GP14 Sailing Forums Forum Boat identification – Model and year

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    • #15066
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi Guys,

      Can anyone help with identifying the model and year of manufacture of my boat?

      The sail number is 10164 and there is a plate with that number stamped on it in the hull. Also there are a number of plates riveted about the place with big clues. Please see attached photos.

      Thanks

    • #15074
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      My records show that sail number 10164 was issued in 1972.

      The definitive “Class Bible” on the history of the GP14 hull is the article by Roy Nettleship which appears in both The Basic Boating Book and 50 Years On The Water;    the latter was our 50th anniversary anthology,  and is long out of print (but may still be available via the usual second-hand book sources),  but there is a scan of my copy on this site.    And a fascinating book it is;   well worth a read.

      The record suggests from the date of your boat that she is almost certainly a Mk. II GRP boat.    A fairly conclusive confirmation will be found if the side buoyancy tanks extend right aft to the transom leaving a gap between them in the centre of the transom (to accommodate transom scuppers) AND there is a former for a mainsheet horse across the aft of the transom.   When built,  the Mk II had transom sheeting,  and although some have since been converted to centre sheeting removing the former for the horse amounts to a degree of modest surgery,  so even on boats which have been converted to centre sheeting the former is usually left in place.   (The Mk. I boats had a different buoyancy arrangement,  and the Mk III had no former for the mainsheet horse.)

      Incidentally Roy’s article mentions (some of) the various builders who produced Mk II boats but does not mention your one,  Bossoms Boatyard.   They are a well known boatyard,  still in business http://www.bossoms.com,  and it is interesting that they were among those who produced this model of GP14.

      Hope this helps.

      Talking of Toy Nettleship,  there is a superb quote attributed to him.   Apparently he was on the Association stand at the Dinghy Show in about 1989 when a punter asked him how long a GP14 would last.   “I’ve no idea, ”  said Roy,  “the design’s only forty years old.”   And as we approach our 70th anniversary some of the boats from the very first year of the class are still going strong!

       

      Oliver

    • #15083
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Oliver… you are fountain of knowledge and reading some of the other posts on this forum I’m amazed by your knowledge and the speed at which you provide information. Well done and many thanks. I’m really glad I joined the association.

      Dave.

    • #18308
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi Guy’s

      Just acquired an old wooden GP 14, my second one to do up as I don’t like to see them die as I learnt to sail in one when I was 14/15.

      I am now 68 and don’t bend like I used too so can’t miss that boom.

      The hull and sail number is 10749 and I was wondering if anybody had any information at all about it, a few area’s of ply bottom need replacing but all in all not in bad shape and certainly not as bad as the last one I rebuilt 10 years ago.

      Not had the sails out of the bag yet but I’m told number on the sails match the hull.

      Thanks of listening, Kind Regards Nigel

      • #18316
        Oliver Shaw
        Moderator

        I am now 68 and don’t bend like I used too so can’t miss that boom.

         

        And I am 76 …

        However that boom is one of the higher ones, so far as dinghies are concerned.    In a (now rare,  for me) GP14 outing last weekend,  having “retired” from dinghies in favour of the yacht just a couple of years ago,  the boom was no problem.

        In all seriousness,  familiarity with the boat is the crucial key.    I remember 55 or more years ago racing Fireflies as a student.   They have a much lower boom,  and one of the “in” crazes at the time for thermal headgear was the knitted bobble cap.   Mine happened to have lost its bobble.   All went well,  for an extended period,  racing at the highest level,  until my mother knitted me a new cap,  this time complete with bobble.   And for some time thereafter I was forever catching the bobble on the boom.   Not my head itself,  just the extra height.

        Familiarity,  particularly familiarity with the individual class of boat,  is the crucial key.   Hope this is an encouragement;   the familiarity will come,  with regular sailing.

         

        Oliver

    • #18312
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      Assuming that this is indeed the hull number,  rather than merely the number on the sails (and you do need to check this point),  my data indicates that the numbers 10671 to 10904 were issued in 1974.

      If you contact the office,  and are a Member of the Association,  they will be happy to provide a digital copy of our records of the boat.   This should include the original measurement form,  which will include the names of the builder and the original owner (and I think the owner’s club,  if any);   and the record will also include anything else which has passed the desk in the intervening years.    This may well include a list of previous owners,  and their clubs,  for at least as long as successive owners have been Members and the boat has been registered.   However addresses and phone numbers will be redacted,  for reasons of data protection.

      Who knows what else may turn up?    Championship wins???

       

      Oliver

      • This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Oliver Shaw.
    • #18318
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi I was wondering if boat 12399 is still about and if so which club it is associated with as it’s the boat I leant to sail on with my Father in the early 90’s.

    • #18319
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      Nathan,

      Welcome to the club!

      First step is to ask the Association Office if they have any info.   If they have no current info,  which is entirely possible,  then it becomes a matter of detective work.

      I am very conscious that I have lost track of my once much loved Tantrum,  my erstwhile GP14 no. 4229,  (built by R. R. Sills,  the Rolls Royce of GP14 builders of the time),  which I owned in the late sixties and early seventies when she was a reasonably modern boat,  and I confess that I haven’t even started the detective trail for her.   I was dismayed to see her,  at a distance,  after I had sold her,  and to see what the new owner had done to obliterate my trademark (and patent?) colour scheme (Photo attached).     If anyone has any news  …

       

      Oliver

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      • #18323
        Oliver Shaw
        Moderator

        And two photos of the same “patent” colour scheme on more recent GP14s:

         

        Oliver

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    • #18680
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I am also new to the Forum as from now(first post).

      Oliver I was very interested to hear that you mentioned Bossoms as one of the builders of the GP? I worked there for a while many years ago and not a word was ever said about building GP’s, they were building at the time the Bosun dinghy’s and are still doing so as far as I understand. Funny that i should look at your reply as my first read on the Forum. Pure coincedence.

      Justin

       

    • #18681
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      The source for saying that Bossom’s Boatyard built at least some GP14s was the first post in this string;   the member’s boat has a Bossom’s builder’s plate,  and he attaches a photo.

      Agreed that I had not previously known that their output included GPs,  and they are not mentioned in the literature.    However as a well known boatyard I am not entirely surprised that they clearly did build some;   well,  this one at least.

       

      Oliver

    • #18695
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      More on Bossom’s Boatyard:

      I have just had an email from a Past President of the Association,  who cautions that he is plumbing the depths of memory,  so he may be a little shaky on his facts.   Nonetheless I think this is worth making public,  with that caveat.

      He tells me that he can recall a meeting of the Committee about this.   He thinks one of our builders had ceased trading (possibly Dobsons of Shardlow) and the proprietor (name now forgotten) of Bossoms had traded  with the moulder, supplying boats as a retailer.   So, at short notice and with mutual interest at stake, they took on moulding GPs for a time.

      I happen to have many of the old Committee records in my possession at the moment for research purposes,   but I haven’t yet started work on that project,  and without a date for this meeting it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to trawl them for this one piece of information.    However it may perhaps surface when the research project gets underway.

       

      Oliver

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