Matt Newland's Tricks of the Light

Lightweight epoxy-ply construction and carbon spars combine with water ballast to create a new kind of trailer sailer. We sent trailer sailor Tony Langmead to Swallow Boats to sail the BayCruiser.

With photographs by Peter Chesworth

It was interesting to eavesdrop on the conversations at the Southampton Boat Show this year. Once I'd got my head out of the off-cuts bin at English Braids – always my first port of call – it became obvious that, as well as those who'd come to gawp at the Super Yachts, there was a nucleus of visitors who were actually looking to buy a boat. I soon found myself following the same bunch of people from stand to stand; evidently we were all interested in the same type of boat. We were the Small Boat Posse. No VIP Range Rovers would whisk us off to an executive lunch – we either did without or had a sandwich while perched on a trailer wheel – but everyone seemed quite happy and there were plenty of trailer sailers to look at this year.

În my opinion, a good trailer sailer is easily trailed, launched and recovered

– otherwise you won't be going anywhere

– sails well single-handed, has accommodation and facilities for extended cruising, looks good on the water and can comfortably ride out an Atlantic storm. I have to tell you that no such boat exists but in 2006, I came close to most of these criteria when Matt Newland of Swallow Boats in Cardigan came up with the Cardigan Bay Lugger… and the Four Sisters and I have been happily trundling around Europe ever since. Now, 3 years later, Matt has had another look at the concept of an easily trailed cabin boat – and I, posing as an expert in such craft, was going to have a test sail.

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