Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

A popular event with many Association skippers and crews. 17 Little Ships are expected to attend.

The sailing programme for the Little Ships is as follows:

Friday 15th
There is an ADLS sail past at 16.00.

Sat 16th
10.55 Waterloo Band March from lower meadow to ADLS moorings
11.00 Veterans Parade in from the bridge to ADLS moorings
11.10 Band play the salute

15.20 ADLS sail past
15.40 BBMF, Spitfire & Hurricane

Sun17th
11.00 Veterans Parade with Cadet band to ADLS moorings

14.20 ADLS Sail Past
14.30 BBMF with Lancaster

As in the past several years the Veterans Cruise will take place over two days and be based out of Thames Motor Yacht Club.

Saturday 5th September sees the Little Ships departing TMYC close to Hampton Court at 1300 with Veterans from the Korean and Falklands campaigns along with War Widows and members of the Not Forgotten Association. The Little Ships will pass through the Barge Lock at Teddington around 1400 and head down stream to the Richmond barrier where they will turn to head back to TMYC.

Following the unavoidable cancellation of the event in 2012, we are hoping as many Members as possible will support the 35th Traditional Boat Rally. More details will be posted in due course on this site and at http://www.tradboatrally.com/ .

With the support once again of Thames Motor Yacht Club, the Royal Navy and Weybridge Mariners Club a weekend of events on the lower Thames will be held to honour the Veterans of past conflicts.
Saturday will see Veterans from the South Atlantic conflicts joining the Little Ships. Whilst on Sunday we will pay tribute to the Veterans from the Second World War.

The 2012 Commemorative Cruise will be held in London, in West India Dock to coincide with the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. The Pageant to be held at high water on the afternoon of Sunday 3 June 2012 and the event will see up to a thousand boats muster on the River Thames in preparation for Her Majesty The Queen to lead the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. The Pageant celebrates Her Majesty's sixty years of service by magnificently bringing the Thames to life.
Little Ships will assemble in Barnes reach prior to the event.

In excess of 15 Little Ships are expected to take part in the Annual Veterans Cruise on the River Thames between Kingston on Thames and Weybridge. Up to 90 Veterans including some of the last survivors from the Dunkirk evacuations, Chelsea Pensioners and their partners/carers will join the Little Ships for this unique event. Little Ships with the Veterans aboard will leave Thames Motor Yacht Club opposite Molesey Lock near Hampton Court around 1000.

The annual Commemorative Cruise will see many of the Little Ships of the ADLS fleet return to the hospitality of Ramsgate Royal Harbour. It is anticipated that Little Ships will arrive independently on Thursday 26 through Saturday 28th. A quay side service will be held on Sunday 29th at 1100 at the Sailor's Chapel adjacent to the Royal Harbour. All are welcome. Weather permitting the Little Ships will form up outside the Harbour, after the Service of Remembrance, for a wreath laying ceremony. On Sunday evening, members and guests will attend an evening dinner at the Pegwell Bay Hotel.

The Association plans to return to Dunkirk in May 2020 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Operation Dynamo. It is expected that around 50 Little Ships escorted by the RNLI and the Royal Navy will take part in the Return.

The Annual Veterans Cruise is one of the most important events in the ADLS calendar. Originally conceived as an opportunity to reunite participants in Operation Dynamo with the Little Ships, the event now includes Veterans from D-Day and other operations of WWII.

The Thames Traditional Boat Rally is, simply put, a huge 2-day display of the very finest-looking traditional boats one can see. It was the dream, back in 1977, of a few keen boaters. Most of these were members of the River Thames Society, others were members of the Inland Waterways Association or Thames boat clubs. Their idea was to encourage owners of traditional craft to cherish and restore them to all their former glory, as well as to continue to use them upon the river.

Friday, 31st May 1940, was the sixth day of Operation Dynamo' and by first light that morning, an estimated 150,000 British soldiers had already been evacuated. This was good news, but left less troops to defend the perimeter of Dunkirk and La Panne beach could no longer be held. Evacuation from Bray-Dunes and Malo-les-Bains continued under severe artillery fire. A further hazard was a fresh northerly on-shore breeze which created a dangerous surf and broke up the improvised lorry-piers.