The Old Gaffers Association: Formed in 1963 to promote Gaff Rig

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Medway Cinque Ports Area

This area has been formed by merging the Old Medway & N Kent & Cinque Ports area to produce an area well endowed with heritage towns and ports;  Faversham and the Medway Towns, Rye and Dover and twixt both old areas, and on our margins lies Sandwich.

We both also have long coastlines with concentrations of Gaffer activity at particular hotspot ports. 

MNK’s is centred on Faversham and the nearby creeks as well as the various moorings and docks in the Medway.  Outside of this concentration the remaining coastline between London and Sandwich is pretty bereft of traditional craft, St Katherines with it’s barges excepted.

Cinque Ports similarly enjoys such a situation but with fewer Gaffers spread additionally over the newer marinas of Brighton and Eastbourne.  This on a coastline that, starting at Sandwich, stretches to include Littlehampton nearly round the corner of Selsey Bill into the Solent Area territory.

Being so spread out it is thus not so easy for   Cinque Ports members to come together. Indeed we sometimes find it difficult assembling a reasonable fleet with the very active East Coast Area starting a mere 15 to 20 miles away. 

It is with this in mind that we would like to encourage Cinque Ports members to be aware of and perhaps take part in our events, if not by sea then maybe by land. 

Many of us would welcome fellow gaffers aboard for a sail, and we would certainly welcome them at the bar - can I buy you a drink…? 

For the more sensitive among us that’s the politically correct version of ‘mine’s a pint’.

The area's newsletter "Kent Gaffing" is distributed to members on a regular basis.

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