East Coast Gaffers teamed up with the Waldringfield & Woodbridge Boatyards to organise an excellent May Day Bank Holiday weekend event on the River Deben.
On Friday afternoon East Coast Gaffers and members of the Wooden Boatbuilders’ Trade Association (WBTA) started to arrive at the Waldringfield Boatyard on the River Deben for the biennial OGA Deben Rally. This year, it incorporated the WBTA 3rd Wooden Boat Gathering. During the weekend there were almost 100 people with over 30 boats in attendance.
Bigger boats arrived by sea, crossing the Deben bar on Friday afternoon or just sailing from their local moorings on the river. Most of the smaller boats arrived on trailers. The two oldest boats were ‘Mist’, the Albert Strange yawl built 1907 and ‘Cappricio’, built 1912 on the Isle of Wight, designed by Morgan Giles. Two Deben Cherubs, built at Eversons (now Woodbridge Boatyard) were on the list ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Lindy Lou’. Newer boats included ‘Louisa’, a Cornish Crabbers Shrimper 19 from Ipswich, ‘East Breeze’, a Tamarisk 22 from Walton, ‘Penelope’ a Winklebrig, ‘Jezebel’ a Golant Gaffer, two Deben luggers ‘Happy Daze’ and ‘Deben Lugger’, three smacks boats ‘Switha’, ‘Seabird’ and ‘Joy’ (trailed here from Salisbury) and many more of varying sizes, rig and hull construction, including a clinker dinghy that was only built last year.
Saturday found this motley collection of beautiful boats catching the tide to sail from Waldringfield to Woodbridge for a day of shore-based activities including three WBG talks at The Longshed, Woodbridge. Setting the scene was fantastic local farmer and historian Patrick, who shared tales of digging up ancient history of the River Deben, going back long before the Saxons of Sutton Hoo fame. He showed us Neolithic fossils and stone tools, a Roman gold coin and coprolite. The banks of the Deben are renowned for finds of sharks teeth and dinosaur poo! Our next speaker was Loïc, custodian of another Everson’s boat, built 1933 and now kept in France, ‘Nyala’. The final talk was by Belinda from Women In Boat Building about the Wooden Boat Stage, Southampton Boat Show. Between talks, we were invited to tour the Sutton Hoo Ships Company’s exciting project to reconstruct the 7th century Sutton Hoo burial ship using the original archaeological evidence, traditional tools, and authentic materials. Lunchtime refreshment was a seemingly endless supply of fresh pizza crafted by The Woodyard.
The weather for Sunday and Monday was not as bad as had been forecast, allowing the assembled gaffers and friends to sail beautiful boats in beautiful conditions up and down our beautiful river. In between sailing there were barbecues at the Boatyard, meals at the Maybush Inn and on Sunday a serenade by the Orwellermen shanty group.
Thanks go to all the organisers, speakers and everyone else (including all the participants) who helped make this event run so smoothly. Hosting the event and providing safety boat support and barbecue facilities was the Waldringfield & Woodbridge Boatyards with Waldringfield Sailing Club kindly allowing use of their slip and Mark & Emma Barton offering camping for tents and vans in their boatyard. The Woodbridge Riverside Trust provided excellent conference facilities for Saturday with fascinating tours by members of the Sutton Hoo Ship Company. The Woodyard kept us happy with freshly baked pizzas for lunch on Saturday.
Several people were out on the water with cameras and a selection are included in this report. Visit Sandy Miller Photography for another gallery from the Rocks on Sunday.
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