There is now only one branch of the international Old Gaffers Association in all Ireland. But though it draws in its membership from every county, it continues to be known as the DBOGA, for it seems that the Dublin Bay title is branding to die for. Yet despite this place-specific naming, the President is Adrian Spence, who lives in County Down and sails his clipper-bowed ketch El Paradiso out of Ringhaddy on Strangford Lough. And the former Honorary Secretary is Darryl Hughes, who is based in Crosshaven on Cork Harbour, the home port for his classic 1937 Tyrrell gaff ketch Maybird.
As for Sean Walsh, previously Dun Laoghaire-based and formerly President of the entire international Old Gaffers Association, his Heard 28 gaff-rigged cutter Tir na nOg is now Kinsale-based, as is he. So with a spread like this, we shouldn’t be surprised that the annual Springtime Assembly is a moveable feast, with Kenmare getting the treatment in 2022, while Belfast was the place to be in 2023.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
But for 2024’s DBOGA Kinsale Gathering this past weekend with locals Sean Walsh and Eugene Tubridy providing the essential local knowledge for Darryl Hughes, perhaps it was a good thing that they had got themselves well south, down to the Irish Riviera where there was some chance of manageable weather in this harsh Spring. For Kinsale proved a real winner, as it brought the opportunity to go sailing on the 56ft restored Conor O’Brien trading gaff ketch Ilen of 1926 vintage, thanks to the goodwill of skipper Aodh O’Duinn and James Lyons of Sailing Into Wellness, who now run the ship.
Ilen with her DBOGA crew grabs the sunshine to head seaward from Kinsale on Saturday. Photo: DBOGA
Fortunately, although the numbers made up in quality what they lacked in quantity - with 32 dedicated OGA members coming from near and far - it fitted well with the fact that Ilen is only licensed to carry 12 “passengers”. But as they had her for Friday March 22nd and Saturday March 23rd, they were able on the Friday to include a special group of five guests from Crosshaven RNLI, when steady conditions prevailed for good if cold sailing, while on Saturday reefing skills had to be demonstrated as they had “four seasons in a day”, with the occasional very heavy shower interspersed with strong March sunshine and decidedly brisk winds.
TAKING SAIL-SETTING SERIOUSLY
Thus the Saturday venture saw a wellnigh perfect reef put in the big mainsail. But although the crew on both days included a wide range of gaff rig experience, the standing lug which Conor O Brien designed all those years ago for the mizzen is a strange creature for many. Yet when set right, it looks so good that you wonder why its isn’t more widely used, and Friday’s display with the Crosser RNLI input provided a sail with perfect luff tension, something somehow missed on the Saturday.
Set properly, the correctly-trimmed standing lug mizzen on Ilen is a joy to behold, as seen here last Friday…….
…..but though Saturday’s stronger breeze provided the opportunity to put a perfect reef in the mainsail, the set of the mizzen is definitely Work in Progress. Photo: DBOGA
Ashore meanwhile, the Trident Hotel with its alongside berthing and the always hospitable in-house Wharf Tavern provided the ideal Forward Command HQ, from which those not sailing at the time could be dispatched on guided expeditions touring Old Kinsale or undertaking usefully hunger and thirst-inducing walks to Charlesfort and then the Bulman Inn at Summercove.
THE NAVY WAS KINSALE-BASED WHEN WATER CLUB WAS FOUNDED IN CORK HARBOUR
One of the mistakes outsiders make in trying to downgrade the significance of the 1720 origins of the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork is through disrespecting it by saying it was no more than the locals allowing their recreation afloat to be style-dictated by the presence of the Naval Base on Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour.
The “miniature” port of Kinsale was the preferred naval base during the 1700s until the increasing size of warships necessitated a move to Cork Harbour between 1806 and 1820.
But a proper guided tour of Kinsale will make it clear that until 1806, Kinsale was the full-on main Royal Navy port on the south coast of Ireland.It was only in 1806 that larger ships required the naval move to a base on Haulbowline to begin. And as the change wasn’t completed until 1820, the Water Club and its descendant organisations had been in existence for one hundred years before there was any regular naval influence by proximity on the organization that became the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 1825.
The final departure of the warships from Kinsale in 1820 left behind an picturesque old navy town which slumbered until the beginning of its revival as a fashionable sailing resort in the mid-1900s
KINSALE: THE PERFECT LITTLE 1700s NAVAL TOWN
Meanwhile, Kinsale was left to slumber, a wellnigh perfect little naval town of the 1700s. And as so much of it remains with useful modern additions, it provided exactly the right atmosphere for the dedicated DBOGA group to include RNLI fund-raising projects throughout their weekend, such that as events drew to a close, President Adrian “Stu” Spence was able to present local RNLI officer Kevin Gould with a cheque for €600.
Done and dusted. Kevin Gould (left) of Kinsale RNLI receives the DBOGA cheque from President Adrian “Stu” Spence of Ringhaddy in Stramgford Lough. Photo: DBOGA
Such a totally complete specialist weekend leaves its own problem for the future – where can the DBOGA go in 2025? Well, with Aongus O Cualain and his team from Connemara coming to Dublin early last summer and winning the DBOGA’s race for the Asgard Trophy with his restored gleotoig Blat na hOige, it must be time for the Association to face up to a proper gathering in a place where the gaff rig is still regarded as the only real rig. Connemara and the Aran Islands surely beckon for 2025.
The Call from the West – Connemara’s impressive Blat na hOige winning the DBOGA Asgard Trophy in Dublin Bay last summer. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien
