your videos. I can only sail vicariously these days! I am hoping to once again have a boat soon, but I just moved across the US to Maine, so not a lot of sailing season left here before the cold comes.

Although we have a solar powered boat we were joined by two other couples in their sailing dingys. We cruise and camp on the larger inland lakes/dams in South Africa. It proved to be a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing your sailing experience.

I find myself particularly interested in the Matt Layden designed micro cruisers which are sailed from within the cabin. There's a Canadian Paradox owner that built himself an enclosed cabin Puddle Duck Racer inspired by his Paradox, which he called a Paraduck design. It is much better known by the name Gorfnik, which he named this extremely capable, very cleverly designed micro cruiser. He proved the design on some remarkable voyages and the tiny boat has surprisingly good accommodation for her Captain, rain or shine! Dinghy cruising and camping looks wonderful, and I'm working on a foldable, bicycle towed micro cruiser in which the folding bicycle stores in the bow when afloat, removing the need to return to one's starting point for the car and trailer. Ultralight, basic and with an enclosed cabin, the propulsion is mainly via kayak paddle, although the design allows for a sailing version. As I intend to go along the UK canals and rivers I thought paddling may be preferable. This is a really beautiful and inspiring video, encapsulating all that's good about dinghy cruising and camping.

Fenomenal, so inspirational! I wish I could do it 😀

Excellent video Sir I am new to your RU-vid channel I'm familiar with ROGER BARNES in France and I came across your channel and I'm enjoying it very much I've subscribed and look forward to seeing more videos I'm in the process of buying a Canadian built Vandestadt and Mcgruer Siren 17 daysailer thank you for the information on the return to port marker color scheme very interesting.

Life at its best 👌💯

Thank YOU, Paul, from "all us viewers from overseas." I've sent you a video and some snaps of my wee folding Seahopper...

Going from strength to strength! 😁

great

👍👍👍

Hi Paul, What we used to do on Tallships is spank the mizzen. This helps a lot to help turn you on the other tack. So just before you want to tack pull in on your mizzen all the way which will make you point up them tack as you want to. Consider the mizzen as a extension of your rudder.

nice.🤩

yes, a great collection of boats; i'm quite jealous.

Watching from the Philippines 💖💖🤗 Someday when I afford to buy sailing boat, I will travel to the whole Philippines 😁😀

Really neat collection of small sailing craft. Your collection makes my 11-1/2 foot SJ(Sailing Jon) appear very rough & primitive. I have an aluminum JON boat so I made it into a sailing Jon. I fabricated twin outboard 3 foot long kick up dagger boards & kick up rudder from 1/2 inch plywood coated with epoxy resin. The mast & boom are made from 1-1/2 inch Sch 40 pvc as is the mast step. I fabricated the main sail & 120 jib from blue poly tarp, the forestay & 2 aft athwart stays are 1/8 inch galv wire rope. When I erect the mast & attach the boards & rudder I get many comments & sometimes some derisive jabs. My contraption sails very good to windward & really well downwind but needs help to come about. I once blew out the pvc mast step racing a 16 foot Hobie Cat downwind because I had the mainsheet pulled in too taut. Regardless of appearance I have fun with the SJ.

Another great video of a great trip. I will try to get around to sending you a picture of my boat since I haven’t made any of your raids yet. Maybe one day…

I wish Iw as there with my sailboat. I built mine my self as well. I also did the sail and almost everything all DIY. My current boat is a rebuild from the first boat "splashed a mold/boat off the original" so my current boat is a modified "D4 DINGHY" with a very modified bow.looks amazing all fiberglass. And I have multi masts and sail systems, I have a 16' mat with a marcony/jib, I have a different sails for tha mast, I also have a 10' mast for a lanteen setup. and again all of my sails but one are hand made.

We have a strong tradition of dinghy cruising in Europe, specially in England and Brittany... And we sail on open seas, Atlantic, Iroise, irish sea and the Channel... So please,...

watched a second time, to digest it better. gr8 boats! really like your mini-yacht, and that paradox. 🤩🤩 as for mine, i've got what used to be a just about 50 year old venture-17. will send you pix. (well, i've got video, too, on mine and a couple other channels.) got it for as cheap as i could, from near youngstown, ohio. it was a mess...total rebuild, gutted down to bare hull. (it is so modified, it is not really a venture-17 anymore, aside from the beefed-up hull) it has a sunfish main. frankensteined out of spare parts and salvage from about 7 or 8 other boats! the mast is what used to be the boom, (filled with foam, and with another aluminum mast riveted inside it) and it is cutter-rigged using a friend's discarded jib off his o'day mariner, to make the headsails, which are on a bowsprit. works ok. it is kept at my uncle's dock on guilford lake, with his son's family's pontoon boat. here in ohio, usa, they don't let you sleep aboard your boat at night, on any state-owned water (which most of it is. the authoritarianism is out of hand. i hear it is 80 quid per person fine if they catch you. 250 quid and jail if you are caught without fishing license.) so you couldn't really do stuff like that here. so we just fart around on our boats during the day. which is where i was, yesterday...😉

I've sailed dinghy to 50 ft. This size sailboat is way underrated. Easily trailer-able. One man can step the mast. Store it the driveway or backyard. Change the launch location. Explore different locales.

I spotted one of those Paradox on Gumtree in Perth quite cheap too.

