DCA vs OGA

[Graham W]

I've been looking at rejoining the Dinghy Cruising Association after a lengthy hiatus.  The DCA quarterly journal looks interesting and, in the absence of Covid, they hold a lot of well planned rallies around the UK.  The one thing that has stopped me is that my BR20 seems to be a lot larger (and probably faster) than most DCA members' boats.  I'm wondering if I would feel like a goose in amongst a load of ducks.  One of their recommendations is that the boat should be as long in feet as the skipper weighs in stones.  This would mean either downsizing to a BR17 (and that boat still being too big) or me going on a Big Mac and brandy butter diet.  Is anyone else on here a member and what have been their experiences?

The other one that I've looked at is the Old Gaffers Association, which has a small boat section.  It's quite difficult to get a flavour of this as the events section on the website is blank because of Covid.  The Gaffers Log publication is only available digitally up to 2017 and seems mostly concerned with significantly bigger boats.  Turaco is gunter-rigged, not gaff-rigged but can sport an impressive plank bowsprit when required.  Would I be a lone duck amongst a flock of geese?  Has anyone on here any experience of their events?

[Ged]

Hi Graham
I'm a member of the DCA but only to receive the journal and to access ideas and passage plans.

As far as I know their general MO is to announce a destination for the rally... often a pub with somewhere you can sleep on your boat close by. The participants then all make their own way there, from wherever they want to launch, spend the evening in the pub, sleep on their boats and sail away in the morning.

They don't generally sail as a fleet so you will not be out of place in your BR20.

I don't have any direct experience of the OGA but if I remember correctly they're not that fussed about whether you're actually a gaffer or not.

Cheers

[jonno]

One of their recommendations is that the boat should be as long in feet as the skipper weighs in stones.  This would mean either downsizing to a BR17 (and that boat still being too big) or me going on a Big Mac and brandy butter diet.  Is anyone else on here a member and what have been their experiences?

Hi Graham

I first read this recommendation in 'Open Boat Cruising' by John Glasspool years ago.  He warns that you risk being overpowered if you don't have a stone (of total crew) per foot of dinghy.  This might account for why I swam so much with my Laser (me 12 stone; Laser 14ft) or else it could just be incompetence.

Slightly more recently, when I first had my BR20, I sailed singlehanded on Ullswater (and behind a lot of Bayraiders) on a gusty day, unreefed - and felt very overpowered.

But don't we get around the DCA/Glasspool recommendation by having a water-ballasted boat?  With ballast in, the BR is effectively a keelboat so I reckon we can ignore …

John

[Matthew P]

Some years ago Gladys (BR20, Gunter rig, GRP hull) joined an OGA meeting at Ullswater.  When registering I was asked my handicap so I pointed to my bandaged thumb - apparently not the answer required.  We were later joined by my dinghy racing helm (not Mr Peers on this occasion) who explained he was unable to eat lunch because of pre-race nerves. Raymond and I ate his sandwiches for him.  Gladys won the first race by an embarrassingly large margin and also won the second race despite scraping past an island that inconveniently refused to move out of the way. That evening we enjoyed an excellent meal at The Traveler's Rest but to our helm’s considerable chagrin were strangely omitted from the declared race results. Raymond and I kept quiet while we had another pint. No one was rude to us but over-competitive helming an over-size GRP dinghy with a near vertical mast obviously did not fit the OGA ethos, so no bottle of wine or silver ware for Gladys.  We enjoyed a nice pint and pie in the pub and civil OGA company though. 
 
I have also had the privilege of crewing for a friend in a Ness boat on a DCA rally and we had a fine relaxed day out. I don’t think BR20s would be un-welcome, especially as they feature in the excellent Dinghy Cruising Handbook by DCA President, Mr Roger Barnes.

I have joined the DCA because they seem a merry bunch with diverse boats and interesting trips.  This year I self-built Hilda, a Northeast[er] with a balanced lug and hope to enjoy DCA and other meetings using Gladys on salty water and Hilda on fresh.

Reference skipper weight/boat length ratio; Hilda was 17ft long when built, consistent with my peak 17 stone, but I truncated the overhanging stern and Hilda is now 15’6” and my current weight is…..15 1/2 stone!

Matthew
Gladys: BR20, GRP
Hilda: Fyne Boats Northeast[er] Epoxy-ply

[Graham W]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

As someone who has turtled my BR20 once and nearly capsized several times while unballasted, I think that they have a point about the length/weight ratio.  However, now that I mostly cruise conservatively on the sea, ballasted and prepared to reef early, I agree with John that the rule of thumb may not be quite so relevant.  And I’m piling on the lockdown pounds as Matthew loses his.

I was already leaning towards the DCA and Ged’s description of their cheerful informality is heartening.  Matthew’s experience at Ullswater with the OGA was exactly the sort of experience I feared with the DCA.  I’m reassured that this is unlikely.  Their cruise destinations in my area and further afield are intriguing and something to look forward to next year. 

[Ged]

I've just spoken to a friend of mine that's a member of both, she has bought a new boat specifically to join in with the OGA she liked them that much.  Very friendly...
Maybe just don't upset them by whooping them at races.

She's only a member of the DCA for the magazine.

Why not join both and see which one you like the most, the DCA is only £30 a year so not much to loose.

[Graham W]

Thanks Ged.  I’ve joined the DCA and needn’t have worried about my BR20 being too big - there are at least a dozen other BayRaider members, some on this forum but many not.

