Seriously Early Vintage GP14 – free to restorer
Boat Number
3
Price
FREE
Contact Details
0151-724-1127
acapella13934@talktalk.net
Item Location
Liverpool
Description
GP14 no. 3, Quiver, dating from 1951
I acquired this exceptionally early boat free gratis from Norman Quarry some years ago, because he was unable to take on the needed restoration. The declared intention was that I would at least give her safe storage, which I have done – albeit outdoors, with a view to my undertaking a restoration at a future date.
Sadly, that restoration has not happened, and I have reluctantly now decided that at age 80 and with declining energies and also with other commitments – not least completing a light refit on A Capella and then a major refit of my other vintage GP14 (Snowgoose, no. 64) it is time to recognise that I am unlikely ever to get round to restoring Quiver. So I am offering her, again free gratis, to any GP14 enthusiast who will take her on.
Her principal virtue, possibly her only one, is her seriously early date; registered number 3, dating from 1951. I have some early documentation, including a measurement form dated August 1965 – which is presumably not the original measurement form; that form gives the builder as Bell Woodworking.
She needs a major restoration. Condition of frame unknown, but I would expect more good than bad, but do expect some localised rot. At least some of the hull plywood needs replacing (some is broken away altogether), as does the kingplank, and very probably at least some of the deck planking. All of this is well within the range of what other restorers have undertaken with other early GP14s in recent years.
No trailer, but she is currently sitting on a brand new launching trolley (part of a combi system) from Chris Brown, which could be available by separate negotiation.
No mast, but wooden boom (I think). I am fairly sure she has a full suit of terylene (dacron) sails, plus a much-prized suit of cotton sails, by Jeckells from memory, which again from memory date from 1958. In some respects that is the optimum date nowadays for cotton sails, because it is the year that terylene was first permitted in the class; so some owners bought new cotton sails in time for the start of the season, and then not long afterwards switched to terylene, and thus 1958 cottons have often had little actual use.