Riporto il racconto delle origini di un club inglese: DCA - Dinghy Cruising Association.
Un bella storia dei primi anni cinquanta del '900 di un gruppo di armatori di piccole derive che non trovavano nessun club nel quale inserirsi e condividere la passione per la crociera con le piccole imbarcazioni.
In particolare si racconta di un tale, di nome Eric Coleman, che sbatte contro le difficoltà organizzative, i tentativi inutili, le lettere alla rivista Yachting Monthly, poi i contatti con altri armatori (gente che si prende la briga di spedire una lettera affrancata, mica una e-mail!) i quali lo spingono a non abbandonare...
...e ancora i raduni andati male...
Anni di attesa prima di veder realizzato il sogno comune.
Dal 1955 in poi l'associazione è cresciuta e oggi conta un nutrito numero di associati con la sua brava rivista, che parla dei raduni e delle attività sociali.
Della lettura, che qui riporto integralmente (all'interno del gradevole e coerente contesto comunicativo del sito:
http://dinghycruising.org.uk/), mi è piaciuto il racconto dell'attesa, dello scorrere degli anni prima che il sogno di Coleman e degli altri suoi compagni si realizzasse; e poi il successo, finora duraturo, fondato sulla condivisione di pochi fondamentali elementi comuni (
http://dinghycruising.org.uk/pages/aims).
"Bisogna tener duro!", questo è il messaggio che mi piace leggere tra le righe. E ciò vale sia per l'organizzazione di un evento ludico, quale può essere un rally a vela con piccole derive, come pure per la vita di tutti i giorni,
Nell'apertura della Home page si legge:
Dinghy cruising means different things to different people…
the Dinghy Cruising Association welcomes them all…
più o meno:
Navigare con una deriva significa cose diverse per persone diverse ...
La Dinghy Cruising Association dà il benvenuto ad ognuna ...
"Breakfast by David Summerville
In the early 1950s a number of dinghy sailors were actively cruising off the South Coast of England but could not find a sailing club to suit them as they did not wish to confine themselves to racing.
One wrote a letter to Yachting Monthly in December 1952 complaining of this, signing off as ‘Clubless’. Eric Coleman, later to become President of the DCA until 1964, replied as ‘Lonehand’ to say that he liked the idea of an organization through which he could meet other enthusiasts, sail with them and exchange ideas on technical and safety matters.
About a dozen people declared an interest and Eric invited them to a succession of four rallies. No one attended any of them, so he gave up the whole idea.
In January 1955 Michael Lawes of Lymington picked up a two year-old copy of Yachting Monthly in a doctor’s surgery while he was waiting to be inoculated before going abroad: he was planning to sail his dinghy to Malta! He read Eric’s letter, contacted him and urged him not to give up. Eric wrote again to Yachting Monthly in March 1955 and got a better response.
Although the DCA had been imagined as a South Coast club – one suggestion for the name had been the Chichester Cruising Club – there was a lot of interest on the East Coast too and a certain Miss Joan Bentley, later to become Mrs Joan Abrams, proved to be more than capable of organizing a section there. So the DCA, with its thriving regional branches, was born. The inaugural meeting of the South Coast section took place on May 30th 1955 and that of the East Coast section on July 24th.
The first rally was based on the Folly Inn, Medina River, Isle of Wight, on August 31st. The membership had risen to 75 and the subscription had been set at 2s/6d – two shillings and sixpence.
Over 55 years later the aims of the Dinghy Cruising Association have changed little from those laid down in that meeting of May 30th 1955:
To provide a channel for the exchange of information on all aspects of dinghy cruising and to enable enthusiasts to contact each other.
By holding rallies, to enable enthusiasts to meet each other.
To assist novices to take up dinghy cruising."
