Congratulations on your acquisition.   Enjoy  –  once the lockdown is eased and you are allowed to do so  …  …

However that is not a GP14 hull number;    even the very latest boats are still only in the 14000s.

It may perhaps be a moulding number,   or it is possible that the boat may not be a GP14.

Can you post some photos,  please?   (The file size needs to be no more than 512 KB,   and since you have tried twice and got an excess file size message this suggests that you will need to re-size your images before you can post them.)

Oliver

I do not recognize that plate, but I am also not on that side of the Atlantic. As it seems your boat is wood, the hull number should be carved into the hog, the thick wood “beam” that runs from bow to stern, just abaft or behind the centreboard case. If you can tell us this number, we can be of more help.

Claire,

The plate is that of the Ship & Boatbuilders’ National Federation,  which is/was a national trade body.   It became the British Marine Industries Federation in 1986,  then in 2008 it was renamed the British Marine Federation and finally, in 2015, it became British Marine.

I had not previously been aware that they issued any sort of a number,   and I suspect that the number is either the builder’s registration number with the Federation or an identifier for the boat in a generic register (covering all boats of all types) maintained by them.    Certainly it is not a GP14-specific identifier recognised by the Class Association,  and it is not something which is widely used to identify the particular boat.

Your photo of the hull identifies her as a Mk. 2 GP14.     The first Mk 2 was built in 1969 with sail number 7930;   that model was followed by the Mk 3,  first produced in 1977 with sail number 11487,  although that may not set an upper limit for the Mk 2 year and sail number because I imagine it is possible that some Mk 2 production continued for a limited period after the introduction of the Mk 3.

Most Mk 2 boats were built by Bourne Plastics at Nottingham,  with many more built by Thames Marine at Canvey Island,  and about 50 built by McComb Boats in Northern Ireland.

In passing,  a historical article about Bourne Plastics can be found here;  http://ournottinghamshire.org.uk/page/bourne_plastics_of_netherfield_langar.   They also built hulls for yachts,  including the Shipmate,  the Privateer 19 and the subsequent Privateer 20,  and the Bourne 35.

Thames Marine built primarily yachts,   some of them very well known,   and the GP14 appears to have been their only dinghy.  https://sailboatdata.com/builder/thames-marine-uk

The hull number should be visible inside the hull,  engraved on a metal plate glued to the hog aft of the centreboard case,  but don’t hold your breath;   more often than not these plates are now missing.    However if that plate is missing,  if you are lucky you may alternatively find a moulding number,  on a different adhesive plate;   if it is still present I think this will be on the side of the boat,  on the port side,  high up,  underneath the foredeck  –   but this too may have become detached and lost by now.    It has been suggested that the moulding number at this period incorporated the registered hull number,  as a 2-digit year code followed by the hull number,  although on some specific boats the numbers appear not to correspond to that suggested pattern.

Beyond that it is detective work,  and the necessary records and evidence may no longer exist!

Oliver

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Oliver Shaw.

No idea on that number,  unfortunately;   unless of course it is the truncated remains of a longer number.   A registered hull number for a Mk 2 boat could conceivably be a 4-digit number starting with 94.    Where is this number situated?

There are isolated examples of individual fleets  –  particularly at training establishments,  etc.  –  having their own number series,  for internal use only;   but 94 seems much too large a number for that to be the explanation.

Beyond that I am drawing a blank;   sorry.

Oliver

I suspect Oliver didn’t get a chance to look at the entire number in your photo. That number, 9946, is a plausible hull number for a Mark 2 GRP boat. The obvious care taken to produce the very neat characters suggests to me that this is very likely the true hull number. It would place the boat as having been produced in or around 1972, and probably moulded by Bourne Plastics.

Bruce

Thank you;   we live and learn.     Clicking on the image rather than just looking at what initially appears on the forum displays the whole of it,  and (as you suggest) I had seen only part of it,  without realising that it was only part.   And,  of course,  on a number which is now read as 9946 I concur with all your deductions.

Oliver