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Displaying items by tag: Finance Bill

As professional services giant PwC highlights in its Budget insights summary, the Finance Bill published last Thursday introduces measures to bring Ireland in line with EU law with respect to the use of marked gas oil for private pleasure navigation.

The legislation comes in the wake of a ruling by the European Court of Justice a year ago, and confirms that recreational boaters will no longer be able to fuel with green diesel in the new year and onwards.

Changes to the law had been expected following the court’s decision, with Waterways Ireland issuing a notice to masters and owners of vessels last December.

“The impact of these changes means that there will be a prohibition on the use of marked gas oil for such private pleasure navigation from 1 January 2020. Offences and penalties applicable to the misuse of marked gas oil will now extend to private pleasure navigation,” PwC writes.

The European court found that Ireland had been infringing EU law by allowing the sale of cheaper marked fuel intended for the fishing industry to power motor yachts and other leisure craft — a situation deemed to be “fundamentally incompatible” with its directives on energy taxation.

However, as our own W M Nixon pointed out five years ago, the more pressing issue for boaters around the Irish coast is the availability — or lack thereof — of quality fuel not for the exclusive use of fishing boats.

He writes: “If we wish to develop Ireland as a cruising destination for ourselves as much as overseas visitors, some new thinking is needed on the whole area of the supply of marine diesel.”

Published in Budget
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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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