Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Owens and Craig Show Flash as Lightning Curtails Day 1 of GP14 Munsters in Tralee Bay

17th June 2023
GP14s in action on Tralee Bay in the Munster Championships before the weather turned on Saturday afternoon 17 June
GP14s in action on Tralee Bay in the Munster Championships before the weather turned on Saturday afternoon 17 June

Day 1 of the 2023 GP14 Munster Championships on Saturday (17 June) saw 26 crews arrive at Tralee Bay Sailing Club. This was the first time in over 40 years the fleet had been in Fenit, writes Andy Johnston.

PRO John Leech, having welcomed the fleet at the morning briefing, got the fleet on the water for a midday first gun. Oscillating wind meant a few delays but Race 1 got under way by 12.20pm in about seven to eight knots.

With dolphins surfacing on the start line close to the committee boat, Ger Owens and Mel Morris had a great start and led Sean Craig and Stephen Boyle to the weather mark. Close behind them were JP & Carolyn McCaldin, Ruan & Tash O’Tiarnaigh, Curly Morris and Meg Tyrrell, and Colman Grimes and Ross Gingles.

By start of second triangle, Owens and Craig had extended their lead with Grimes and O’Tiarnaigh and a fast-improving Ross Kearney and Daniel Nelson looking for the last podium spot. Grimes took third with Kearney fourth and O’Tiarnaigh fifth, with Conor Twohig and Matthew Cotter finishing well to take sixth.

The start of Race 2 was AP a couple of times before getting into sequence. Then crashing thunder and lightning interrupted things with the PRO sending the fleet home temporarily.

Within 15 minutes Met Éireann had posted a Status Yellow warning for Kerry, indicating the lightning was here for the rest of the day. That was the trigger to abandon racing, with four races and an earlier start mow scheduled for Sunday (18 June).

Race 1 results can be found on the Tralee Bay Sailing Club website HERE.

Published in GP14
Afloat.ie Team

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.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

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

Featured Sailing School

INSS sidebutton

Featured Clubs

dbsc mainbutton
Howth Yacht Club
Kinsale Yacht Club
National Yacht Club
Royal Cork Yacht Club
Royal Irish Yacht club
Royal Saint George Yacht Club

Featured Brokers

leinster sidebutton

Featured Webcams

Featured Associations

ISA sidebutton
ICRA
isora sidebutton

Featured Marinas

dlmarina sidebutton

Featured Chandleries

CHMarine Afloat logo
https://afloat.ie/resources/marine-industry-news/viking-marine

Featured Sailmakers

northsails sidebutton
uksails sidebutton
watson sidebutton

Featured Blogs

W M Nixon - Sailing on Saturday
podcast sidebutton
BSB sidebutton
wavelengths sidebutton
 

Please show your support for Afloat by donating