>   (interestingly the boat has a raised arched track over the back of the boat to receive the mainsheet rigging so I’m keen to know a bit more about this as it certainly doesn’t feature on most GP’s)

That sounds like the full-width sheet horse arrangement,  which became immensely popular in the sixties,  and was was for a long time almost the standard arrangement.

Transom sheeting was normal at that time,  and kickers of the day were relatively simple affairs  –  none of your modern powerful cascade tackles  –  of only about 2:1 or 3:1 purchase.   So the kicker was used only to prevent the boom lifting unduly when off the wind,  and particularly during gybing;   spars were not expected to bend significantly,  and all flattening of the sail was done by the mainsheet.   Very different from today’s race rigs.

The full width sheet horse allowed the sheet to pull down on the sail more vertically when the boom was over the quarter,  as would be the case primarily when off the wind,  but also when close-hauled if it was necessary to ease sheets because of the wind strength;  and thus it helped to flatten the sail.

It was an excellent system,  but it became redundant when modern powerful kickers were introduced,  and when racers’ preferences moved from full transom sheeting to either centre sheeting or the hybrid system which is almost ubiquitous today.

Hope this helps.

Oliver

Hi I’m doing a transom replacement the traveller you have sounds like the one I have on mine

To get it off unscrew and remove the track you’ll then see 3inch or so screws that hold the timber arch onto the deck and transom

Hope this is of some help

Hi Jamie,

I have no experience with Series 1 boats but have recently finished a Series 2,  so in answer to your question  ( What is the suggested order to tackle these repairs?  My thoughts were transom, hull sides then deck last. Is this a sensible order?)       I’d say your proposed order of repair is the correct one to proceed with. All the best.

Windy

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Windychippy.

Jamie,

I’m sorry if I’m sounding a bit unsupportive of your venture, but there are other things to consider when contemplating the restoration of a wooden boat that has been stored for so long, and glue is quite fundamental.

The glue used in the 1960’s to glue boats together is likely to be Cascamite, which is a powdered resin turned into a paste by adding water. It is a very good glue and lasts for a long time, but no one building wooden boats in the 60’s could have imagined that they were making something that would still be a thing 60 years later. There is a chance that the glue will have lost bonding strength over the years and every  joint in your hull may be currently held together with a brittle resin which will stand little effort to break. If you repair the bits that are obviously in need of attention, and then lovingly paint and varnish the boat, it could simply break apart on first sailing. I have had an old wooden boat which I spent hundreds on, replacing the hull, only for it to disintegrate while sailing it, and can attest to the death of a hull through wood glue ageing out.

So my suggested order to tackle your issues is to have a good prod about and see if the boat is in fact still glued together. If it’s not, at least it’s easier to take apart to salvage the lovely wood that boats were made from in those days.

There is a sentimental value to attempting to restore an old GP14, and it can take a lot of labour and money to do so, time that you could have spent buying a cheap GRP or FRP GP14 boat and sailing it.

I think the first thing I’d do is try to sail it as is. Even if its for 20 minutes with holes taped up. This will tell you straight away whether you have a leaking case, split hog/keel and all sorts of other things that its much, much better to know before you start than to find after you’ve finished. Leaking case isn’t a drama to to with the boat in a million pieces, and there is an argument for re-bedding it anyway but I think id be tempted to leave it alone if its water tight.

As for tackling the job, the order of business sounds sensible but id take the decks off before starting any on the other jobs. This will improve access enormously and will tell you how badly the glue has weathered. Depending on who built the boat the frames and panels will be glued with Resourcinol which is much, much better. Cascamite was (and frequently still is) used on the decks because its doesn’t leave glue lines.