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Irish Hopes Remain Buoyed In GP14 British Nationals

9th August 2017
Moville’s McGuinness brothers with Sligo’s Keith Louden and Alan Thomson in a relaxed mood at the GP14 British Nationals in Looe Moville’s McGuinness brothers with Sligo’s Keith Louden and Alan Thomson in a relaxed mood at the GP14 British Nationals in Looe Credit: Andrew Johnston

#GP14 - Defending champions Shane MacCarthy and Andy Thompson of Greystones lead the Irish charge in fourth, with Moville’s McGuinness brothers in sixth, after three days of sailing in the GP14 British Nationals at Looe in Cornwall.

Meanwhile, things got off to a better start on day three yesterday (Tuesday 8 August) for Sutton Dinghy Club’s two crews after a black Monday.

Peter Boyle (with father Stephen) and Hugh Gill (with Conor Twohig) found themselves among the 26 black-flagged competitor’s across that day’s two races.

Tuesday saw more positive results. Peter Boyle, a Silver fleet entry and one of the youngest helms competing, managed a 12 and 14 in yesterday’s races – enough for the Boyles to pull themselves right up the field to 28th.  

Hugh Gill, meanwhile, managed a superb ninth along with a 20th to move up to 17th overall. 

With today (Wednesday 9 August) a rest day, there will be two more races on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 August to close out the week. 

In other Irish placings at Looe, Keith Louden and Alan Thomson (Sligo Yacht Club) lie 10th with Curly Morris and Laura McFarland (East Antrim Boat Club/Newtownards Sailing Club) in 16th.

Bill and James Johnson from Lough Foyle Yacht Club lie 24th with the Lough Foyle youth pairing of Gareth and Richard Gallagher not far behind at 26th.

With two bullets on Tuesday, Mike Senior (with Chris White) leads Ian Dobson (with Andy Tunnicliffe) and Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta winner Fergus Barnham (with Andy Hunter) in the podium positions.

Published in GP14
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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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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