[Graham W]

As a new member of the DCA, I'm enjoying the now quarterly DCA Journal, which Ged mentioned as a good reason for joining.  Once a member and for a mere £10, you can purchase a CD containing searchable articles from the Journal stretching all the way back to 1955, when it first started. So there's an article on the development of the first Drascombe Lugger; furious arguments on whether heavy or light cruising dinghies are safer (but no mention of BR's being either, as required); lots of ‘Dinghy Cruising Companion’ type hints on how to instal cockpit tents, helm impeders, solo anchoring systems and cooking apparatus, amongst other refinements; articles on capsizing, turtling and sometimes associated fatalities (and the quite varied medical reasons for them), with lessons learnt; and a great quantity of tales of derring-do.  Thoroughly recommended.

I’m still not sure whether a BR20 would fit in with other boats at DCA rallies.  Apart from the occasional Drascombe Coaster, most attendees seem to be 17’ or shorter.

[Julian Merson]

I've been in the DCA in the past and may well rejoin now commitments to the Drascombe Association have lessened. 
I attended an east coast DCA rally with my old Coaster, and have no doubts I'd have been welcomed with the BC20.  Another skipper was there with a small, but still quite un-dinghy-like, home-built trimaran as well as a couple of smaller boats.  I got the impression that anything goes.  I also liked the ethos which is pretty much, you attend, do your own thing, take your own risks and it's all your problem to sort yourself out.  Having organised many Drascombe events over the years, where there was considerable onus on the organiser to make arrangements for attendees, the DCA approach was refreshingly simple and highly enjoyable.
They like evening tides where they can dry out on a beach somewhere, probably walk to the nearest pub if you like, but no marina fees, etc.  Drascombers always seemed  to want to end up in an expensive marina whereas I just love being out at night with the elements.
The magazine is superb, as is the database.
 I have no doubts the BR20 would fit in at rallies.  But, if other DCA attendees are anything like me, there's no point worrying about racing.  I've never been in the slightest way interested.  Neither did I detect any such inclination with the DCA.  It's a cruising group.  How you quickly you get somewhere, relative to other boats, is of no interest whatsoever.  In which respect, the DCA and the DA were nicely aligned.

[Graham W]

I got the impression that anything goes.  I also liked the ethos which is pretty much, you attend, do your own thing, take your own risks and it's all your problem to sort yourself out.

Sounds like us.

How you quickly you get somewhere, relative to other boats, is of no interest whatsoever.

Sounds less like us!

[Graham W]

If you enjoy the DCA Journal and dinghy cruising articles/videos by Roger Barnes, you’ll probably enjoy this blog too http://navigatorjoel.blogspot.com/.

Written by the builder of a Welsford Navigator yawl, it has similar content, including how to self-build a roller furler and a tiller brake.  It also has suggestions on using the mizzen to self-steer without complicated strings, which I’m going to try next time I’m on the water.

One of the author’s enthusiasms is for a multi-purpose US workshop machine called the Shopsmith.  With the correct attachments it can be a bandsaw, lathe, beltsander, etc.  Has anyone used one?

[steve jones]

I was a member of the DCA, and am a member of the OGA, also am still a member of the Tideways TOA.

 The boats I sailed at the time, wooden BR17, Tideway12 and 24 ' MK1 Cornish Crabber , GP14, were all 'allowed'

I only used the BR17 or TIDEWAY  ON DCA trips,  more creek crawling than sea going, although the BR could venture in more coastal stuff. and I slept on both.
The only racing was in the Tideway ,pursuit race, where a handicap was necessary.
the rig of my BR was a gunter sprit. Tideway a gunter, Crabber a gaff cutter'
I found the DCA a great bunch of individuals  and very adventurous.
I now mostly sail in the Bristol Channel and West Wales in the Crabber and Falmouth work boat , Heard 28.
The OGA have a good programme for group sailing in the Bristol Channel area, and the small boat section have a number of events here.
 DCA rallies are UK and Europe
Trailer sailers suit the DCA more, but if you want to race join a club.
There is a BRE that races at the club, and he definitely has a handicap rating, my old BR17 also races here,  (Cardiff Bay Yacht Club)

Steve Jones ex BR17, STORM17
 

[Graham W]

It was interesting to compare the two stands at the RYA (virtual) Dinghy Show.  I’d say that the DCA is substantially better at marketing themselves than the OGA.

[MarkDarley]

Graham,

I am a member of both the DCA and OGA. They are quite different but also both worthwhile.
 
The OGA is more of social club and their events are generally for larger boats than ours but I have enjoyed the Helford River gathering and others with them. I am a member largely because I owned a Memory 19 gaffer before my Bayraider, but I think they forgive me for having made the conversion, though they are not too happy when I win OGA races by virtue of adjusting my ballast to the conditions! When I suggested they add displacement to their handicap measurement they responded:
"Do you really think we know what our boats displace...or want to know!"

The DCA is a group with smaller boats, many very adventurous, and with the emphasis on camping or sleeping on board. As you say, a great magazine and tremendous depth of experience cruising small dinghies.  I joined them on a meet on the Tamar two years ago in the early Spring but had yet to sort my sleeping platform, so I booked a room in an Airbnb which was frowned upon.  When I sauntered down to the dock to find them brewing the first morning coffee under their boom tents, I mused; "Did you notice the hard frost?"  The response was quick: "DID WE NOTICE???!"
Now that Pippin is better sorted for cruising I expect to meet up with them more often.