#Lecture - "How Stands Our Island Nation" is a dissertation by marine journalist and commentator Tom McSweeney of Seascapes fame which is to be held next Tuesday 21 January.

The lecture starting at 8pm is the opening talk of the 2014 winter season organized by the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association (DBOGA). The venue is the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Ringsend, Dublin.

So come early and bring along a friend to the lecture which is open to all to attend. Entry of €5 is in aid of the RNLI.

A windless day played havoc for the Howth 17s fleet which battled to complete a course but they managed to complete two good races, the first race of their kind in Dublin writes Gillian Mills.

It is said that time and tide waits for no man, and neither can a working port whose lifting bridge determined when these classic craft and others in the Dublin Port Riverfest/OGA 50 had to exit to clear water.

#oga – In testing conditions on Dublin Bay, one of its own took line honours in yesterday's inaugural Leinster Trophy race on Dublin Bay. The 36ft yawl Ainmara built by John Kearney in Ringsend in 1912 and campaigned by Dickie Gomes of Strangford Lough took the race over a round Dublin Bay course of eight miles.

Upwards of ten boats participated in the first race of the Old Gaffers Association's 50th anniversary this bank holiday weekend, hosted by the Poolbeg Yacht Club, part of a necklace of events in the Round Britain Challenge to mark the association's 50th anniversary.

The 36ft–yawl Ainmara, immaculately restored by Gomes, marked her return to Dublin bay waters last Friday when she sailed back to the National Yacht Club, her first return in 90 years. Gomes with crew Brian Law and Afloat's W M Nixon were welcomed by another Kearney design, the Dublin Bay Mermaid at the harbour mouth and escorted to her East Pier berth, for an evening of celebration at the club house where Kearney was a former flag officer. 

For more on the legacy of John Kearney read WM Nixon's blog and for more of the Old Gaffers click here.

#oga50 – The continuing harsh weather has made it rugged going for vintage boats and veteran owners as they get themselves together for this year's Old Gaffers Association 50th Anniversary cruise, which started on April 21st in a brief spell of gentler Springlike conditions from Maldon in Essex, birthplace of the OGA in 1963.

The format of the cruise is a voyage round Great Britain, with some boats going all the way while others join and leave as they please. There's a diversion in a fortnight's time in the Irish Sea westward to Dublin Bay for the Bank Holiday weekend at the start of June, and this will see the OGA50's first assembly of classic and traditional boats in significant numbers. With the programme continuing throughout the summer, numbers will continue to build until it concludes with a mighty Golden Jubilee regatta in Cowes in mid-August.

The Old Gaffer enthusiasts are nothing if not individualists, with boats to match, so getting them to move in the same direction, and at the same time, is about as easy as herding cats. As for speeds, they vary enormously, so it is it all being done within broad parameters, with reliance on good will and the camaraderie of the sea to keep together a fleet of mind-boggling diversity.

The April starters from the heartlands of the association in places like Maldon and Pin Mill and other East Anglian ports were soon joined by a strong contingent from the Netherlands, and gradually they've made their way south and west with the first proper gathering taking place in Southampton Water on May 4th and 5th.

Sailing their home waters of the Thames Estuary takes it own special skills, but it's only natural that those who are more accustomed to working their way among sheltered mudbanks tend to see the coastlines down towards Land's End and the Atlantic as a particularly challenging area. Unfortunately, the seaways and the weather Down West have done nothing to diminish this, with Maytime snow falling in Devon, and winds of Force 10 seeing the boats holed up in every port from the Solent down to Penzance.

Thames sailing barges at Pin Mill in East Anglia, a world away from the rugged Atlantic waters of Land's End. The founders of the Old Gaffers Association in 1963 kept their boats at snug ports like this, but their Golden Jubilee Cruise is taking on the challenge of sailing on waters of all kinds. Photo: W M Nixon

But with the handsome 55ft Annabelle J (Philip Cogdell) setting the pace as befits a 1995 take on the classic Bristol Channel Pilot cutter concept, this weekend the leaders have reached Milford Haven to link up with boats from South Wales and the Bristol Channel area. The festivities will be mighty, but with the challenge of Land's End astern, the distances are now modest, and it becomes a sort of royal procession, as in a week's time they'll be making the scene in Holyhead. And after that, it's only 55 miles across Channel to join the growing throng in Dublin Bay.

