The OGA is heading towards Cowes for the ‘Greatest Gathering of Gaffers’ starting on Thursday 15 August, 2013. In this update we bring news from the OGA50 Round Britain Challenge boats as they’re joined by more and more OGA members converging on Cowes. The map illustrates just how many vessels joined the festivities in Cowes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the OGA. Joining the OGA50 Round Britain Challenge skippers, 225 boats were registered and as they gathered in the marina made a colourful sight ‘dressed overall’ as the Red Funnel ferries passed hourly into East Cowes.
‘Alice’ is at Lymington ‘Peregrine’, ‘Furstin’, ‘Step back in time’, Golant Gaffer from Grimsby, ‘Papa Stour’, trailered from Suffolk, one of several smacks boats, ‘Moon River’, 23′ single-handed circumnavigator and ‘Cine Mara’, Dutch replca Galway Hooker, built in steel, are already on the Isle of Wight. ‘Bonita’, the oldest vessel in the Round Britain fleet and fellow circumnavigator ‘Witch’ are joined in Portsmouth by East Coast boats ‘Transcur’ and ‘Rely’ with Dutch boats ‘Gwylan’, ‘Theodosia’ and ‘Ragamuffin’ while Solent boat ‘Barbarossa’ and circumnavigator ‘Syene’ moor in Itchenor with Dutch Round Britain Challenge boats ‘Raven’, ‘Morgaine’ and ‘Vlieter’ joined by more Dutch members ‘Orm’, ‘Blackwater’, ‘Brandaen’ and the Belgian boat ‘Drum of Drake’. ‘Emanuel’, from Ramsgate, joints Dutch circumnavigator ‘Windbreker’ and Solent member, ‘Jacinta’ at Bognor Regis while ‘Victoria’ the small, but fast gaffer built for the Colne River Police awaits favourable winds, all alone at Littlehampton.
‘Capraia’, Welsh circumnavigator, has sailed from Ipswich to Brighton and a group of East Coast boats are enjoying the sunshine in Eastbourne: ‘Plum of Mylor’, ‘Robinetta’, ‘Charm’, ‘Bonify’, ‘Kestrel’, ‘Great Days’, ‘Hussar’, ‘Avola’ and ‘Cum Annexis’. There’s a few boats still on passage down the East Coast, including ‘Black Rose’, in Ramsgate and ‘Cygnet of London’ in her home port, Faversham, with ‘Greensleeves’, ‘Minstrel’, ‘Leonora 3’, ‘Bright Morning’ and ‘Peggy’ still north of the Thames Estuary. Three boats have taken the opportunity to cross the Channel and we hear ‘Toucando’ has found a helpful French engineer to fix her mechanical problems. ‘Annabel J’ is enjoying the Paimpol Festival while ‘High Barbaree’ enjoys passage down the French coast. Finally, we hear from counter-circumnavigator, ‘Snoopy’ in the Channel Islands for Alderney week, plans to cross the Channel to Cowes after the firework display.
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