Old Gaffer Race in Plymouth

A Gaffer is a gaff sailor or gaff-rigged boat. Old gaffer boats were saved after the Second World War when they were going cheap after advances introduced glass fibre hulls to replace wooden ones and better less complicated sails and rigs. By 1980 Old Gaffer Racing like this one in Plymouth Sound had also allowed the triangular Bermudan rigged sailing gaffers to compete. The gaff rig is four sided controlled at the top by a pole or gaff.

Old Gaffer Races provide an outlet for heritage boats of historic design to showcase wooden hulls, gaff rigs and traditional canvas sails of boats that would otherwise be consigned to the pages of history. There is an Old Gaffers Association (OGA) set up in 1963 whose burgee or flag carries a pitchfork and it runs the class distinctions for gaff rig sailing with a system of handicaps to compensate for the variety of boats racing. In 2013 on the OGA's Fiftieth Anniversary over 250 Old Gaffers from home and away assembled at Cowes off the Isle of Wight. Replica yachts have been custom built and many old gaffers restored for maritime heritage posterity. Plymouth Classics is held annually in the Sound.