Wednesday, September 4, 2019 to Wednesday, September 30, 2020

This page would normally show all of the 2020 sailing events in the Solent areas, that include gaffers. We usually update this page as additional events are announced and dates are fixed. This would include our own rallies as plans are developed. Sadly, due to the pandemic, most if not all of them have been cancelled. However, we thought we would still list them here to give you  a flavour of the kinds of events that normally take place. Hopefully next year will see them coming back again.

All of these events include dedicated gaffer classes for racing. This provides the opportunity for us to take the racing as seriously, or not, as we choose. Experience is not essential. The race officers know that we don’t want to spend all day beating to windward. We usually have a small, friendly, fleet of gaffers, while benefiting from the interest and support of bigger events. For example in the Round The Island race you can enjoy being part of the spectacle of 1200 boats racing, while racing a handful of similar sized gaffers. The Taittinger provides a similar opportunity, with the bonus of free champagne!  These are great sailing and social occasions. We are fortunate to have dedicated starts at them, but will lose those starts if we don’t use them. 

Please put the dates in your diary and support our gaffer community wherever you can. You don’t need to be an experienced racer and the rules are probably simpler than you think. There are plenty of other dates for quiet evenings at Newtown and Beaulieu.