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 at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club in Dublin Port brought together an eclectic mix of gaff riggers from across the Irish Sea, from vintage dinghies to Cornish Crabbers to a 52-foot Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, a Manx half-decker a 1936 gaff ketch and a Galway Hooker from Connemara.
(From left) Sean Walsh's Tir na Nog of Howth (and Kinsale), a Francois Vivier designed Stir Ven 19 called Wren (centre) and 52-foot Letty, a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter sailing together on Dublin Bay in celebration of the Old Gaffers Diamond Jubilee Photo: Afloat
As previously reported by our WM Nixon, the diamond jubilee gathering for the Old Gaffers was fully booked for some time. It features a more compact programme without the usual Leinster Trophy, which will get its own standalone in August. Afloat.ie has more on this story HERE.
Master Frank rounds DBSC Seapoint buoy during the Old Gaffers Diamond Juiblee celebrations on Dublin Bay and the River Liffey. Although not built as a Morecambe Bay Prawner, the Manx half decker Master Frank has many attributes from the traditional Nobby design. This classic boat is very special and a good friend of the Nobbies. With a 38ft overall length, 24ft 6in on the deck and a draft of 5ft 3in she is based at Ramsey (IOM). Master Frank fished for many years in the Irish Sea from Whitehaven as 64WA before returning to the island and being registered as RY95 (Ramsey) Photo: Afloat
After breakfast (8.45am) on Sunday morning, 28 May, there will be a currach demonstration and lifejacket testing with the RNLI (10am-12pm). Skippers will get a briefing at noon or the parade of sail, which heads upriver along the Liffey from 1.30 pm via three lifted bridges.
The closing ceremony back at the club (with bar food available) is scheduled for 6pm.
Read also: Port of Dublin Sees Traditional Sail and Modern Sea Transport In Harmony
(Above and below) The 52-foot Letty on Dublin Bay at the Old Gaffers Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Letty was built as a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. The builder was E Rowles of Pill, Bristol and she was built in 1905. She is of timber carvel construction, with larch on oak frames. The vessel was recorded as being transferred from Grimsby to Dublin in 1934 and being converted to a fishing vessel named ROAMING. She was found in Arklow in the mid-1970s and has since been fully restored and is on the UK's National Historic Ships register Photo: Afloat
The Klevia has been restored and is traditionally rigged as a gaff ketch. She hails Ffrom Anglesey in North Wales, and was built in Esbjerg, Denmark, in 1936 for fishing the North Sea Photo: Afloat
(Above and below) There were a variety of smaller tan-sailed gaffers including Drascombes and Cornish Crabbers participating in Saturday's light air racing from the River Liffey out into Dublin Bay for the Old Gaffers Associations Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club Photo: Afloat
A Francois Vivier designed Stir Ven 19 called Wren sailed by Graham Files from Wexford Photo: Afloat
(Above and below) The Galway Hooker Bláth na hÓige—was built on Leitir Mealláin (Lettermullan island) off the Connemara coast in the nineteenth-century
