#gp14 – Triple Irish Olympic sailor Ger Owens crewed by Melanie Morris lies fifth overall at the GP14 World championships in Cornwall after three races sailed in the 127-boat fleet.

Owens and Morris have moved up two places after Monday's two races scoring tow fifth places to be on the same 17 points as the UK's Simon Potts and Peter Grey of Blithfiled SC.

A south westerly force 3 in Looes Bay combined with big rolling waves for yesterday's racing.

Irish interest in the top ten is high with Former Mirror world Champion Ross Kearney and Ed Bradburn from Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club ninth and Greystones sailor Shane McCarthy and Andy Thompson tenth.

Master builder Alistair Duffin and Paul Whitcombe from Newtownards are 17th in the massive fleet.

More on the worlds site here.

#gp14 – It was only a short hop from Weymouth to Cornwall last week when the Olympic regatta finished for Irish 470 sailor Ger Owens who is currently placed seventh overall at the GP14 World championships underway at Looe Sailing Club in Devon today.

The Dun Laoghaire sailor with new crew Scott Flannigan rounded off his third Olympics in the 470 with with a 16th and a 5th on the final day to leave the pair 23rd overall.

Now the Royal St. George helm, who will miss out on tonight's OIympic homecoming at the National YC, has teamed up with Melanie Morris to lead Irish hopes at the 130-boat GP 14 event in which there is a strong Irish presence.

Moville Boat Club's John and Donal McGuiness are next Irish in ninth. Shane McCarthy and Andy Thompson from Greystones Sailing Club are in 13th place.

Racing continues today. Results here.

#gp14 – The GP14 Irish National Championships took place last Saturday and Sunday at Ballyholme Yacht Club. The event was kindly sponsored by Craftinsure Insurance and North Down Borough Council Tourism. Almost 40 boats from Ireland and England attended the event which was seen as a warm up event for the World Championships in Cornwall in three weeks time. Full results are downloadable as word doc below.

Racing was delayed on Saturday morning due to a lack of wind. The wind eventually filled in to 15 – 18 knots from the south to give three full length races. All three races were won by the English pair, Mike Senior and Chris White. With the forecast of heavy winds on Sunday the Race Officer, Robin Gray, was determined to get three races completed on Saturday to constitute a series.

As it was the winds did increase for racing on Sunday but did not stop racing going ahead. Two races were completed with winds reaching 28 knots at times. Mike Senior and Chris White coped best in the testing conditions and continued their dominance to score two further wins. The competition for second place was very tight with Shane MacCarthy and Andrew Thompson coming in just ahead of Simon Potts and Pete Grey. Shane and Andrew were first Irish boat. Ross Kearney, formerly from North Down but now working and living in England came in fourth with his crew Ed Bradburn.

The Silver Fleet was won by Gerard O'Sullivan and Hugh McNally who finished well inside the gold fleet boats in 11th place overall. First in the Bronze Fleet went to Michael Cox and Nigel Sloan from Newtownards. Michael and Nigel finished 22nd overall.

Mike Senior's dominance puts him in strong contention for the World Championships in August. Almost 20 boats from Ireland will be making the journey across to compete in the week-long event. A fleet of 130 boats are due to take part.

The final results of the event were as follows:-

1st Mike Senior & Chris White

2nd Shane MacCarthy & Andy Thompson

3rd Simon Potts & Pete Grey

4th Ross Kearney & Ed Bradburn

5th Dave Young & Shona Fleming

6th David Fletcher & Laura McFarland

7th Graham Elmes & Melanie Morris

8th Keith Louden & Dessie Hughes

9th Bryan Willis & Ruan O'Tiarnaigh

10th Alistair Duffin & Paul Whitcombe

Silver Fleet

1st Gerard O'Sullivan & Hugh McNally

2nd Daniel Gill & Cillian McGreer

3rd Daniel Gallagher & Gareth Gallagher

Bronze Fleet

1st Michael Cox & Nigel Sloan

2nd James Ogg & Ronan O'Beirne

3rd Peter Smyth & Jackie Malone

#GP14–Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough will host the Irish GP14 Championships on July 21st and 22nd.