The 55ft Annabel J steps out at the initial sailpast in Southampton a fortnight ago. She has been setting the pace in the gale-dogged progression down to Land's End and north to Milford Haven. Photo: Keith Allso

Every finger a marlin spike.......a pair of hard chaws convince themselves that summer has arrived aboard Aeolus in the Southampton sailpast Photo: Keith Allso

Obviously such a relaxed programme anticipates that different crews will have their own variations on the basic themes, and already one of the Dutch participants, Rik Janssen's 46ft Cine Mara, has kept to the northwest after Land's End, and is heading for Cork. But that was always on the cards, as Cine Mara is a steel-built Galway Hooker, and if she doesn't actually get to Galway Bay, at least some Galwegians might come a-visiting if she can get to Cork before heading for Dublin Bay.

The 46ft Cine Mara (Rik Janssen) is a steel-built Galway Hooker

Built by the Dublin co-operative which owns and sails her, the Galway Hooker Naomh Cronan is a regular participant in Old Gaffer events. Photo: W M Nixon

By the time Dublin Bay is reached, there'll be enough gaffers of all kinds taking part to satisfy even the most fastidious enthusiasts, and entries include the senior of them all, Adrian "Stu" Spence's much-travelled 43ft former Bristol Channel pilot cutter Madcap from Strangford Lough, built in Cardiff in 1875. There's even a 64 footer coming direct from the west from the Midlands, down the Shannon from Athlone, then through the Grand Canal to the Liffey. This is Rachel Leech's 64ft Dutch tjalk Ebenhaezer, normally an adornment of Lough Ree, but the Poolbeg party was too good to miss.

Joining her from about as far east as it is possible to get in England is another cutter of special interest, the 1898-built Witch (Alastair Randall). With her home port on the lovely Walton Backwaters, Witch is a long way from her birthplace, as she was designed and built by Dickie's of Tarbert on Loch Fyne to be the sailing ferryboat for the Scottish island of Gigha, a role which she fulfilled for 20 year before being converted to a cruising yacht in 1918.

The 31ft cutter Witch was built in 1898 to be the ferry boat for the Scottish island of Gigha.

Even as Witch was under construction in Tarbert, across the North Channel in Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough the first five boats of the Howth 17 class were being built by John Hilditch to the designs of Herbert Boyd. All five boats are still sailing 115 years later, they have thirteen newer sister-ships also surviving, and around a dozen of the class will be taking part in the OGA 50th events in Dublin Bay.

The programme is busy, to say the least. The main event on Saturday June 1st is a race for the cruisers for the RMS Leinster Trophy, which has been presented by the postal workers union to commemorate the hundreds who were lost on RMS Leinster when she was sunk by two torpedoes from a German U Boat in 1918 five miles east of the Kish, remembering in particular the 21 postal workers who died in the mail-sorting room when the ship went down in minutes.

The race course will start from Dun Laoghaire, and will follow at least part of the Leinster's route on that fateful day, before returning to Dublin Bay and a finish at Poolbeg. By that time the Howth 17s should be there, as they start from Howth at 0900hrs on the Saturday morning to get into Dublin Bay before the tide starts to run north.

On Sunday, the entire fleet goes up the Liffey through the East Link and is based along the quays, while the Seventeens stage a historic in-city race between the bridges. Then it's back to Poolbeg that evening, and on Monday things wind down in gentler style with a 1300 hrs start for an all-comers race in Dublin Bay for the Asgard Trophy, specially made by marine conservator John Kearon from spare materials saved from Erskine Childers' Asgard when he was in charge of the preservation process.

It's an appropriate way to conclude the Dublin Bay events, as many of the boats taking part are miracles of loving preservation projects. It's a matter of wonder, for instance, that the Howth 17s are not only still going, but they're still going strong. It's not as if they're handled gently when they're sailed. On the contrary, after 115 years, they're still raced flat out. Maybe there's a lesson for us all in this.