Hi Mate, I built a j6 jar at years ago, sold it to buy a 27 foot Norwegian motor sailor. Worst thing I have done. Trailor sailing is the way to go

The Paradox looks really deep in the water, I wonder if she'd be a little better off with a bit less ballast? Love the clips, also gets me out working on my boat ready for summer.

Nice video guys. Greetings from west Michigan, USA. But in all honesty, I'm thinking up moving up beyond my dinghy and getting into something a bit bigger. However, this video gives me hope that staying with a dinghy class would be a decent fall-back position.

What a great video Paul - captivating and I did not want it to end! The music just added to it. At 66 and 56 years sailing and building boats (I used to build West wight Potters in the 80's) I've been up and down the length of boat spectrum and now happily sailing a Drascombe Drifter. Quite a rare Drascombe in some respects. Centre ballast keel with ballasted bilge keels and yes it does sail upwind and quite nicely too. Loving the big cockpit, the stability and choice of three sails, none of which are too much stronger than me. Is it my forever boat? Probably go down the Paradox route when I'm really old. (no offence to Paradox sailors - it just seems a sensible choice when bones are a bit creaky, and falling overboard is a major drama - not that I have ever done so). Minimalist sailing can make one smug I've decided. The deeper the draft the more you miss out. I think there is a culinary equation too, based on the number of burners used to cook a meal versus the satisfaction you get from it! You are lucky to have such big lakes too Paul. There is something about lakes I've decided - yes they can be treacherous if not respected, but most times the further you sail on a lake you get to another place, at sea the further you sail (out to sea) so often the wilder it gets. Both conditions and view. I've a few cousins in Sydney, probably time I visited! ...

Ich finde dies wunderschön, ich wäre gerne dabeigewesen. Gutes Fahren, viel Freude, Grüße aus Britz.

Never been in a sailboat before. I hear the ocean calling.

Enjoy your videos, hope my sailing dinghy is on the water soon, My favourite omelet capsicum, onion, Mushroom.

Ah, good, decent coffee :)

I very much enjoyed this video. The boats are all great, but the one that is most interesting is the Paradox. I've watched a number of videos on these boats. I like the chine runners as an alternative to keels or centreboards. I have a fascination with these small, watertight cruisers. Sven Yrwind (Bliss, Exlex, etc.) worked with the designer of the Paradox when he was in the 'States. His current project is very interesting - check it out on RU-vid. Also, Yann Quinett from France has just completed a world circumnavigation in his plywood and fibreglass, 14-foot-long (!), Baluchon - A truly epic achievement. But we're getting away from dinghies here. I built an Iain Ougtred boat, the Seahorse Skiff (15'x5') with sprit sail and sail it here in South Australia. I'm not convinced with the sprit - it's often a pain. To accommodate my family, I bought a 1975 Sunmaid 20 - a lovely little cruiser, and very seaworthy, currently stripped bare in my driveway for remedial work and modifications. I noticed one on one of your earlier trips. I will send a couple of pics if I remember, and hope to take the Sunmaid to NSW next year. Thanks again for sharing.

Thanks to RU-vid suggestion! Ive been to Sydney a few times but didn’t know about this lake at all! Sydney…do you know off the semi scale cruise ship about 20-30 feet long in Sydney. Oriana like and I found a photo of him cruising in rough looking Sydney harbour regatta poking out at the rear, sailing boat on his left…back in the 1980s I think…Ive searched for the photo etc but cant find it now…subscribed btw…. Thanks Laurie Tokoria NZ.

looks a really nice area. Here in the UK we are used to tales of Auz with 20 foot tall spiders that battles Godzilla lol :)

Hi Paul Time for you to shake out the sails and give us another sailing video. Paul in Canada

I love your footage, and hope to join you on your adventures sometime soon. Why do you fly the number 8 flag?

I’m really enjoying your content. I subscribed and just sent you three email photos of my boats.

Mon the Hoops!

That paradox should have a foundation under it. Paul in Canada. Credit to the chap who built the sailing canoe. However the outriggers are quite silly looking . He has the skills to build a proper set. Paul in Canada

Thanks for this video Paul. Good job as usual. 👍👍 I have a question btw, does anyone ever bring a fishing rod along? It’s something I would like to do once I’m on the water with my (future) dinghy. 😉

"Left port floats upstream." Partly drunk bottle of red port wine dropped in the river floats the wrong way.

Enjoy sail camping on my Precision 15 on local mountain reservoir Lake Jocassee in SouthCarolina. I don't have aux. pwr. and the breeze can die suddenly so Im thinking of rigging for oars (lightweight breakdown sculling type) We don't have poisonous Puffer Fish, though!😂

ah Paul. You can sail on Lake Burley Griffin. Around 50 years ago I did. On a VJ with my brother and we won.

Good tunes, video should have come with a spliff alert. That Paradox looked well overweight, i dont normally see them dragging a transom like that.

Couple of things - a seacaptain-in-training once told that Finland has somehing like 95% of world’s floating markers, and if you happen to view a chart of our archipelago you might even beeieve that… I can do better than a photo - I’ve been videoing my sailings and other stuff of my Gartside ’Terror’ boat. A link to a sailing video is ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LXU5JIKKD8w.html. I intend to do more videos but as you can probably see I’m still learning how to do them so we’ll see.