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  • in reply to: Buying a boat. Will it fit in my garage ? #18159
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    It is very difficult for anyone to advise you at arm’s length about a boat which you can sail with your dodgy back,   but if you are able to sail dinghies at all (rather than being restricted to ballasted boats) then the GP14 would seem to be a strong candidate.    I have personal knowledge of several individuals over the years who have successfully sailed GP14s with dodgy backs,    including,  very close to home,  my late mother at a time when she had become the oldest lady member of our club still sailing,  and despite serious spinal difficulties.

    All boats are compromises,  and the GP14 is no exception.   She is heavy to manhandle ashore,  but in most cases much of the physical effort of that can be done by the car rather than by your own muscles.  The other side of the same coin is that the benefit of that same weight is experienced as soon as you are afloat;    this is one of the reasons why she is such a superb sea boat.   Indeed Jack Holt,  her designer,  answering a question from Dave Bower,  ascribed her seakeeping abilities solely to her very adequate displacement.

    However she is physically demanding to hold upright in strong winds.    So for cruising,  and indeed all non-racing purposes,  I would strongly recommend that you consider fitting good modern reefing kit;   roller reefing (i.e. with a full reefing capability,  not merely furling) for the genoa,  and slab reefing for the main.    This may be even more important in the light of your back problems.    In light winds you will of course be very thankful for having the full sail area available,  but in stronger winds you will be very thankful for the ability to reduce sail area at will.   See my paper on Reefing Systems in the Members’ Library on this site.

    I believe that the GP14 is most certainly worth trying;    but you won’t really know until you try one out.

    Hope this is helpful,

     

    Oliver

     

    in reply to: Buying a boat. Will it fit in my garage ? #18149
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    Good question!

    I think the boat will fit in your garage on a combi-trailer,  but before being certain I need to check one dimension,  which I may be able to check this afternoon.

    My garage is a little larger than yours,  but it is partly used for storage.   However the internal length,  excluding storage shelving at the far end,  is 4.8 m,  and I can just get my GP14s in without having to put the far end of the boat underneath the shelving.   However it is a trifle tight,  and combi-trailers do differ between different designs,  so when looking at any particular boat for sale it would be sensible for you to actually measure her total length when on the trailer.   It is also worth mentioning that if your garage has the popular up-and-over type of door the arc through which it swings takes a little out of the usable internal length for heights above mid-height;   it is possible to have a situation where the boat will fit inside the garage,  but you may then be unable to close the door.

    Another possible option,  depending on your circumstances,  may be to put the boat in the garage on her launching trolley only,  and store the road base of the combi-unit elsewhere;   typically this will be slightly shorter and slightly narrower than when she is on the road base.

    The width is a bit more of an issue.   My garage door aperture is 2.2 m wide,    and the usable width of the garage itself is a little more than that.    I think there is more than 10 cm clearance as the boats go through the door,  but I will measure up as soon as I can,  and get back to you.   However,  again this is a dimension on which different combi-trailers may differ slightly,  so when viewing any particular boat with a view to possible purchase I would suggest that you actually measure the width.

    Your suggestion of a two-part mast would of course take the boat out of class;  but if it solves a particular issue for you and you are not racing that would not greatly matter.   However if you dispose of the original mast that might make the boat more difficult to sell on later;    while if you find somewhere to store the standard mast you have already solved the problem anyway  …   …

    That apart,  I am not aware of any two-part masts as such,  and I would be very cautious about the structural strength of such an arrangement.   A better solution along those lines might be to re-rig the boat with a sliding gunter rig;   that can be sufficiently close to the original sail plan for you to get away with using the same sails,  but it does offer the shorter mast,  which is then extended upwards by the yard when the mainsail is set.   It is worth noting that both Heron and Mirror 10 dinghies were originally designed with sliding gunter rigs,  but later changes in their respective class rules allow them to set bermudian rigs,   and the two types of rig are very nearly equivalent once the sails are set.   This would of course entail acquiring the mast and yard for a gunter rig;   with your practical skills you might choose to make these,   or there is a reasonable chance of finding ones second-hand (which could be adapted if necessary)  –  on eBay or otherwise,  or (at a price) you could have them made  –  Collars of Oxford are one of the headline names for making wooden spars,  http://www.collars.co.uk.

