Greystones Crew Will Lead Irish Hopes At GP14 Worlds in Barbados

26th March 2016

Afloat.ie Team

A GP14 is launched off the beach at Barbados Yacht Club in the build up to the World Championships on Monday. 23 Irish boats are competing. Credit: GP14/Picasa

23 Irish GP14s have made the journey to Barbados Yacht Club and the fleet stands at 104 boats from Ireland, UK, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka and Barbados for the first race on Monday. Greystones'Sailing Club's Shane McCarthy is in the running but five times champion Ian Dobson and former World Champion Neil Marsden are also racing. Irish GP!4 President Stephen Boyle updates on the Irish camp.

Barbados Yacht Club, Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown will host the largest sailing championship held on the Caribbean Island to date when racing in the GP14 World Championship commences on Monday 28th March. 104 boats from around the world with entries from Barbados, Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, Sri Lanka and Australia will compete over an eleven race series for the coveted title in this popular 14 foot international one design class.
President of the Barbados Sailing Association and event organizer, Gus Reader said:
“The fact that 104 of them will be taking part in the 2016 World Champion-ships speaks volumes about the enduring quality of this one-design class. With 104 entries, the GP14 World Championships is the largest sailing event we have held in Barbados, and this means 208 competitors, 186 support personnel and officials, which brings it to a total of over 400 visitors to Barbados for this event.”
The 23 crews who travelled from Ireland can expect superb sailing conditions with winds of 25 to 30 Kph and temperatures in the high 20’s forecast for the duration of the Championship.
The event has proved popular with the Irish fleet and with strong entries from the northern clubs including Donaghdee, Newtonards, Lough Foyle and East Antrim and Lough Erne Yacht Club.
Competition is expected to be as hot as the weather, as five times and reigning World Champions Iain Dobson and Andy Tunnicliffe look to add a sixth title their record. The strong field also includes former World Champion Neil Marsden (2003) sailing with long time crew Derek Hill, Fireball World Champion and Endeavour Trophy (2014) winner Matt Budge and Graham Flynn and Adam Frogatt runners up in the 2015 UK Nationals.
Greystones sailor Shane McCarthy who holds the current UK and Irish Championship titles is expected to lead the charge of the Irish entries which includes John and Donal McGuiness of Moville Boat Club, Keith Louden and Alan Thompson, Curly Morris and Laura McFarland of Newtonards and Sutton Dinghy Clubs Alan Blay.

DSC 9610

Shane MacCarthy leads Irish hopes

Larne native and Laura’s brother Andy Thompson, former World (2000) and reigning UK National crew and paired with Sam Watson second placed helm in the 2014 Worlds will also be expect to be in the mix come Monday 4th April.
Conditions are expected to suit Greystones Shane McCarthy who is on form having lifted both the UK Championship and Irish titles in 2015 – it was more than 50 years since the British title has been held by an Irish sailor. The next 10 days will determine if he can bring the World title back to Ireland for the first time since Mark and Paul Fekkes of Larne won in 1991. The task is not beyond him.

Best wishes to the entire Irish contingent - enjoy the sailing and the weather!

Stephen Boyle,
President, GP14 Association of Ireland.

Published in GP14

Tagged under

GP14

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

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 2026

April 25–26 — O’Tiarnaigh Trophy, Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club
May 9–10 — Munster Championship, Cullaun Sailing Club
June 6–7 — Ulster Championship, County Antrim Boat Club
June 11–14 — UK Nationals, Llandudno Sailing Club
July 4–5 — Leinster Championship, Howth Yacht Club
August 1–2 — Championship of Ireland, Carrickfergus Sailing Club
August 8–14 — GP14 World Championships
September 19–20 — Autumn Open / Youth Championship, Sligo Yacht Club
October 17–18 — Hot Toddy, Mullingar Sailing 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