Tag: 50th anniversary

OGA 50th anniversary round Britain trip group divides at the Caledonian Canal

Cine Mara and Bonify in Kames Bay. Pic Ben Collins Greensleeves, Witch and Capraia in Cuan Sound - Pic Ben Collins

Photos by Ben Collins of the OGA

The Old Gaffers Association folks are continuing their 50th anniversary circumnavigation, but has effectively divided in two, with over a dozen boats are in the West of Scotland enjoying the scenery and planning to enter the Caledonian Canal later this week, while a smaller fleet including the North Kent-based local favourite, the 100-year old Morecambe Bay prawner Bonita, a collection of Scottish OGA boats including Tantina II and Naiad, and the Dutch boat Windbreker, are heading round the top.

Bonita will go to Orkney whilst the rest hope to get to Shetland, before all joining up at the next big gathering in Newcastle on July 5th to 7th.

More details of the Newcastle event can be found on the oga50.org website on the OGA Area events pages.

The site has a map showing where all the boats are, and links to individual boat blogs.

An update on the OGA’s 50th anniversary round Britain trip

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Old Gaffers in action. I hope they won’t mind me saying that…

The latest bulletin from the Old Gaffers Round Britain Challenge 10 UK and seven Dutch boats under way are now scattered along the south coast with the largest boat, pilot cutter Annabel J, the furthest west.

Annabel J has an AIS transponder so she can be tracked via live ships tracking sites such as www.marinetraffic.com – the other boats can be followed via the various blogs via links on the OGA’s special website www.oga50.org, where a new link combines data on the position of the boats from all available sources.

Earlier the boats attended a party and a parade of sail in Southampton, and had to delay for gales at Plymouth.

The OGA’s new historical travelogue website is following the progress of the fleet and illustrating its progress with fascinating stories from old accounts and images of the areas they pass.

Also check out the OGA remarkable website telling stories of the sea and our coasts: www.sailing-by.org.uk. For example, here’s Daniel Defoe writing pretty scathingly about Kent’s biggest South Coast port: Dover: freight, mail and mackerel