    Another option is to find somewhere to store your standard GP14 mast,  and there are at least two options there.    First,  many sailing clubs  –  and I would strongly suggest that you consider joining a club anyway  –  can offer storage space for masts.    Second,  you may be able to store the mast at home,  somewhere other than inside the garage.   I myself have installed a set of ladder hooks along the inside of my perimeter fence,  which I use for that purpose.    I have occasionally known of other people who have done similarly along one wall of the house,   perhaps under the eaves.   The vast majority of GP14s have metal masts,  and these will not need weather protection while in storage.

    In the unlikely event of your buying a boat with a wooden mast,   something which nowadays is exclusively the preserve of vintage boats,  and which are very rare and highly prized within the vintage fleet,  you could consider buying a suitable length of large diameter plastic drainpipe (with end caps) to provide weather protection when the mast is in storage.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Jib Halyard Sheave #18118
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    As a temporary stop-gap expedient,  since (if you are who I think you are) you are local to myself (indeed a member of the same club),  I can lend you a fully working IYE mast  –  or at least it was fully working last time I used it.

    But that is only a loan,  and only a temporary one;  this mast serves on one of my vintage boats until such time as I get my wooden mast for her sorted out.

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: PY RACING HANDICAP for 'VINTAGE BOATS' #18088
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    For what it is worth,  around four years ago a friend and I campaigned his GP14 no. 47,  Caltha,  in the Vintage Regatta which was run alongside the End of Season Championship at Bassenthwaite.    Also competing in the vintage class were Stewart Elder with Aeolian (no. 28),  and Steve Parry with “The Old Yellow Boat” which latter was sailing under a modern rig.   Caltha was sailing under original rig,  with the standard (small) jib and no spinnaker,  and (I am reasonably sure,  if memory serves correctly) wooden spars.    It was also absolutely her first time out after restoration,  with nil tuning and working up as yet,  and I discovered in the first race that the slatted floorboards were an inch or two too long   –   so they were just long enough to hook up the tail of the mainsheet in a bit of a tangle and cause chaos!!

    You will understand that we had a significant competitive disadvantage.

    If I remember correctly the Vintage Fleet had the same start as the main fleet,  but sailed fewer laps.    My personal satisfaction was that despite our competitive disadvantage we were nonetheless overlapping the tail-enders of the main fleet,  despite their much faster rig.

     

    Oliver

     

    in reply to: PY RACING HANDICAP for 'VINTAGE BOATS' #18083
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    That is an interesting proposition.

    My understanding is that it is something which CVRDA do as routine,  and they publish the handicaps which they use;  http://www.cvrda.org/cvrda-handicaps/handicap-list/

    Interpreting that list,  for the GP14,  the first point to note is that these handicaps are all based on the 1965 Portsmouth Yardstick system,  which is the system which was in use when many of these boats were reasonably new.   This used a rating of 100 for a nominal standard boat,  rather than somewhere around 1150-1200 for the same nominal standard boat today.   (Compare Firefly 100 in 1965,  and 1172 today,  as well as GP14 100 in 1965 (sailing with genoa) and 1130 today;  and I rather suspect that the Firefly will have evolved less far than the GP14,  because Fireflies always were the strictest of the one-design classes.)   Today’s system affords greater precision (or discrimination),  although not necessarily greater accuracy;   and as a physics examiner I use the terms accuracy and precision in their technical meaning within that discipline.

    Interpreting further,  for a GP14 built before 1965,   with alloy spars and dacron (terylene) sails,  100 if sailing with a genoa,  and 103 if sailing with the standard (small) jib.   For a GP14 built after 1965,   with alloy spars and dacron (terylene) sails,  reduce these figures by 1,  to give 99 or 102 respectively.   Note that there is no mention of whether a spinnaker is used,  and if memory serves correctly that is fully in keeping with the handicap figures used in the sixties,  when I was regularly racing and also officiating at a club which offered both class racing and handicap racing;    the figures are the same,  and there was no handicap penalty for using a spinnaker.

