Started in 2008 and launched in 2010, we sailed ‘Cachalette’ on Carsington Water and took her to Suffolk for the summer, towed behind the Bongo.

Launching ‘Cachalot’ in 2017 meant we needed to think about alternatives for ‘Cachalette’ as well. The 400-mile round trip wasn’t ideal and there was a major overhead for winter maintenance getting her back into the garden and out again! Between 2010 and 2018 we took her to a few local OGA events, but mostly kept her on the River Deben.

Whilst in Woodbridge, she sat in the pontoon berth with ‘Cachalot’ or ashore on her trolley. Launching and recovery at the Tidemill Yacht Harbour wasn’t ideal since we had to sail her into the bank at high water and drag her up onto the hard.

We started to think about other options for storing, towing and using ‘Cachalette’, particularly once ‘Cachalot’ was launched and we no longer had the large tent and space ashore at the Tidemill Yacht Harbour. In 2019 we sold the Bongo and no longer had a towbar for trailing.