It's the way they sail them....The 1898-built Howth 17 Aura (Ian Malcolm) enjoying a bit of extreme sport in wind-over-tide conditions in Howth Sound. Photo: Jaimie Blandford

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#Currachs&Tallships – Three events are scheduled to take by place in Dublin Bay over the June Bank Holiday, writes Jehan Ashmore

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Coliemore Harbour in Dalkey is where a pair of racing currachs for the Begnet's Boat Project are to be launched on Saturday (1 June) and rowed if not raced! across the sound to Dalkey Island.

The currachs are to be constructed locally with the support of the community which is to foster and strengthen creative, spiritual and maritime links between the town (the former medieval port for Dublin) and Dalkey Island.

In addition the community are invited to take part in accompanying projects, one in which includes a 'St. Begnet's Cookbook' which features seafaring recipes by Elaine Flood which are to be put to good use in feeding the boat-building team during the month-long currach construction.

Currently there is a fundraiser campaign with a reward scheme, noting a countdown of only three days remain before closing date. To learn more about this project and to help in funding, click HERE.

The Old Gaffers Association (OGA) which as previously reported on Afloat.ie are to celebrate their Golden Jubilee, where also on Saturday (1 June) larger craft are to participate for the RMS Leinster Trophy from Dun Laoghaire Harbour and surrounding islands and buoys to Poolbeg Y & BC Ringsend.

On Sunday (2 June), the Howth 17's are also to join in the action on the Liffey with a 'race between the bridges' having set off from Poolbeg, where most of the Dublin OGA branch members are based.

On the following Monday, (3 June) is the race for the new OGA Asgard Trophy. The trophy is made from a variety of spare timbers saved by John Kearon, conservator of Erskine Childers' Asgard.

All being well, the gathering of the OGA's one design class of classically gaff-rigged boats should present a glorious sight in Dublin Bay, with fellow Old gaffers fleets joining in from the Isle of Man, Scotland and England as part of the Golden Jubilee's clockwise cruise circuit of the UK.

The third event is the arrival of six tallships from Belfast which are to descend in the capital port on Friday (31 May). They will remain in port over the four-day long inaugural Dublin Port River Festival, an initiative of Sail Training Ireland.

This can only add to a sea of masts, albeit not like last year's Tall Ships Festival, yet however is still something to look forward... during those early days of June.

#oldgaffers – There's a painful irony in the Old Gaffers Association choosing Dublin Bay as one of the focal points for their season-long Golden Jubilee celebration this summer. In 1963, the OGA came into being "to preserve interest in, and encourage development of Gaff Rig, and to participate in the maintenance of our Maritime Heritage". But that same year, the owners of the seven Dublin Bay 21ft One Designs persuaded veteran yacht designer John B Kearney to convert their beautiful Alfred Mylne-designed 1903 gaff cutters to Bermudan rig.

Today's sailors may wonder why old salts get so emotional about the Dublin Bay 21s. The past is a different and distant country, a long way away, and the heyday of the Dublin Bay 21s was aeons ago. But please believe that in their prime, the Dublin Bay 21s were just about the most perfect, the most beautiful, the most gallant small gaff cutters ever created. With their spectacular jackyard tops'ls, they were demanding creatures. They were thoroughbreds, a joy to sail, and the providers of tremendous sport.

The crème de la crème. In their prime, the Dublin Bay 21s were the most beautiful small gaff cutters in the world

Yet in 1963, with sailing being taken over by plastic boats and modern rigs, the DBSC 21ft owners felt they'd no choice if they were to attract newcomers as crews and owners. And for some decades, the boats with their masthead Bermudan rigs continued as a viable class. Today, however, the seven mouldering hulls are entombed in a Wicklow farmyard. And when the Old Gaffers Association make a four day visit to Dublin from May 31st to June 3rd, tangible reminders of the glory days of gaff rig racing in Dublin Bay will actually come from outside the bay, with the Howth 17s racing round the Baily to join the festivities which will be focused on Poolbeg Y & BC in the mouth of the River Liffey, where most of the members of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association are based.

