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Displaying items by tag: Saundersfoot

The historic harbour of Saundersfoot is folded neatly into the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The iconic Harbour provides a sheltered location on the southerly coastline of Pembrokeshire, making it a great place to moor or launch a boat.
In 2015, the Harbour completed a significant programme of maritime infrastructure developments which have resulted in its being able to offer excellent facilities and a friendly service for sailing, boating and canoeing visitors.
- NEW – Direct access to the sea from the Harbour via a new slipway and sea wall. We now have 2 launching slipways, one suitable for boats up to 10 metres wide.
- NEW - deep-water outer harbour visitor swinging moorings.
- 3 NEW deep water 15 metre long visitor pontoons.
- A NEW inner harbour pontoon providing easy access to leisure boats.
- NEW - Dry boat racking and storage.
- Inner harbour moorings (drying)
- Canoe, kayak, tender and small boat storage racks.
- Staffed 7 days a week, all year round.
- Assisted and trouble free launch/recovery service.
- Showers/toilets and changing facilities.
- Pleasure boats offering a variety of fishing, fast boat and wildlife watching trips.
Saundersfoot is a beautiful coastal village at the foot of a picturesque wooded valley. It overlooks golden sandy beaches that stretch for miles. It provides a great holiday location for sailing, boating and canoeing visitors offering as it does:-
- A mouthwatering selection of cafes, restaurants, ice cream parlours and pubs.
- A thriving shopping centre offering convenience stores and boutique art, craft, clothes and gift shops.
- Great places to stay .
- Lovely villages a walk away across the Wales Coast Path or beach.
- Tenby is just around the corner.
- Activities on and off the water, a selection of award winning family adventure parks, attractions and activity centres nearby and festivals across the year.
- A five star spa in the village.

Easy to find by water (near Tenby, Milford Haven and Neyland). By road, it’s a drive along the M4, pass Cardiff and Swansea, onto the A48 and then A477 to Saundersfoot.

More news to follow! Saundersfoot is planning over the next few years major developments which will see it become the Wales International Coastal Centre. At the approvals stage currently, we will keep you informed of progress!

Published in Coastal Notes

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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