In 2014, the GP14 World Championships come to Northern Ireland for the first time in many years, so next month's  CraftInsure Irish Championship represents a an ideal way for visitors to complete some early research into local sailing.

The launch for the event was held in Belfast on Sunday 10th June beside the Lagan. The local GP14's held a short event on the river to salute Alastair Duffin for 50 years of building wooden boats (mainly GP14's) in East Belfast. Alistair Duffin's superb dinghies are sailed across the world. In the days of fibre glass boats, a wooden Duffin hull currently holds the World title.

Ballyholme Yacht Club regularly holds Regional, National and International Championships in many dinghy classes with club member Robin Gray an RYA NI Regional Race Management Coordinator.

Ballyholme YC has a long history in GP14s. Bill Whisker and Jimmy McKee from Ballyholme YC won the GP14 World Championships in Australia in the 1970 and Burton Allen won the GP14 British National Championship.

#GP14  – The annual GP14 Riocard O Tiarnaigh Challenge took place at Swords Sailing Club on the 14th & 15th of April. This was the first of SSBC's headline events. The event was run over Saturday and Sunday with a total of 12 races completed on a variety of courses including trapezoid, windward leeward and Olympic style courses.

Race officer Peter Smith and team took to the water at 11.00 am along with the rib fleet and set up a triangle course with a diagonal run back to a port rounding and then reaching to the leeward mark but a short delay ensued due to wind shifting so race 1 finally got under way at 12.00. The 22 boat fleet was divided in to 3 groups, gold, silver and bronze. On race 3 the course changed to triangle sausage and the wind began to blow giving rise to some spectacular looking reaches under full sail from the fleet. A half time lunch saw the boat crews in to the club for a feed and then out again.

The bitter cold northerly breeze did not hinder the hardy GP14 sailors as they completed a total of 6 races on day one leaving Peter Fallow & James Hockey leading the bronze fleet on 5 points, Gerard OSullivan & Hugh McNally and Daniel & Gareth Gallagher tied on 7 points each in the silver fleet and Niall Henry & Ossian Geraghty leading the gold fleet on 8 points.

So boats put away and in to the club house for a barbecue and Alan Grays famous cheese melter burgers followed by drinks and a viewing of the days action on the video screen.

Day two with lighter airs and still quite a cold day on this 100th year rememberance of the Titanics sinking saw first gun sounded at 10.30. The last three races in the group rounds produced fleet winners and the 12 boats to compete in a 3 race final for overall winner.

After a break ashore the boats returned to the water and a windward leeward course with a short loop inside was set.

Race 1 saw Shane McCarthy and D Bracken take the line.

Race 2 Clive Goodwin and Stan Shepherd crossed in pole position.

In race 3 Niall Henry and Oiseen Geraghty finished first and coming second Clive (Swords)and Stan (Skerries) which together with a 3rd from race one clinched them the gold and Riocard O'Tiarnaigh trophy for 2012.

Bronze winners were Peter Fallon & James Hockey, Lough Foyle.

Silver winners were Gerard OSullivan & Hugh McNally, HYC.

At the prize giving GP 14 Association chairman Richard Street formally requested Swords Sailing Club to host the event again in 2013 and commodore Donal Brennan accepted.

#GP14 –  Irish GP14 dinghy sailing gets a boost this season with the support of insurance firm Craftinsure for the class national championships The firm has also been selected to handle the GP14 Association insurance scheme with effect from 1st April 2012 following a review by the Association.

The insurance scheme for the GP14 Class Association is one of the longest established, having been in place for over 50 years, and is strongly supported. For much of it's history, the scheme was very successfully managed by long serving GP14 Association member Graham Knox, who still assists with liaison between the Association Committee and their insurance partners.