    Elsewhere (http://www.cvrda.org/cvrda-handicaps/),  they make clear that these are base figures which they then adjust according to the degree of originality or modernisation of the boat;   in particular,  “We also allow the race committee to adjust the handicap a bit dependent upon the ‘state of tune’; a fully modernised boat will expect to have their handicap lowered a little and a boat sailing with original (or lovingly made replacement!) wooden mast or fittings will be blessed with a little higher number. Boats using original cotton sails should have at least 6 points added to the handicap, as the sails are no longer competitive with Dacron, and it will be nice to see more cotton sailed boats racing!  A boat with new cotton sails should have her handicap adjusted as seen fit by the race committee.”    Note that this is vitally important!

    For Class Association events we have not,  so far as I am aware,  adopted this approach;  but where we have had modern boats and a vintage/classic fleet sailing at the same event we have had a different course (and a different start time) for the older boats,  which have had their own separate set of results.   There is perhaps scope for using such a handicap system,  and it is something which we might perhaps consider if we get enough entries to make it worthwhile.   When entries have been only very small I suspect that it is sufficient if those sailing know which boats are highly original and which are modernised,  and take their own satisfaction from their individual performance in the light of those differences.

    For club events,  it is a matter for individual clubs to consider whether to adopt such a system,  and there is nothing to prevent you approaching your own club with a proposal.   The big difficulty would be how to standardise the 1965 Portsmouth Yardsticks above against the 2019 Portsmouth Number (1130 for the GP14),  because the whole point of the exercise is that these numbers apply to boats with significant differences in their performance.    We do not have a 1965 class which can be reliably regarded as having identical performance to a 2019 top race-spec GP14,  although the Firefly is perhaps a reasonable comparison boat for a 1965 top race-spec GP14.   However my understanding is that clubs do have a degree of discretion in how they handicap different boats,  so one approach would be for them to look at past race results for both modern and older GP14s,  compare their elapsed times,  and hence devise an ad hoc handicap for the older boats,  and then keep that under review.    If they want a starting point for that exercise they might like to very tentatively see what happens to the results if they give 1965-spec GP14s the same handicap as a Firefly,  i.e. 1172,  on the basis that they both had the same handicap (100) in 1965 (when the GP14 was new);    that amounts to a 3.7% adjustment.   I am not making any predictions whether that would give sensible results,  but it might at least be worth applying it to some past elapsed times and seeing whether the corrected times are then sensible.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Oliver Shaw.
    in reply to: Jib Halyard Sheave #18073
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    This does indeed appear to be an IYE mast.     If you want to stay with this mast you will not find a new replacement fitting,  as they have not been manufactured for many decades;   so unless you are lucky enough to find one second-hand I would suggest buying a modern dinghy sheave box of a different make and do whatever metalwork on the mast is necessary to fit it.   The fitting will not be straightforward,  since you will probably have to bring the halliard down the centre of the mast rather than down the luff track,  and then exit at the bottom;  a significant amount of alteration,  and metalwork.

    However I concur with Chris,  that you might do better to go for a younger metal mast for all the reasons that he states.     And in addition the IYE masts are all now extremely old,  so expect to have problems of corrosion and of cracking,  both of which will erode the structural strength of the mast.     It is at least worth following up Chris’s offer of help with the mast.

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Old GP14 #17985
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    According to my records,  sail numbers 8001-9000 were issued in 1968-71;   so 1969 would seem to be a very good guess for no. 8367.   However if you ask Julie,  at the Association Office,   for a copy of our digitised records of the boat this should include a copy of the original measurement form,  which should give both the date of build and the name of the builder.

    Before going any further with this enquiry,  though,  you need to verify that this is indeed the registered hull number.   It is the latter which matters,  rather than the number which happens to be on the sails,  because it is not unusual for older boats to have acquired second-hand sails at some point in their lives;   and when that has happened the owner at the time may or may not have had the sail number altered to the correct one for the boat.

    If the boat is made of wood and does not have under-floor buoyancy she will be a Series 1 boat,  although the converse is not wholly reliably (because a very few Series 1 boats have been converted to have under-floor buoyancy);   and Series 1 is also entirely consistent with this hull number.   In that case the registered hull number should be carved into the hog,  abaft the centreboard case.   You will almost certainly need to lift a floorboard to see it,  but once the floorboard has been lifted the number should be clearly visible.

    Officially the Association can still supply plans for the Series 1 boat,  although I am not sure how easy it would be to actually do so nowadays …    However you will probably find that you do not in fact need the plans in order to restore the boat.

