Celebrating 60 yrs of the GP14

It was a lovely summer evening on the Friday, and immediately we arrived we launched 'Aeolian' and went for a brief sail. It was the only the second time it had been on water in 10 years. Having just rescued No. 28 a few weeks previously. I had managed to stem the flow of inward water only a little bit since it’s trial sail the previous weekend.

The purpose of the visit was to celebrate 60yrs of the GP14 dinghy, designed by the famous Jack Holt. This weekend the Association managed to gather Sail No 2, 7, 28 (me) and 64. Aberdovey also happened to be the place the first GP14 was launched 60 yrs. previously.

On the Saturday we were greeted by persistent mist and light rain. We had a short briefing from the host club with dire warning about the 'Aberdovey bar' and tidal steams. Any adventurous sailing for the day however, was immediately scuppered as at least three of the GP's in the fleet badly leaked so as it turned out we were not able to travel far.

It was a great pleasure to be introduced to Searson Thompson; his company - Bell Woodworking - built most (possibly all) of the first GPs and also made kits available. His son Paul then tested them at Aberdovey in everything that the sea could throw at them. At age 99 (and he doesn't look it!) he still takes a keen interest in both the club and the class and he remains a Trustee of the Club. He is probably the only person still alive who has been closely involved with the class since outset, and who had a leading role in the class in the early days.

Despite singularly unattractive weather we all then launched and enjoyed a good sail almost out to the bar and then returned to the club for lunch ashore. We did venture over the bar but there was a big swell and generally quite lumpy. We were very conscious that we had a number of 60 year old boats. In the afternoon we went upriver as far as the depth of water permitted; the weekend was spring tides and we were approaching low water and the upper part of the estuary dries almost completely, but we still managed to get a reasonable distance before we ran out of water.