Thriving survivors of a golden age of gaff rig racing. The Howth 17s Aura (1898) and Pauline (1900) in the annual race round Lambay. The race round the North Dublin island was first sailed in 1904. Photo: John Deane

Despite its seemingly uncompromising name, the Old Gaffers Association is a rather amorphous body. Doubtless there was a time when an Orwellian attitude of "four sides good, three sides bad" prevailed with regard to the shape of your mainsail. But there are now so many vintage boats which were Bermudan rigged at birth that they are also happily involved and accepted.

It seems you only have to think that your boat is either traditional or a classic, and you're in. So with my reasonably mature Bermuda-rigged little American glassfibre sloop, I too have joined the Picklefork Club. The what? The Picklefork Club. It's simple, really. The symbol of the old gaffers on their burgee is the profile of gaff jaws, which you'd think is unmistakable. But while cruising in the English Channel some years ago with old gaffers all about and flying the flag, my determinedly ignorant shipmates decided this could only represent something called the Picklefork Club. So for the remainder of the cruise (which involved going to St Malo to see a boat built by James Kelly of Portrush in 1897, but that's a story for another time) it became the Picklefork Club, and has remained so ever since.

Yet although the Old Gaffers have been around for 50 years, and the Howth 17s for 115, they've never officially got together, so the Poolbeg assembly will be a breaking of new ground. It promises to be a fascinating gathering, as the theme of the Golden Jubilee is a rolling clockwise circuit cruise of Great Britain, with boats joining and leaving as they wish, its route veering sufficiently west to take in Dublin Bay and Belfast Lough.

Some boats will go the whole way, on through the Caledonian Canal and down the east coast of Scotland and England. It is expected this voyaging group will include boats from the strong Dutch and French memberships, which will bring craft like a giant Galway hooker built in steel from the Netherlands. As local boats from all corners of the Irish Sea are also expected, it will be one very eclectic fleet, and then some. Variety being of the essence for this main fleet, the arrival of a one design class of classically gaff-rigged boats of unimpeachable vintage will enliven things on the Saturday afternoon (June 1st) as the Seventeens race in from Howth.

A love of old boats and a sense of community is the cement that holds the Seventeens together, but it is the bracing effect of racing which energises the class. Since May 4th 1898, the weekly Saturday afternoon race at Howth has been the backbone of the class's busy annual programme. It's almost set in stone, but fortunately there were enough like-minded people in Howth who thought the OGA Golden Jubilee was a Good Thing, Worthy of Support, in order to float the idea.

So not only are the Seventeens going to race to Poolbeg (and on a Bank Holiday Saturday too), but for good measure on the Sunday they'll be racing between the bridges on the Liffey. As for the bigger boats in the main fleet who wish to race, on the Saturday there's a race for the RMS Leinster Trophy (named for the mailboat torpedoed in 1918) from Dun Laoghaire round the available islands and buoys to Poolbeg, and then on the Sunday they race in Dublin Bay for the new Asgard trophy, made up from spare timber saved by John Kearon, conservator of Erskine Childers' Asgard.

In all, it's a user-friendly programme which shouldn't be too demanding for even the oldest Old Gaffer. And as it's all about shared enthusiasm, we can be sure that the hard core of devotees will enjoy themselves whatever the weather. But for the rest of us, let's hope the jetstream is sufficiently distant to ensure that the first weekend of June 2013 bring glorious summer to Dublin Bay.

ANOTHER GONG FOR BEN

Today's choreographed awards ceremonies, with the buildup of what is often pseudo tension as the short list is recited, are something many of us would happily avoid in any capacity. So it was a breath of fresh air earlier this week when news of the annual YJA Pantaenius Yachtsman of the Year awards across the water came in, complete with photos of the trophy going to Ben Ainslie.

Recently made Sir Ben, he's a busy boy. In post-Olympic mode, he's up to his tonsils with an America's Cup campaign, and was booked to be on his way back to San Francisco when the trophy was due to be formally handed over in London.

But Ben is based in Lymington, as too is YJA Chairman Bob Fisher, while Lady Pippa Blake, who was to perform the ceremonial in London, lives further east along the Solent at Emsworth. So what could be easier than they all get together of a January morning at the Royal Lymington, and get the photos of the handover just before Ben takes off for the US of A.

