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GP14 dinghy sailing
Irish GP14 Dinghy Sailing News and Regatta Results
GP14 Worlds 2022 logo
Over 100 entries have been received for the GP14 Worlds at Skerries Sailing Club from 14-19 August. While early bird entry has now closed, it’s not too late to register and enter your GP14 as entries remain open up to…
Keith and Mateo Louden from Lough Foyle YC racing at the recent GP14 Northern Championships
Ross Kearney and Andrew Vaughan from Royal North YC on Belfast Lough topped the 26 strong GP14 fleet at the Ulster Championships over the third weekend this month. The event was hosted for the first time since 2018 by Lough…
Ger Owens & Mel Morris were the GP14 Spring Open winners
28 boats, six races, eight OCS’s and a whole lotta racing got the 2022 GP14 Ireland season off to a bang on the waters off Rosses Point in County Sligo over the weekend of 30Apr/1 May writes Ryan Devitt The forecast was…
Crew and helm - Ruan O'Tiarnaigh (left) with Tony Cleary in Palma in 2018
It was with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Tony Clery, One of Sutton Dinghy Club's most active, progressive and colourful Commodores writes Andy Johnston As remembered by a close family friend and former Commodore Muriel O'Tiarnaigh,…
The late Fred Ternan of Lough Erne
The boating community and those who treasured the maritime heritage of County Fermanagh’s Lough Erne learned with shock last weekend of the sudden death of Fred Ternan. Fred was a true son of Fermanagh. He was born on Inniscoonra Island…
GP14 Ireland is represented on The GP14 Association stand with Hon. Sec Andy Johnston (left) joining International Class President Curly Morris
The RYA Dinghy show is currently underway across in Farnborough in the UK and with the GP14 World Championships coming to Skerries in August, GP14 Ireland was represented on The GP14 Association stand with Hon. Sec Andy Johnston (who reports…
Ace helmsman Ross Kearney will address the GP14 agm this Thursday
With the Skerries GP14 dinghy World Championships scheduled for this August, Irish crews will be starting to dust down their boats and start their Worlds preparation in earnest. To help try and kick start the process and to make this…
GP14 dinghy 5458 is looking for a loving new home
A ready to go vintage GP14 dinghy restoration project has gone online that might be suitable for a Dublin-based renovation. Facebook poster Tim McAuley asks on the GP14 Facebook page "Is anyone here based in Ireland (Dublin better) and interested…
Some very close and competitive races were held at the GP14 Frostbites at Sutton Dinghy Club
The interest in the GP14 Frostbite Series on Dublin Bay continued with seven taking to the water last Sunday morning for some very close and competitive races. Curly Morris with Josh Porter upfront joined Sam Street and Josh Lloyd and…
GP14 training for the 2022 World Championships at Skerries Sailing Club has begun with a breezy session on Dublin Bay at Sutton Dinghy Club
The Irish GP14 fleet will visit three coasts of Ireland in the build-up to the World Championships on the east coast at Skerries next August. Although there is no trip to the south coast scheduled, the packed eight-event calendar sees…
Munster GP14 Champions Hugh McNally (crew) and Alan Blay (helm, Sutton DC) with GP14 Ireland President Michael Collender at Cullaun SC in County Clare
With the GP14 Worlds 2022 at Skerries from 14th to 19th August now firmly on the horizon, GP14 Ireland has been busy using the current Autumn to stage events that were pandemic-postponed from the Spring and early summer. But while…
The Cullaun USP - the lake is so small and perfectly formed that the hotshots can’t open out super-leads
The next event on the GP14 class calendar is the Munster Championships to be held at Cullaun Sailing Club in County Clare. As regular Afloat readers will know, the event should have been its first event back in April, but…
GP 14 Hot Toddy at East Antrim Boat Club - Eighteen entered but some fell foul of the weather
The annual East Antrim Boat Club's Hot Toddy GP 14 meet was back last weekend after Lockdown, albeit with a vengeance. Thirty-five-knot winds and a nasty chop on Larne Lough on the east coast of County Antrim on Saturday played…
GP14s will race for Hot Toddy honour at East Antrim Boat Club
As with so many events over the last 18 months, East Antrim Boat Club's annual Hot Toddy GP 14 event suffered the effects of the pandemic but next weekend (23rd/24th October) the class will take to the waters of Larne…
Fresh from victory on Lough Erne, the 2021 GP14 National Champion Ger Owens from the Royal St. George Yacht Club is likely to be back in action on his home waters of Dublin Bay for September's Autumn Open & Youth Championship.…
Light air sailing for the last two races of the GP14 championships on Lough Erne
In a clean sweep of the GP14 Irish calendar this season, Ger Owens sailing with Brendan Brogan of the Royal St. George Yacht Club won both of today's final races of the Irish Nationals Championships on Lough Erne to take…

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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