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Ger Owens & Mel Morris Win GP14 Purcell Trophy at Greystones Harbour

31st May 2017
Get Owens & Mel Morris in the lead at the GP14 Purcell Trophy off Greystones in County Wicklow Get Owens & Mel Morris in the lead at the GP14 Purcell Trophy off Greystones in County Wicklow

The Purcell Trophey 2017 was hosted by Greystones Sailing Club in their east coast new harbour and clubhouse at County Wicklow. After an hours wait on Saturday morning for the mist to clear the 26–strong GP14 fleet finally launched.

Race 1 got underway with a clean start and no recall (unusual in this fleet). Ger Owens & Mel Morris were back in business with a win, Shane McCarthy & Damian Bracken taking second with Alan Blay & David Johnston in third.

Race 2 started with the wind starting to build. Shane and Damian took the win with Ger & Mel in second and John & Donal McGuiness in third.

Race 3 started with gusts of winds of 26–knots. Alan & David retired with gear failure. Ger & Mel continued to dominate and brought home their second win for the day. Shane & Damian picked up an OCD so Colman Grimes & Eoin Boyle came home in second with Alistar Duffin & Andy Corkhill in third.

Race 4 started on Sunday morning with lighter winds and sunshine, Ger & Mel once again on form with another win and Alan & David with their boat repaired took 2nd just ahead of Shane & Damian in 3rd.

Race 5 was a closely fought battle between Ger & Mel and Shane & Damian with Ger & Mel winning and Shane & Damian close behind in 2nd. Simon Culley & Libby Tierney pulled off a fantastic move on the downward leg by going close to the shore and took 3rd place.

Race 6 was cancelled as the wind died.

So the gold fleet was won by Ger & Mel.

The silver fleet was dominated by the Gallagher brothers, sailing well once again.

The bronze fleet was won by Josh Porter & Sina Hartman in their first event.

Results downloadable below.

Downloads

Published in GP14
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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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