GP14 History

Back to GP14 main page

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GP14 CLASS AT NEYLAND YACHT CLUB

Neyland Yacht Club has a long tradition of GP14 sailing.  The first boats were raced at Neyland around 1963/64.  Soon a number of people saw the pleasure and excitement of these dinghies and many started building their own.  In the dinghy heyday there were three divisions of GP14’s sailing regularly at the Club.  The members also supported many Open, Regional, National and even World championships.  It was a common sight to see a convoy of about 8 GP’s set off for a race meeting, normally led by one of the early stalwarts, Jack Griffiths.  In those days thermos flasks and the likes of McDonalds were not available, so after about an hours driving everybody used to pull into lay-bys to boil the kettle on a primus stove for tea.

David & Dennis Griffiths sailing GP14 5569 - My Poppet

circa late 1960's

GP14 sailing dropped off during the late 80’s and 90’s due to the upsurge in single handers and the general decline of dinghy sailing nation-wide.  In the late 90’s Mick Murray brought down his Father in Law’s (Dennis Griffiths) GP14 “My Poppet” (5569) as an extra boat to help train the youngsters.  The following year Phil Leggett brought his GP down (Ketchup 1287) as an extra training boat and also to sail on Thursday nights.  Malcolm York and Sam Scadden then bought GP’s and with Paul Simes asking us to host the South Wales Area Championships in 2002 so started the resurgence of GP14 sailing at the Club.

Home