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GP14 dinghy sailing
Irish GP14 Dinghy Sailing News and Regatta Results
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…
Daniel Nelson and Ross Kearney were overall winners of the GP14 Ulster Championships at East Antrim Boat Club
While most of the country seemed to have little or no wind, with many races and events cancelled, East Antrim Boat Club managed to get all six races of this year's GP14 Ulster Championship completed. The event attracted 30 GP14s…
The leaders in race four of the GP14 O’Tiarnaigh Challenge at Blessington Sailing Club
The O’Tiarnaigh GP14 Challenge event was conceived almost 25 years ago with two goals. An open meeting with many short races rather than the normal 2 per day, and secondly to have many smaller flights containing a mix of Gold,…
Blue skies but patchy breeze for the GP14s as the RNIYC Spring Series resumed on Sunday 26 March
Racing resumed in the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club’s GP14 Spring Series on Sunday 26 March after a brief break for Mother’s Day the previous weekend, writes Joe Devitt. The forecast was good, the sun shining and apart from…
A fleet of 12 GP14s are contesting the RNIYC Spring Series on Belfast Lough
Race Officer Gerry Reid and the race team at RNIYC must be on good terms with the weather Gods as the snow melted away to leave a dry, almost balmy ten degrees and a steady(ish) force three building to a…
An 11-boat fleet is contesting the annual GP14 Spring Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough
The second weekend of the annual GP14 Spring Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough kicked off with a pleasant 10-12 knots. The 11-boat fleet relished the longer beats set by PRO Gerry Reid and his…
Ruan and Natasha O’Tiarnaigh from Ballyholme YC lead the GP14 Royal North of Ireland Spring Series sailed on Belfast Lough
The 12-strong GP14 fleet managed four races last Sunday (26th) in the Royal North of Ireland Spring Series, sailed on Belfast Lough, after missing the previous weekend due to adverse weather. After a fourth in the first race, Ruan and…
GP14 dinghy racing off Skerries in County Dublin
A single-item agenda could see a new constitution for one of Ireland's strongest dinghy classes when the GP14 class votes at an Extraordinary General Meeting later this month.  Since September 13th, 1955, the GP14 Ireland Class Association has existed in…
GP14 action from the 2022 World Championships hosted by Skerries Sailing Club in County Dublin
The 2023 Irish GP14  season gets underway with its first of seven events in April when Blessington Sailing Club hosts the O'Tiarnaigh Challenge. Coming off the back of an epic 2022 season, that saw 100 boats gather in Ireland for…
GP14 Munster Champions 2022 Colman Grimes (centre) and John Chambers (left) with GP14 class President Andy Johnston
19 GP14 from all over Ireland gathered at Cullaun Co. Clare over the weekend of 5-6th November for the last busy year event of 2022 with the Munster Championship at stake. There was a super turnout of crews from all generations…
2022 Champions of Champions – Ger Owens (RStGYC, left) with Ciara O’Tiarnaigh (Commodore, Sutton DC) and crew Mel Morris (Newtownards SC)
So many factors came into play for the 75th Anniversary of the Champions’ Cup (aka the Helmsman’s Championship or the All-Ireland) in GP 14s at Sutton Dinghy Club on October 8th/9th that its weather-imposed compression into a one-day series made…
Winner Bobby Driscoll (right) and Ross Kearney with the 2022 GP14 Youth Trophy at Newtownards
The GP14 youth championships looked set to be a great event, running alongside the Hot Toddy, which still attracted an excellent turnout for the time of year writes Ross Kearney The weather forecast potentially put a few off, with Saturday looking…
Strong wind conditions for the GP14 Hot Toddy event at Newtownards Sailing Club
GP14 champion Ger Owens reports on October's Hot Toddy event at Newtownards Sailing Club Newtownards was the venue for the GP14 annual Hot Toddy event. Last year's event at East Antrim was barely sailable yet despite the weekend's forecast, 32…
On the water judge Gordon Davies umpires the GP14-based Champions' Cup at Sutton Dinghy Club on Dublin Bay
Ireland's top GP14 dinghy sailors ruled the waves at the annual Helmsmans' Championships, rebranded as the Champions' Cup for this year's 75th edition, at Sutton Dinghy Club on Saturday. The defending title holder Ger Owens of the Royal St George…
Sutton at its summery best. The south-facing Sutton Dinghy Club - venue this weekend for the 75th All-Ireland and the inaugural Champions' Cup -is exactly at the centre of this image
The Race Officer In The Armchair is as big a pain as the Hurler On The Ditch, particularly when either is operating in hindsight. And they're only slightly less of a pest when they're throwing in their tuppence-worth of advice…
Event Organiser Colman Grimes and crewman Ross Gingles finishing fifth in Entry #1 in the GP14 Worlds at Skerries
There can have been few things more dispiriting in recent years than being in the key role in organising a major international sporting event in Ireland as it hung in the balance in the face of changing pandemic restrictions. Yet…

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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