Ten years ago, when the Old Gaffers Association’s Dublin visit was a highlight of their Golden Jubilee Cruise-in-Company, it was a very crowded and festive series of events based around Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club in late May 2013 that included the inaugural staging of the race for the DBOGA’s Leinster Trophy. Pernickety observers may have taken sardonic pleasure in pointing out that the Leinster was won by a Bermuda-rigged boat. But as the victor was the 101-year-old Ringsend-built Ainmara owned by Dickie Gomes from Strangford Lough, it was a very popular result.
Racing hard for the inaugural staging of the DBOGA Leinster Trophy in Dublin Bay with (from left) Raven from the Netherlands, the 101 year old Ainmara from Strangford Lough which went on to win, and Cinne Mara, the Dutch-owned steel version of a Galway Hooker. Photo: Dave Owens
OLD GAFFERS DIAMOND JUBILEE AT POOLBEG IN DUBLIN PORT
This year, it’s the Old Gaffers Diamond Jubilee, and they’re returning to Poolbeg again, this time from 26th to 29th May, with the official section compressed into Saturday, 27th and Sunday, 28th May. The available places have already been fully-booked for some time, so the club is at capacity, and the only problem is going to be dealing with more casual visitors or those who operate on the system of “But surely you knew we were coming? We were here before”.
With the more compact 2023 programme, the Leinster Trophy is not featuring - it will be staged as a separate event in August. But the large and very varied fleet will have enough in their hands, as the OGA Cruises are rolling events in which boats come and go at various stages, and only part of the fleet will be going the whole way through the Caledonian Canal and back to the “Grand Concluding Meet” in the River Orwell in Suffolk on the 4th to 6th August.
Old Gaffers fleet in Poolbeg for their Golden Jubilee in 2013, with two of the Howth 17s coming in from their race from Howth. Photo: W M Nixon
One interesting aspect of it all is that the 2013 presence of sundry traditional gaff-rigged craft on Ireland’s East Coast has largely relocated westward. Practically all the Galway Hookers of every size, which used to be a familiar sight in Dublin Bay, are now to be found in Galway City or Kinvara or in the sacred territory of Connemara itself, as the very handy motorway to Galway makes for an enormous difference in going west.
THE SOUTHWEST CALLS
The southwest calls too - former OGA International President Sean Walsh of Dun Laoghaire is now based with his Heard 28 Tir na nOg in Kinsale, while one-time DBOGA mover and shaker Darryl Hughes has become very much Crosshaven-based with his classic 43ft 1937 Tyrrell ketch Maybird.
Sean Walsh’s Heard 28 Tir na nOg – seen here racing in the 2013 Leinster Trophy – has been re-located from Dublin Bay to Kinsale. Photo: Dave Owens
Thus around or about Dublin Bay, while there may be nearly a hundred boats which definitely qualify as gaffers, they don’t really come under the general Old Gaffer heading. For they’re the One-Designs of the Dun Laoghaire Water Wags, the Howth 17s, and the Dublin Bay 21s, and they live for racing, whereas the raison d’etre of a true Old Gaffer is simply to exist in historically authentic seagoing order.
There’s potential for a culture clash in this if they all try to get together in one place for one event. But another feature of the programme in 2023 is that there’s so much going on that highly individualistic boat types – and the even more highly individualistic people who sail them – can find an event which best suits them.
BALTIMORE WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL
Thus while Dublin is buzzing on May 27th & 28th, so too is Baltimore in West Cork, with the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival centred around the same weekend, and starting to get underway on the Thursday with additional cultural events. However, the highlight is expected to come on the Saturday, when world-girdler Conor O Brien’s restored 56ft ketch Ilen and the new re-build of his circumnavigating 42ft Saoirse – both products of Liam Hegarty’s famous boatyard on the River Ilen at Oldcourt – are expected to sail together officially for the first time. That is definitely a complete once-off which no-one who is interested in Conor O’Brien or West Cork or traditional vessels will want to miss.
The new-built Saoirse sails for the first time in Baltimore. Photo: Kevin O’Farrell
Baltimore is certainly flexing its muscles as a magic setting for traditional and classic sail, as the Howth 17s – celebrating their 125th Anniversary in 2023 – will be having a Regatta Week based on Baltimore from June 24th until July 1st, but meanwhile, their 125th season gets underway on Tuesday, May 4th with the 125th Special Race.
The restored Ilen off Steamboat Quay in Limerick. She will sail for the first time in company with her “smaller sister” Saoirse at Baltimore during the Wooden Boat Festival from May 27th-29th. Photo courtesy Ilen Project
HOWTH 17s’ 125TH IS VERY PRECISE
Why be so specific about a date? Well, back in 1898 when the first five newly-built boats famously sailed from boatbuilder John Hilditch at Carickfergus in Belfast Lough over the 90 open sea miles home to Howth in mid-April, it took a while to get themselves together and think seriously about a programme, so it was May 4th 1898 before the Howth 17s had their first proper race.
The Howth 17s may revel in their home waters, but they’re going to Baltimore for one of the big 125th parties. Photo: W M Nixon
The precision in dates is important. For although the similarly-sized and also 1898-built Royal Yorkshire One-Designs may have modernized themselves out of all recognition, whereas the Howth 17s are still as originally designed by Howth’s founding Commodore W H Boyd, the Yorkshire ODs didn’t have their first race until June 6th 1898, and that gap of one month and two days is all-important in assigning the ultimate seniority.
Thirty-three days in 125 years, and it matters enormously – now there’s dedication for you.