An awards ceremony for our times – Bob Fisher, Pippa Blake and Ben Ainslie in Lymington with the YJA Pantaenius Yachtsman of the Year 2012 trophy. Photo: PPL

Awards ceremonies should always be like this – dontcha just love the Fish's matching shirt and pullover in a class of pale lilac? Nevertheless, we appreciate that some folk might think this is all just a little bit too casual, so we'd better give it a Court Circular makeover:

Lymington, Monday

Sir Benjamin Ainslie, Keeper of the Four Gold Medals, was this morning received by Lord Fish of Brittlesea in the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, with Lady Pippa Blake in attendance. After the usual exchange of pleasantries about the weather and the minor problems encountered in the Southampton traffic when journeying from West Sussex, Lady Blake then presented Sir Benjamin with the YJA Pantaenius Yachtsman of the Year Trophy for 2012, which Sir Benjamin was pleased to accept.

Following some discussion as to whether the photographs would be better taken in the clubhouse or on the balcony, both settings were used. Lady Blake was then thanked by Lord Fish of Brittlesea, and conferred with the title of Designated Driver, as the catering facilities in the Royal Lymington Yacht Club were closed, it being Winter Hours.

Lady Blake then conveyed the party to the Chequers public house for a bar luncheon, where they savoured the vegetarian option, the battered cod with hand cut chips, and the succulent beefburger. Sir Benjamin enjoyed his last pint of Badger Beer for some time as they don't have stuff like this in Frisco, and then went home to complete his packing and leave for America.

SAILING'S SKI LIFT

Even in a mighty maxi, windward work in the open sea in a real breeze is rugged going. On one such occasion, as we wondered at the bashing the big boat was taking while reflecting that even with it, the speed was still nothing great, a veteran of many big boat races on the rail beside me gave the received and terse opinion:

"Nothing goes to windward like a 747".

All too often, the joy of a downwind skite is diminished by the thought of having to slug back up again. Why can't sailing have the equivalent of a ski lift? Well, if you sail out of Cape Town, it does.

The bi-annual Governor's Cup race over Christmas and January from the Cape's historic navy port of Simon's Town to St Helena is 1,700 miles of fast sleighride in the barreling southeasterly trade winds. Despite being up against 19 other boats, some of them seriously big ones, the winner was the relatively small sloop Reaction. Owned by Thinus Grinwald, she's one of those slippy little van der Stadt designed Royal Cape ODs, boats with a distant relationship to Black Soo, another van de Stadt offwind flyer which was long based in Ireland.

Governor's Cup winner Reaction is lifted aboard the Royal Mail vessel at St Helena for the return to Cape Town

Black Soo was phenomenal offwind in a big breeze, but she was very tough going to windward in a blow. Doubtless it's the same with Reaction. But they didn't have to test it, as they'd booked to have her shipped back with seven of the other smaller boats from St Helena to Cape Town on the Royal Mail vessel which serves that very remote South Atlantic island.

On this sailing ski lift, it took them five very pleasant days to get back to the Cape, and even with all the partying on St Helena, there was more conviviality on the ski-lift cruise home. With just four on board, Reaction had gone to St Helena in 11 days and 23 hours. It boggles the mind to think how long they'd have taken to sail back.

Any more for the Skylark? Eight boats secured themselves a sailing ski-lift uphill against the southeast trades, 1700 miles back home from St Helena to Cape Town

Please note that this inaugural talk of the season is on a Wednesday night which is a change from the normally scheduled Tuesday night, mostly starting at 8pm. Those wishing to attend may wish to arrive a bit earlier so to avail of the PYBC's clubhouse facilities, which overlooks its marina in the centre of Dublin Port, opposite Alexandra Basin.

The venue is located on the South Bank, Pigeon House Road, Ringsend which can be accessed from the Sean Moore Road that connects the Merrion Strand Road (from the south) and the East-Link Toll Bridge (from the north). For further information on the DBOGA lectures and more click HERE. In addition information about the PYBC Tel: (01) 668 9983 or logon to www.poolbegmarina.ie/