The Results of the 2025 OGA Photographic Competition
The winners of the 2025 competition are below and many thanks to Charles Erb who was the judge and presented his chosen photographs at the January 2026 AGM in Harwich. Charles said "A Great pleasure to be asked to judge this competition and greatly enjoyed viewing the range of images entered, which reflect the varied gaffer sailing of 2025. I referred carefully to category descriptions - judging is subjective, but I picked images that said something to me. I was looking for something that captures our shared passion."
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The winners with images V4 | [docx 537KB] |
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First Category "Life at Sea - The People"
Charles Erb said "There were fewer entries than the other category and many of the pictures made me wish I’d been at those events! It was very hard to choose winners and there were several images that although I did not place them, were worthy of special mention:"
Highly Commended: "Magic A-round" by Rik Janssen, member of the Dublin Bay Area & lives in the Netherlands
Judge Charles Erb said "Atmospheric shot that captures the amazing weather when heavy summer rain passes through. The perfect rainbow and its reflection are well captured"
Highly commended:- "Nee aboard Sender " by Brian Duff from Maryland, USA
Charles Erb said "You can feel the excitement, with the spray and the pose of the crew in this image of a boat obviously well powered up."
Highly commeded "Home is where the heart is" by Martin Braint. Solent Area
Charles Erb said "This image with its atmospheric lighting perfectly conjures up the feeling at the end of a day’s sailing on a small boat"
Highly commended. "Champagne Sailing" by Gerard Brown, East Coast Area
Charles Erb said "Lovely light well captured. A small boat, a breeze and a broad reach. What more could one want!"
First Place in the "Life at Sea" category
"After Lunch rest!" by Alasdair Mackenzie, East Coast Area
Competition judge Charles Erb said "I kept coming back to this image of a small boat being gently pushed onto the mud of the Alde. This selfie is so well captured: the pleasure is clear on the faces of both crew, two blokes perfectly relaxed on the river; the position of the horizon; the contrast between blue sky and river waters; the details of the kit on the boat. This image conveys a sense of adventure and exploration."
Second Place in the "Life at Sea" category
Raising the Trysail by Mary Gibbs, North Wales Area.
Charles Erb said "The expression on the crewman’s face says it all and the photographer has done really well to capture the moment (and had the grace to check that the subject was happy to have this image entered into the competition!). His posture gives a great sense of the effort he’s putting in to his job."
Third Place in the "Life at Sea" caregory
"Plotting a fix" by Paul Hardy, South West Area
Charles Erb said "It’s never too early to involve young crew in the passage! I really liked this family shot and it captured the adventure of sailing out of a river (in this case, the Yealm). The position of the subjects revealing the shore is particularly pleasing"
Second Category "The Boats"
Chatrles Erb said "There were more than 50 entries - far more than Life At Sea. A number of entries seemed more about the people, but I looked for images where the boat was the star of the show. Once again hard to choose winners and I had to keep returning to the images over several days. There are only three prizes but several other images deserve special mention"
Highly Commended "Old Gaffers Weekend" by Chris Rushton, North West Area
Charles Erb sad "This image, taken on the Broads captures this unique style of boat under full sail with a blue sky and a windmill."
Highly Commended "Smotoring on Sender" by Brian Duff from Maryland, USA
Charles Erb said "This image captures the magic moment with dolphins at bow. The light is beautiful, the boat cutting through the water. I hope photographer didn’t take too much of a risk climbing on sprit!"
Highly Commended: "Gaffling Gaffle" by Chris Stanger, North West Area
Charles Erb said "I’m very fond of these dinghies - in fact, I quite fancy building one (don’t tell my wife!). This carefully arranged row of boats off their trolleys, proudly lined up in the dinghy park was very appealing."
First place in "The Boats" category
"Keep the Night" by Loic Le Marchand from Bretagne, France
Charles Erb said "This is a really well executed shot, capturing the stars coming out in the “blue hour” after sunset. There were several night images entered, which I enjoyed seeing, but what set this apart was the combination of starry sky, the last of the sunset and glow of the nav lights on the rigging. At first I thought this was a boat arriving in harbour at the end of the day, but it's a departure from the French port of Paimpol. The contrast between the sky and the shadows on the deck captures for me the anticipation of a night passage. Magnifique!"
Second Place in "The Boats" category
"Glacier anchorage" by Claudia Myatt, East Coast Area
Charles Erb said "This is obviously a tough boat, which has travelled far. The backdrop for this photo is fantastic and the composition is excellent, showcasing its gaff rigging. The low light reveals the details on those hard working, but obviously well cared-for sails and rigging."
