The recent 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association was a successful exchange of proposals and decision-making among enthusiasts who share a delight in classic and traditional craft which set rigs of the most ancient style.
This makes it something of an irony that such people often turn out to be folk who are right on top in the IT department. Thus – like other organisations - the proceedings of the DBOGA have for some time now been conducted through Zoom and other sessions of similar type. But within the Dublin Gaffers, those who might find themselves confused very quickly discover that they can tap into the advice and assistance of some of the hottest technological brains in town.
Except that often they're not in town, for inevitably this expertise in technology, in turn, means that actually being in or near Dublin is no longer a primary requirement, as everyone operates on the WFH approach. So when we talk of the DBOGA spreading their wings, what it really means is that the new lineup of officers and committee in some instances has only a very tenuous link to the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, which in pre-COVID days was thought of by most of us as being the heart and soul of the DBOGA.
And come to that, although all of those involved have at some time had a very close relationship with gaff rig and wooden boats and ships, some of those on this list have moved on to newer construction materials in craft where four-sided mainsails are conspicuous by their absence.
Adrian Spence's Vagabond 47 ketch at Poolbeg. Normally the boat is based in Strangford Lough, but he is a current member of the DBOGA Management Committee as his previous boat was the 1873-built gaff-rigged Pilot Cutter Madcap, with which he voyaged to Greenland and Spain. Photo: W M. Nixon
Adrian Spence's 1873-vintage Pilot Cutter Madcap off Greenland in 1998. Photo: Frank Sadlier
Be that as it may, we're dealing with an association of like-minded souls who are never happier than when they're communicating with each other, whether electronically or in person. And in retaining Johnny Wedick of Poolbeg as President, they've maintained their sense of location even if these days he's seen afloat on a Moody Carbineer, a 44ft deck saloon cruiser of a certain vintage which certainly exudes character, yet she manages to do so without a gaff rig.
DBOGA Committee Member Sean Walsh has become Kinsale-based, home port for his Heard 28 Tir na nOg. Photo: Dave Owens
Dennis Aylmer's Mona in Dun Laoghaire
His fellow officers reflect how the DBOGA has become - like the Shaw's department stores of yesteryear - "almost nationwide", as Honorary Secretary Darryl Hughes has now made his Irish homeport in Crosshaven. And though Honorary Treasurer Jimmy Murphy is Dublin-based, the Managing Committee of Adrian Spence, Dave Neilly, Michael Weed, Sean Walsh, Negley Groom, Dennis Aylmer, Paul Keogh, Gerry Keane, John Elston, Mark Sweetnam, Joe Foley and Cormac Lowth can include counties Down, Donegal, Wicklow, Wexford and Cork among their home places, even if the majority are in the Greater Dublin area.
This means that a fleet assembly of genuinely gaff-rigged boats registered with the DBOGA would present quite a logistical challenge with – to take a few examples – Darryl Hughes' 1937-built Tyrrell ketch based in Crosshaven, Sean Walsh's Heard 28 Tir na nOg in Kinsale, Dennis Aylmer's Mona in Dun Laoghaire, and Michael Weed's new Bray Droleen in Bunbeg in Gweedore in Donegal.
DBOGA Committee Member Michael Weed's Bray Droleen nearing completion. Photo: Michael Weed
The new Droleen – seen here sailing off the coast of Dorset – is now based in Gweedore in Donegal
And of course, the mention of a new gaff-rigged boat to an ancient One-Design class design such as the Droleen is a reminder that boats with rigs involving gaff booms are in fact thriving in numbers throughout Ireland, it's just that where their primary purpose is the provision of racing, people think of them as racers first and gaffers second.
Thus if we were to add the Shannon ODs, the Howth 17s, the Dublin Bay Water Wags, the Cork Harbour ODs, the Castlehaven Ettes, the Ballyholme Waverleys, and the Lough Erne Fairies to the grand total of Irish gaffers, we'd be looking at a sizeable fleet of gaff-rigged boats of impeccable vintage and ancestry.
Idyllic summer evening racing for the Fairy Class on Lough Erne. Though a perfectly-setting gunter rig may look Bermudan to the casual eye, these 1906 boats are in fact old gaffers.
And that is before we even presume to consider the wonder and the numbers of the Galway Hookers and the Achill Yawls in Connacht, and the traditional sailing fishing craft of West Cork. That's sacred territory, and while the various clubs and organisations involved with the Galway Hookers - with the revered GHA in its central role – will look on the OGA in a friendly way, the fact is that they're so dynamically involved with their own boat type that it's their own associations which are their organisational focal point. So in the final analysis, the Old Gaffers Association is seen as being for those boats which otherwise have no natural homes to go to - which is all part of its charm.
In a league of their own. Galway Hooker racing in Connemara, where these traditional craft thrive with an active regatta programme. Photo: Richard Kennedy
