Otterly Optimistic
The only member’s yacht that sails from Budleigh itself. She is launched off the beach below the club’s ancestral seat, a beach made entirely of pebbles the size of a loaf, by a crew whose optimism is the second word of her name.
The Boat
- Class
- Drascombe Lugger
- Designer
- John Watkinson
- Builder
- Honnor Marine, Totnes
- Built
- 1979
- Length overall
- 5.72 m (18 ft 9 in)
- Rig
- Yawl, tan sails
- Sail number
- None. She has a name on the transom and her skipper’s word
- Engine
- A 1968 British Seagull, which starts on the third pull as a matter of principle
- Galley
- One kettle, gimballed by hand
Getting Afloat
Budleigh Salterton has a fine beach and no harbour, so every sail begins with a launch. The procedure needs two people, four wooden rollers, a borrowed tractor from a farmer who prefers not to be named, and on a good morning forty-seven minutes. The average sail that follows lasts forty.
Recovery up the shingle is quicker if a passing walker can be persuaded to push. The crew keep a flask of tea for the purpose and report a conversion rate of about one in three.
“The pebbles of Budleigh are famous. Several are aboard at any given time.”
Where She Goes
- East along the red cliffs to Ladram Bay, when feeling bold, to admire the sea stacks from a respectful distance.
- West towards Exmouth, until the skipper remembers the Exe bar.
- Into the mouth of the Otter at the top of the tide, where she has twice seen the river’s famous beavers and once, regrettably, been seen by them.
- Never further than the kettle can be kept hot.
Racing
She does not race. She was, however, once overtaken by the Exmouth lifeboat on exercise, and her skipper counts that as a moral victory, since the lifeboat had two engines and they had a Seagull.