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GP14 dinghy sailing
Irish GP14 Dinghy Sailing News and Regatta Results
Ernie Mawhinney's unmistakable green vintage GP14 Ventura - it was about to be cut up and dumped
Think of the GP14 class in Ireland and among those uppermost in your mind, (depending on your age!) would be the late Ernie Mawhinney's Ventura, one of the earliest in the class at number 796. Ventura means 'fortune, chance or…
Nigel McNeely working on the restoration of the GP14 dinghy
Nigel McNeely was a motorboat man who had also enjoyed sailing a Leisure 17. But with two young boys reaching the age at which they could learn to sail, Nigel bought a second-hand GP14 called Alchemellia (no 12819) originally owned…
GP14 racing on Lough Erne. The 2021 GP14 Nationals will be held from August 13-15 at Lough Erne YC
The GP14 Ireland Committee has drafted a provisional calendar for 2021 (outlined below) and is also working on ideas and options for the 2022 event calendar.  The exact dates for the Irish hosted 2022 World Championships (rescheduled from 2020 and…
GP14 Hot Toddy racing - this year's event at EABC has been cancelled
An important GP14 event, the Hot Toddy, first saw the light of day in the early eighties when the then GP14 Association of Ireland charged their East Antrim Boat Club based fleet with the creation of a new and suitable…
GP14s are making plans for VDLR 2021 on Dublin Bay next July, three weeks before the GP14 World Championships at Skerries in North Dublin
The Irish GP14 dinghy class has been one of the first to give a thumbs up to Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta plans for next July to divide Ireland's biggest sailing event over separate weekends. As Afloat reported previously, Dun Laoghaire…
Mel Morris and Ger Owens with the GP14 Autumn trophy
Royal Irish Yacht Club's Ger Owens & Mel Morris were the winners of the 20-boat GP14 Autumn Open at Blessington Sailing Club last weekend, the first event of the 2020 GP14 calendar due to COVID-19.  The winner of the silver…
GP14s are heading for Larne
An appropriate title for a GP 14 event to be held (hopefully) in October at the Larne club. The word toddy comes from the toddy drink in India produced by fermenting the sap of palm trees and its earliest known…
The GP14s will race in Skerries in July 2021
The GP14 International Class Association in conjunction with Skerries Sailing Club has postponed its 2020 GP14 World Championships until 2021. As Afloat reported previously, with over 100 entries already registered, Skerries Sailing Club and the GP14 International Association have been in…
More than 100 boats have now entered for the Championships at Skerries Sailing Club from July 24-29
A further update on the status of the GP14 World Championships scheduled for July in Skerries, North Dublin is expected before the end of April. GP14 Ireland Hon. Secretary Andy Johnston has told the class the International Committee in conjunction with…
GP14 dinghies start a race at last year's Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Dublin Bay
More than 100 boats have now entered for the GP14 dinghy World Championships at Skerries Sailing Club scheduled from July 24-29.  The International GP14 Committee in conjunction with the Skerries SC Worlds Organising Committee says it is in 'constant communication over…
GP14 Number 2 pictured with GP14 Class President Curly Morris (left) and sailing journalist Matt Sheehan at the RYA Dinghy Show
To mark the 70th anniversary of the GP14 Class there will be a Classic fleet event within the overall World Championships in Skerries, County Dublin this summer. The recently restored GP14 Number 2 took pride of place at last weekend's RYA Dinghy Show in…
GP14s will race in Howth on April 4 in their first event of 2020
The GP14 dinghy season kicks off in Howth Yacht Club on April 4/5 with a revised format O’Tiarnaigh Challenge. The GP14 Committee are anticipating a big turnout for a couple of reasons. Firstly, its an opportunity to for an early…
GP14s racing on Lough Erne at the Hot Toddy event
The final GP14 meeting of the season, the “Hot Toddy” took place on 19/20 October in the beautiful setting at Lough Erne Yacht Club writes Katie Dwyer. As Afloat previously reported, conscious of the interest in the rugby world cup…
GP14s stored in the LEYC boat shed with their sails still up....
The last event of the GP14 calendar saw the fleet returning to Lough Erne Yacht Club this weekend. And what a fleet. 33 boats turned up on the start line for what is turning into a great event. While Dublin…
GP14s contest a start at July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta
The final event of the Irish GP14 year sees the national fleet travel to Lough Erne Yacht Club this weekend. The closing event of 2019 follows Shane MacCarthy & Damien Bracken's emphatic win of August's National Championships at Skerries Sailing Club.…
Is this GP14 crew commenting on the decision to launch in the big winds last Saturday? In fact, the 'graffiti' on Des McMahon's hull is the first few lines from a song by Irish rappers,Versatile
A very windy weekend saw the 3:rock 2019 GP14 Championship of Ireland restricted to 5 races after Sunday racing was blown out. Liam Dineen PRO had no choice yesterday morning but to call a halt with a steady 20+ and…

The GP14 is a popular sailing dinghy, with well over 14,000 boats built.

The class is active in the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and parts of north-eastern USA, and the GP14 can be used for both racing and cruising. 

Designed by Jack Holt in 1949, with the assistance of the Dovey Yacht Club in Aberdyfi. The idea behind the design was to build a General Purpose (GP) 14-foot dinghy which could be sailed or rowed, capable of also being powered effectively by a small outboard motor, able to be towed behind a small family car and able to be launched and recovered reasonably easily, and stable enough to be able to lie to moorings or anchor when required. Racing soon followed, initially with some degree of opposition from Yachting World, who had commissioned the design, and the boat soon turned out to be an outstanding racing design also.

The boat was initially designed with a main and small jib as a comfortable family dinghy. In a design philosophy that is both practical and highly redolent of social attitudes of the day the intention was that she should accommodate a family comprising parents plus two children, and specifically that the jib should be modest enough for "Mum" or older children to handle, while she should perform well enough to give "Dad" some excitement when not taking the family out. While this rig is still available, and can be useful when using the boat to teach sailing, or for family sailing, and has some popularity for cruising, the boat is more commonly seen with the full modern rig of a mainsail, genoa and spinnaker. Australian boats also routinely use trapezes.

GP14 Ireland Event Dates 2023

  • O'Tiarnaigh (Apr 22-23) Blessington Sailing Club
  • Ulsters (May 20-21) East Antrim Boat Club
  • Munsters (Jun 17-18) Tralee Bay Sailing Club
  • Leinsters (Jul 7-9) Dun Laoghaire Regatta
  • SOYC (Aug 19-20) Rush Sailing Club
  • Nationals (Sep 1-3) Sutton Dinghy Club
  • Hot Toddy (Sep 30-Oct 1) Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club

 

At A Glance – GP14 Dinghy Specifications

Crew 2
Draft 1,200 mm (47 in)
Hull weight 132.9 kg
LOA 4.27 m (14 ft)
Beam 1.54 m
Spinnaker area 8.4 m2
Upwind sail area 12.85 m2

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