Grimes and Gingles Win 2025 GP14 Munster Championship at Cullaun

14th June 2025

Afloat.ie Team

Colman Grimes & Ross Gingles on their way to an overall victory at the GP14 Munster Championship at Cullaun Sailing Club

The 2025 Munster Championship returned to Cullaun Sailing Club, and its small lake is a favourite of the GP14 fleet, not disappointing the faithful this year with 26 entries and 25 on the race course.

Saturday saw a forecast with a mixed bag of conditions, with big gusts up to 18 knots and no less than 8 knots. The PRO, David Mullally, and his assistant, Michael Collins, planned for 4 races with 2 on Sunday to ensure all those with 4 and 5-hour return trips got home at a reasonable time. The 4 races, each lasting 40 to 50 minutes and comprising 4 laps, provided plenty of thrills and spills. Numerous near capsizes and full dunkings left a very tired fleet hitting the shore around 5 pm with an incredibly tight leaderboard. Colman Grimes (Ross Gingles) and Alan Blay (Hugh McNally), both former winners of the Munster Championship, were separated by Mr. Consistency Keith Louden (Mateo Louden), with only a point between the three of them. Colman, with 2 race wins, sat atop the leaderboard ahead of Keith, who secured one win but finished all 4 races in the top 3, while Alan also took a win and a couple of top 3 placings as well.

Keith & Mateo Louden

Behind them, Curly Morris (Meg Tyrrell) was pleased with his 4 race finishes, achieving 4 top 10s, including a 2nd in Race 2. Paddy O'Connor (Richard Street) had the new boat performing well and was regularly in the mix near the top.

(Above) A race start at the GP14 2025 Munster Championship at Cullaun and (below) the Cullaun Sailing Club Committee Boat

the Cullaun Sailing Club Committee Boat

Recently promoted Emily and Adam Torrens led the silver fleet but more than held their own in the gold fleet, ending Saturday in the top 5. Also in Silver, Max Cully, teaming up this season with Sam Street, placed in the top 10 overnight, achieving 3 top 5 finishes. Some crew rearrangements saw Denis Cully with Matthew Street at the pointy end, posting good scores to lead the Bronze fleet overnight. These may well be new combinations to watch this season.

Saturday night dinner and refreshments were laid on in the recently opened Tulla Comhaltas Cultural Centre, a great venue manned by members of the Cullaun Sailing Club led by Commodore Jim O'Sullivan. Further refreshments for the less tired after 4 tough races were enjoyed across the road at the quirky McArthurs Bar, with its snugs and sloping floor—well worth the visit to Cullaun for this alone.

Sunday promised to deliver more of the same weather-wise, and the fleet was out on the water by 11 for the final 2 races, which turned out to be quite a spectacle. The PRO team decided to shake things up and opted for windward-leeward courses. It’s been a long time since I've seen such close racing. Race 5 saw the three leaders battling head-to-head, with the lead changing hands frequently as shifts altered the optimum side of this small lake. Four rounds made for plenty of turning; with crew work at a premium, it was relentless and often resulted in positional changes. Keith Louden took the gun from Alan Blay, with Colman in 3rd place. Still, it was all to play for going into the final race.

Paddy O'Connor and Richard Street from Sligo Yacht Club

The 6th and final race got underway, with the 3 leaders in the mix along with Paddy O'Connor from Sligo Yacht Club. The 4 boats were never more than 4 or 5 boat lengths apart. Again, the lead changed hands multiple times, with Paddy O'Connor at one point looking like a potential victor until a small shift enabled Colman to take the lead on the second last leg and claim the gun.

This was significant, as with Paddy now separating Colman from Keith and Alan, it meant Colman Grimes (Ross Gingles) would take the title for a second time. Keith Louden (Mateo Louden) secured 2nd place, with Alan Blay (Hugh McNally) completing the podium positions. Paddy O'Connor's (Richard Streets) efforts were rewarded with 4th overall.

Emily and Adam Torrens maintained their consistency, finishing 4th in Race 5, which earned them top Youth, Silver fleet, and 5th overall, ahead of Curly Morris (Meg Tyrrell), who was delighted to have completed 5 races in challenging conditions. The Cullys, Max (Sam Street) and Denis (Matthew Street), finished in 7th and 8th respectively, with Denis Cully taking the Bronze fleet prize as he did in the Ulster Championship.

Event organiser Des McMahon thanked everyone for making the effort to come to the centre of Munster sailing, as Cullaun Commodore Jim O'Sullivan distributed the prizes. The new Munster Champion, Colman Grimes, expressed gratitude to his long-time crew Ross Gingles, acknowledging their first GP14 victory together, and he thanked all the other sailors for such a competitive and close event.

Ross Gingles and Colman Grimes with the GP14 Munster Championship trophies at Cullaun Sailing Club

The 'Craftinsure GP14 Leagues', after 2 events, sees Skerries Sailing Club's Colman Grimes leading Lough Foyle's Keith Louden, but word is that Colman will not be around for the Leinster Championship. Blessington Sailing Club's Max Cully and Sam Street lead Silver, while Newtownards' Emily and Adam are swapping helm duties. Blessington Sailing Club's Denis Cully and Matthew Street lead the Bronze fleet.

The next event is the Leinster Championships in Greystones on July 12/13.

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in GP14

Tagged under

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