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Dublin Bay Old Gaffers
The late Johnny Wedick, a leading figure in Poolbeg Y&BC, and the Old Gaffers Association
We regret to record the death of Johnny Wedick, a stalwart of the Dubin Bay Old Gaffers Association (DBOGA) since its foundation. He held the offices of President DBOGA, and Honorary Secretary, serving on the committee for many years. He…
Peadar Curran has Dalkey Island as a lifelong interest. He tells all with the DBOGA in Poolbeg Y&BC this Thursday night
Size for size, Dalkey, aka Deilginis, must be the most story-covered island in all of Ireland. The ancient Irish monks were here. The Vikings were here. Thanks to Napoleon and Cape Mortella, it has its own MartelloTower. A dinghy cruise-in-company…
Maritime Historian and diver Dr Eddie Bourke's shipwreck lecture will include a great many rare and interesting photographs and charts
Maritime Historian and diver Dr Eddie Bourke will be discussing shipwrecks around the coast of Ireland in the first of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers 2023 winter lecture series this month. The Liffeyside illustrated talk in aid of the RNLI will…
The Manx Nobby Vervine Blossom was restored by the late Mick Hunt, and is skippered by him here as she races from Vigo to Dublin with the Tall Ships in 1998

Mick Hunt (1940-2023)

26th September 2023 Howth YC
He brought new life afloat and ashore. And there was and is so much in the story of the late Mick Hunt “of Howth and Connacht” that thousands of words could be written about him. Yet we can get a…
He came, he saw, he conquered. Aongus Ó Cualáin with the Asgard Trophy in Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club in Dublin Port last Saturday night
Those of us who have found it challenging enough to get a sailing dinghy with a purpose-designed road trailer into a road-ready and race-ready condition was in awe this week of the achievements of Aongus Ó Cualáin of Connemara and his…
Aongus Ó Cualáin's Gleoiteog-Mor Blát na hÓige at the Poolbeg lighthouse on her way to overall victory in the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association Diamond Jubilee celebration Asgard Race on the River Liffey
It was well worth the significant logistical effort of skipper Aongus Ó Cualáin to transport his Galway Hooker Blát na hÓige from Connemara to Dublin's River Liffey by road last week as the 1896-built traditional vessel won first prize in Saturday's…
Little and large - A Ballyholme Insect Class dinghy (left) and Klevia from Anglesey in North Wales. Built in Esbjerg, Denmark, in 1936 for fishing the North Sea, the traditional gaff ketch was racing on Dublin Bay to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association
The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association Diamond Anniversary sail down the River Liffey and out into Dublin Bay was completed in fine style on Saturday lunchtime (May 27th), thanks to some gentle easterly winds and warm sunshine. The 60th anniversary weekend…
The Manx Nobby White Heather is the latest addition to the Irish Old Gaffer fleet, having recently been brought by Gary Lyons to Strangford Lough from Peel in the Isle of Man. To add interest to her sailing, every time you tack White Heather the rig obliges you to dip the main and mizzen yards so that they are always on the lee side of their masts
This weekend sees ancient gaff-rigged and other craft of multiple vintages gathering at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Ringsend in the heart of Dublin Port, within sight of some of the most modern ships afloat. It’s the 60th Anniversary…
Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club marina on Dublin’s River Liffey
The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association have updated the programme of events for their 60th anniversary weekend at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Dublin Port later this month. Booking in commences Friday 26 May at 4pm ahead of the…
Utterly timeless. The Howth 17s – which are celebrating their 125th birthday in 2023 with special races and a Regatta Week in late June in Baltimore – are here bringing the atmosphere of times past to the little harbour at Lambay, complete with a lineup of salty Fingal longshoremen on the quayside
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…
Irish Coast Guard personnel with an SAR helicopter in the sky overhead
The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association will host an illustrated lecture next week by Joe Ryan reflecting on the coastguard in Ireland over the last 200 years. Joe spent 12 years at sea as a radio officer responsible for the…
River Liffey All in a Row organiser Dave Kelly with the IUSRU at the prizegiving at the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club
The All In A Row Liffey Challenge was held in early December on the capital’s River Liffey with the challenge for the rowers to smash a 1,000km target in eight hours. Fifty skiffs, kayaks, canoes, dragon boats and currachs were…
Cruising Club of America Blue Water Medallist Paddy Barry
Cruising Club of America Blue Water Medallist Paddy Barry and Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association President Adrian Spence have taken on the Arctic cruising challenge in a variety of craft over the years. But in 2022, they combined forces to…
Outgoing Secretary Darryl Hughes, maritime historian Cormac Lowth and President Adrian Spence at Saturday's AGM of the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association in the Poolbeg Y&BC in Dublin Port
The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association is now the central organisation for the OGA in Ireland, following the absorption of the Northern Ireland branch, which supplied the re-elected President, Adrian "Stu" Spence. His home port is in Ringhaddy Sound in…
the marine artist Richard Brydges Beechey, who lived and worked in Dublin for many years
Nobody knows how maritime researcher and historian Cormac Lowth does it all. But while most of us are still absorbing his recently-launched encyclopaedic book about the once hugely active Ringsend sailing trawler fleet, he has been re-focusing on another of…
The Ringsend sailing trawler 'Irene'
“Broken hoops on the shore; at the land a maze of dark cunning nets; farther away chalk scrawled backdoors and on the higher beach a drying line with two crucified shirts. Ringsend: wigwams of brown steersman and master mariners. Human…

Dublin Bay Old Gaffers

The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association aims to promotes interest in traditional gaff rig and seamanship, to offer help, advice and comradeship to members and to organise races and rallies for members in the Dublin Bay Area. 

The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers normally organise a regatta, two rallies and four races during the summer season and a varied, interesting and well-supported series of talks during the winter (proceeds raised are donated to the RNLI). 

Many Dublin Bay members also travel to regattas and rallies organised by other Irish Sea OGA areas. 

While the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers activities are focused on  Dublin Bay, they also have a cluster of members in the Cork area and have members from all over Ireland and some in Britain too.

The Association is working up lans to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2023.  In 2013 a fleet of boats set off around the UK and Ireland to celebrate OGA50.