The new arrangement maintains the long association with Navigators & General (part of Zurich Insurance plc), as all Craftinsure polices are underwritten by N&G.

As a leading online boat insurer in Ireland and the UK, Craftinsure is able to provide a cost effective and convenient insurance facility for GP14 owners. The fact that claims staff along with other key members of the Craftinsure team, are active dinghy sailors was another important factor in the selection process, as was the level of cover and security provided.

The Association will continue to benefit from contributions for each GP14 insured through the scheme, as well as from other forms of support including sponsorship for the 2012 Irish Nationals and the 2012 World Championships

Rod Daniel, director of Craftinsure comments "we are delighted to have been appointed to handle the GP14 scheme and that this Association can be added to IODAI and others where we have a strong affiliation. We look forward to welcoming new and existing GP14 owners to Craftinsure and to supporting the Association as much as possible".

A healthy forty seven dinghies competed for the Irish GP14 National Sailing Championships title last weekend and Greystones sailor Shane McCarthy, now UK based, with crew Andy Davis took the title, winning the last four races. Class president Richard Street gives a blow by blow account of how the title was won.

Skerries was our venue, and a fine spot to host a regatta it is .The GP fleet were really well taken care of by all the members of the club who put aside their own weekend so we could have a lot of fun. Thank you.

Not only were we blessed to have a great turnout, but the calibre of it was pretty impressive too. The top ten counted two World Champions, a European Champion, a two time Olympian, a six time Irish National champion, a multiple English National Champion.  Steven Nelson and his brother Jonny slotted right in amongst them to blow most of the Gold fleet away and take the crown in their division by a huge margin.

Race officer Liam Dineen and his crew spent a long weekend at sea for our enjoyment a massive thank you to him and his team. Sunday, especially can not have been easy.

On day one Mike Senior and Chris White were consistency personified, two races, two bullets, as were Shane Mc Carthy and Andy Davis with two seconds.

Race one paid off beautifully for those who headed straight inshore on the first beat, but if you made the mistake of repeating that on the second beat you got hosed.  Main feature of the weekend was big breeze and some massive shifts. Keith Louden and Dessie Hughes got their result of the weekend with a third skinning their northern rivals  theyoung Mc Guinness boys in the process.cue smiles allround.On one boat.

Race two and a big right shift up the last beat got a few boats that weren’t looking too hot, out of trouble . Curly once had a boat by that name, I think, and he and Laura were chased into third by his daughter Melanie crewing for Ger Owens. Their boat name? True Belle.

Day two Sunday, blowing hard enough that rumour has it the RO wasn’t sending us out. A few launches put paid to that, and we’ve raced in far worse.

The Imperious English pair got their first challenge as Shane and Andy took their first win. They had been led around the first windward mark by Steven and Jonny, as fine a sight as  ever we’d see…until they repeated the feat the following day ! Now if the two boys had popped the kite they might have held on to the lead , but they got swallowed up. Mike and Chris had to work to hold onto the leaders and were chased home by Dave Young and Seonaid Fleming who registered their high point for the series. The effort must have taken its toll as they spent a large portion of the afternoon swimming, which meant utter exhaustion for them by the end of the day.Still smiling though.

Race four looked like it might never happen. 30 and 40 degree windshifts coming down the course with each cloudburst. Rain that was thick as fog and more than one attempt at starting which had to be abandonded with twenty seconds to go. Inevitably when the gun did go, a line that ten seconds earlier had been pin end favoured but congested,suddenly got much more so. A big shift to the left saw the fleet react, but back up the line , with room to move, Niall Henry and James Conlon crossed on port at full tilt to negate much of the advantage those by the pin had. In the lightest breeze of the weekend and heading straight into a short steep chop concentration was essential, lose it and you got spat out the back.

The end of that race saw the score tied at two all as Shane took the win followed by Mike Senior.

