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Displaying items by tag: Plantours Cruises

#CAPITAL CRUISE CALLS – Tonight two cruiseships are due to depart Dublin Port, they are Plantours Cruises Hamburg (2007/15,067grt), which made its maiden 'Irish' debut call to the capital, followed by Compagnie du Ponant's Le Diamant, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Plantours is a German based operator and is one of several new entrants providing cruises to Irish ports, as previously reported on Afloat.ie. Among the newcomers are MSC Cruises, whose MSC Lirica finally made her first call to Cobh at the weekend, as an earlier scheduled call this month, was cancelled due to bad weather.

Both the visiting vessels to Dublin Port today, had by coincidence arrived from Penzance, Cornwall and the Hamburg, is no stranger to the capital, having previously operated as Hapag-Lloyd's C. Columbus.

Whereas the French operated Le Diamant (1974/8,282grt) has been in Irish waters throughout this month, with a call to Galway on 17th August. On the same day Voyages of Discovery, which is part of the All Leisure Group, saw their Discovery also make an anchorage call of the mid-western port.

Published in Cruise Liners

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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