Every weekend a flotilla of keen sailors leaves the villages and towns of
the Cotswolds and heads for the sea.

Down the A34, along the M40, through
narrow country lanes hundreds of keen Cotswold boat owners flock to the coast.

This spring migration may not be as impressive as that of the cuckoo returning
from Africa but it is as predictable.

However, there is one curious fact.
Although hundreds of keen Cotswolds sailors embark on this weekly trip few know
each other.

‘Most weekends my wife Sandra and I drive down to our boat on the
Hamble and on the road we see lots of other keen boaters clearly heading for
the coast.

‘They obviously live nearby yet we don’t know them.

‘It’s almost as if
there’s a secret navy here in the Cotswolds.’ says Keith Westcott head of the
newly formed Motorboat Section of the Chipping Norton Yacht Club (CNYC).

‘All these
local people with boats at the coast have lots in common yet here in rural
England they are anonymous.

‘I am keen to contact them so that this secret
Cotswold Navy can meet up in Chipping Norton for a drink, a meal and a chat
when not afloat.’

Mr Westcott would like to hear from anyone
who lives in the Cotswolds and has a motorboat at the coast.

He can be
contacted through the CNYC at www.cnyc.co.uk. The club also welcomes
sailboat owner.

(Picture: Keith and Sandra
Westcott searching for the Cotswolds’ Secret Navy on a bridge over the M40)