With a building breeze and  direction settling, the course swapped to a quickfire windward leeward. The two leading boats at the top mark both missed the wing, the boys behind said thank you very much. A short windward leg meant a hectic pressurised run, nothing settled until halfway up the second beat. There was little time to catch breath, let alone think. At the end the overall result had reversed itself.  While both incredibly consistent, the Irish boat had scored three bullets to Mikes two.

Monday morning, cold and grey. The final denoument. Race five, again a windward leeward and a great breeze, a tight stack at the top mark meant boat handling was at a premium, who popped out in the lead at the top, Shane and  Andy, with a narrow lead over a chasing pack  which had buried in it the challenger , Mike and Chris had to work hard to stay in contention,  those running down the left side of the second run weren’t looking too good until a nice right shift came in making it all look sweeter. At the bottom the Mc Guinness brothers took the stb gate while Shane went to the left, they rounded in exact sequence but someone had picked the wrong side. Shane and Andy took the gun and with it the title. Curly Morris and crew Laura Mc Farland had come around the bottom three or four back but played a beautiful final beat to come away with second.

The new Champions headed for shore and a tepid shower, while a new winner Clive Goodwin and Thomas stepped up onto the podium in race seven.Nigel Sloan and Micheal Cox had a stunning race to fend off an Olympian and grab second place.  Well done boys.

Irish National Champions 2011. Shane Mc Carthy and Andy‘ Taxi ‘ Davis.

Runners up, Mike Senior and Chris White.

Winners in the Silver Fleet Steve Nelson and his brother Johnny.

Winners of the Bronze fleet ,local Skerries crew,Shay McGee and Owen Boylan.

Well done Skerries. And thank you.

The GP14 Leinster Championship was held in Skerries Sailing Club over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of September, with a great turnout of 40 boats. As usual the members of SSC pulled out all the stops to ensure a great weekend was had by all writes Libby Tierney.

A special mention must go to the PRO, Liam Dineen and his team who expertly managed the racing. As someone who's been racing for years (not very well!) There hasn't been many events I've been to, where I've gotten four hour long races in a single day, with such a slick turnaround between races.

Day one kicked off with moderate NE winds causing a sloppy sea for the competitors.

Race 1 kicked off the a great start for the McGuinness brothers who secured the first bullet of the event, Duffin/Whitecomb taking second & Tiarnaigh/Tierney taking 3rd.

Race 2 Saw Owens/Morris winning easily, with this there only 2nd event I think we should be all worried. 2nd was taken again by Duffin/Whitecomb team with 3rd being snapped up by McCarty/Davis.

Race 3 Saw another bullet from the pairing of Owens/Morris, with MacCarty/Davis moving up another place to get 2n, with the Morrison brothers getting 3rd.

Race 4 Had MacCarty/Davis get there first bullet of the event, 2nd was the Goodwin brothers and 3rd was Tiarnaigh/Tierney combination.

After race four all the competitors made there was back to SSC for a well-deserved BBQ & drinks.
Day two saw light, variable & shifty winds which promised to make things interesting for the fleet.

Race 5 had the Goodwin brothers get there first bullet with MacCarty/Davis in 2nd and the McGuinness brothers taking 3rd

Race 6 the penultimate race of the championship found MacCarty/Davis finishing in 1st, Owens/Morris in 2nd & the Goodwin brothers in 3rd. This is also how the overall event finished up.

A special acknowledgement must go to the only all-female paring of the event, Kissane & McCormack who also took the Leinster Youth Title..

Results attached for download below

Newtownards Sailing Club hosted this year's GP 14 Championship of Ireland. The event attracted 46 boats from throughout Ireland and Great Britain. Race Officer Nigel Kearney set excellent courses in what was some of the most testing conditions in recent years.

Form race one the weather conditions were steadily worsening; average wind speeds were in excess of 20 mph with gusts to 25 mph and occasionally 30 mph. The dark heavy sky laden with squalls added to the drama. As the fleet got underway, boats capsized on and after the starting. The strong wind made tactics of less importance than just sheer boat handling.