Third Place in "The Boats" category
"Unloading seaweed" by Edgar Wagemakers, East Coast Area
Charles Erb said "Most of the boats we sail are at least based on working boats of the past. This image captures a boat in the role for which it was designed. There are many details of the boat which draw eye - this shoal draught boat is drying out on the beach, ready for the seaweed to be unloaded and burned, the ash from those fires was historically important in local industry. The boat an important part of the economy and that practice still celebrated. What brings this photo to life is the interaction between the crew, creating the look of a documentary but this image could also be from centuries past."
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The Results of the 2024 OGA Photographic Competition
The OGA Photographic Competition is renowned for the quality of its entries and this year is no different. The winners of the 2024 competition are below and many thanks to Sandy Miller who was again the judge - as a fantastic photographer himself and one to concentrate on imagination and opportununities, we are grateful to him for taking the time to cast his eye over our entries. Well done to all those who took part and to those who managed to catch Sandys eye...
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OGA Photographic Competition 2024 | [pdf 724KB] |
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2023 Results - PDF Document
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OGA Photographic Competition 2023 | [pdf 2MB] |
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2022 Results - PDF Document
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2022 photographic Competition Results | [pdf 1MB] |
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2021 Results
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OGA Photo Competition 2021 | [pdf 1MB] |
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2020
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OGA Photo Competition 2020 | [pdf 2MB] |
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2019
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OGA Photography competition 2019 | [pdf 342KB] |
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2018
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photocomp2018 | [pdf 265KB] |
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2017
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photocomp2017 | [pdf 789KB] |
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2016
We're grateful to Adlard Coles Nautical who donated some beautiful books as prizes for the OGA Photography competition, 2016.
Winners were announced at the Association AGM, 14 January 2017.
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OGA Photography competition 2016 | [pdf 456KB] |
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2015
We're grateful to Adlard Coles Nautical and The Jardine Press who donated some beautiful books as prizes for the OGA Photography competition, 2015. Winners were announced at the Association AGM, 16 January 2016.
Browse the Photo Competition Gallery to see all the 2015 entries, with winners and runners up marked.
Mike Garlick, OGA Photo competition organiser, provided feedback from the judges. He thanked everyone for entering with a total of 60 entries, comparing well against only 46 submissions in 2014. We would still like to see more in 2016. It was encouraging to be able to present a prize in the Young photographer category. The age range for this category will be increased to under-25 in 2016.
In 2014, the OGA introduced an online submission form, upgraded for 2015, which proved to be very useful in streamlining both the entries and judging process. All submissions are now readily available for use in future on the website and in Gaffers Log.
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oga-photocomp-2015 | [pdf 3MB] |
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2014
We're grateful to Adlard Coles Nautical who donated some beautiful books as prizes for the OGA Photography competition, 2014. Winners were announced at the Association AGM, 17 January 2015.
Browse the Photo Competition Gallery to see all the 2014 entries, with winners and runners up marked. Watch the slideshows below to see shortlisted and winning photos only via YouTube.
Mike Garlick, OGA Photo competition organiser, provided feedback from the judges. He noted some disappointment in the reduced number of entries and, in particular, the lack of youth entries. There were only 46 submissions in 2014, compared with 109 in 2013. We hope the competition will attract more interest in 2015.
In 2014, the OGA introduced an online submission form which proved to be very useful in streamlining both the entries and judging process. All submissions are now readily available for use in future on the website and in Gaffers Log.
2013
The final ‘event’ of 2013, the OGA’s 50th anniversary year, was the annual photography competition.
There were plenty of opportunities for photography at the OGA events around the UK and the competition attracted a good range of entries: 56 in the ‘General sailing’ category and 51 in ‘Sailing gaffers’.
Entries from the Dutch outnumbered UK entries in both categories in 2013. With a major event in the Netherlands planned for their tenth anniversary next year, we hope to see even more entries from both sides of the North Sea as well as from gaffers in France and elsewhere for the OGA photography competition 2014.
After running the OGA photo competition for many years, Viv Head stood down in 2012. Taking the helm in 2013, Mike Garlick provided assembled gaffers at the AGM with an engaging presentation about how to produce even better photographs. He shared comments from the judges and gave some useful tips, before announcing the competition results.
Mike’s slideshows of the winning entries in each category and the ten additional photographs which reached the final shortlist are available to view here. A list of prizewinners and their photographs was published in the March 2014 edition of the Gaffers Log.