Rarely, for the GP fleet, many competitors opted not to fly the spinnaker on the downwind legs and those that did ran the risk of a capsize especially at the gybe mark which got very congested with upturned boats. The windward legs sapped the energy of helm and crew. The race was won by Tim Corcoran from Sligo.

Race two and the weather seemed to deteriorate further. Adding to the problem was the sea state - in an unusual swell for the North end of Strangford Lough and after the gruelling first race gave the competitors even more to contend with. Winner of the second race was Carl Jeffs from Trimley Sailing Club. The second day's sailing was cancelled due even stronger winds.

As a total contrast day three was glorious sunshine but light winds. Tactics came into play here and the English pairing of Andy Tunnicliffe and Chris Robinson reigned supreme, winning both races to give them the Championship overall.

Results: 1st Andy Tunnicliffe and Chris Robinson RWYC; 2nd and top Irish boat Tim Corcoran and Brendan Brogan, SYC; 3rd Carl Jeffs and Steve Parker TSC.

1st Silver Fleet: Cathal Sheriadan and David Cook, Skerries SC; 2nd Lawrence Baalham and Tony Brown, Newtownards Sailing Club 3rd G O'Sullivan and H McNally

1st Bronze Fleet: Maurice Baalham and Gary Brown, Newtownards Sailing Club; 2nd Bill Johnston and Styephen Byrne LFYC; 3rd I Beattie Orr and R Murray SDC.

Sligo Yacht Club hosted the GP 14 Summer Open and Irish Youth Championships at Rosses Point on the 24th and 25th July.

26 boats lined up at the start. Gus Henry, himself a GP 14 sailor can always be relied upon to provide exceptional race management. He called back race 1 after a significant wind change. The race started proper a short while after that. Keith Louden and Dessie Hughes from Lough Foyle Yacht Club got to the weather mark first in 12 knots of wind, followed by local sailors Niall Henry and James Conlon. In third, Shane McCarthy and Al Fry followed close behind in their new boat. Niall Henry took line honours in the race after sailing a flawless race and taking the lead on the second beat. Paddy O'Connor and Tania McHale climbed from fourth to take second. McCarthy and Fry took third.

Race 2 followed shortly after. This time, there was a definite interest by Paul Maguire and Niamh McCormick from Sutton SC in the right hand side as the tide was picking up in pace. Alastair Duffin and Paul Whitcombe from Newtownards SC went that way too but not quite as far out. Shane and Fry chose the middle route, while the Mc Guinness Brothers from Moville Boat Club initially went left and then back into the middle right. At the weather mark, Maguire and McCormick had a clear lead with McCarthy and Fry in second with the McGuinness brothers a short distance away. The McGuinness brothers passed McCarthy and Fry on the second reach. Maguire and McCormick maintained their lead to the finish with half a boat length to spare at the end with the Donegal team a close second.

Race three got under way in similar wind to the first day but this time the tide was going out. The boats that went left looked good initially, but their hopes were soon dashed as the right side of the fleet piled in to the weather mark. Henry and Conlon though, who had sailed a middle course got to the weather mark first with about 7 boat lengths to spare. They let nothing slip and finished with a convincing first. With 1-5-1 in a four race series, they couldn't be beaten and didn't start race 4. The McGuinness brothers won race four taking the lead in the first reach, leaving them second overall. Conor Byrne and Pamela Lee, first time GP sailor were second and O'Connor and McHale finished third giving them third in the event.

The silver fleet was won by Nigel Sloane and Laura McFarland with Gerry Gilligan and Lucia Nicholson in second and Johnny Park and Bob Stinson in third.

The bronze fleet was won by Conor Byrne and Pamela Lee, Wai Manu and Don MacCormack in second and Bill Johnson and Stephen Byrne in third.