    There is a truly vast photographic record of restorations and other work on these early boats available on the GP14 Owners Online Community site,  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GP14_Community/info.     This is independent of the Association,  but we enjoy very warm reciprocal relations,  and each organisation supports the other.

    Best wishes for your project,  please let us know how you get on,  and do feel free to ask for any further help you may need.

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Forestay replacement #17953
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    Chris makes a very valid point about the distinction between cruising needs and racing needs.

    Agreed that jib/genoa halliard failure is somewhat unlikely,  but one may feel that sound seamanship requires the boat to nonetheless be able to withstand that event if it does in fact happen;   that is a personal decision.

    I am less sure about “the mast is going nowhere due to the gate”;    it may indeed stay in the boat,  but the forces involved are potentially very large,  and I can see the potential for irreversible damage should the forestay be not strong enough to handle the load in the event of genoa halliard failure.   However modern masts are specifically designed to be able to bend,  which does mitigate that risk to some degree.

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Forestay replacement #17949
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    The design of both the GP14 and of sailing dinghies more generally has evolved over the 70 years since the boat was designed (designed,  and protopype produced,  late 1949).   Historically,  the forestay supported the luff of the jib when sailing,  and the jib was hanked onto the forestay in order to allow it to do so,  as was normal at that period;   but with the advent of greater rig tensions (from about the sixties onwards) that role became redundant.

    You are absolutely right in thinking that with today’s evolved rigging practices two requirements still remain;   to support the mast in the dinghy park (with no sails set),  and also to support the mast when sailing if for any reason the headsail is no longer set.   The second,  in particular,  requires adequate strength.

    At least some GP14s have a (wire) forestay of much smaller diameter than the shrouds,  and although in strict seamanship terms that may cause raised eyebrows I have never heard of one actually breaking under normal load.

    The most usual modern practice seems to be to secure the forestay to the stemhead fitting by a length of line,  but I at least have always used several turns of the line,  so that there are at least six parts of the line sharing the load.    I think that using just a single part is probably not strong enough.   If elastic is used,  I suggest that this should be additional to the several turns of (non-stretch) line;   the purpose the elastic is only to pull the forestay taut when the full rig tension is on,  not to be part of the securing system when no headsail is set.

    In principle I cannot see any clear reason for necessarily choosing wire over dyneema,  provided the ends of the dyneema can be properly terminated,  but I am not sure how one could best achieve those terminations.   Certainly not by tieing knots in the rope;   a couple of years ago the RYA put out a safety advisory bulletin about the use of such ropes,  and in essence it seems that the strength is vastly reduced by forcing the rope into tight curves,  as is almost inevitable when tieing knots.   Professionally made hard eyesplices at each end of the dyneema might be strong enough,  but it might turn out to be simpler and perhaps cheaper to use wire.

    The class Rules do not appear to specify the material,  so they leave that to the owner’s choice.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Oliver Shaw.
    in reply to: Stepping mast single-handed #17816
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    Seamus,

    That sounds like a sounds like very good system,  and it is one that I had never even thought of,  and neither have I previously heard of anyone else doing it.   Well done.

    However like my system,  it depends on someone standing inside the boat.   That is normally regarded as putting an unfair strain on the hull;   but at my weight (12 stone) it is perfectly OK with a wooden GP14 provided she is well supported on the trailer,  and the fact that the wooden GP14 is massively strong for its size greatly helps.

    I leave it to others to decide whether any particular plastic GP14 is strong enough,  but I caution that there were ocasional issues of structural failure in the early examples even when new.    How well the boat is supported is even more important in such cases.

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: What year is my GP14? #17811
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    According to my records sail number 12650 was issued in 1985.   But do check that the sail number is correct for the boat;   it is not unusual for older boats to have second-hand sails,  in which case the sail number may or may not have been updated when the sail was moved to a different boat.

    The definitive number is the registered hull number.  On Series 2 boats this should be carved into the aft face of the centreboard case,  just above the cockpit sole;    on series 1 boats it should be carved into the hog just abaft the centreboard case,  and you will normally need to lift a floorboard to see it.

    I can’t help with plastic boats,  except to say that with reasonable luck you may be able to trace a moulder’s plate or a builder’s plate.

    You could also ask the Association office for a digital copy of our records for your boat;  and even if the only number you have is the number on the sail you could at least see whether th records appear to be consistent with your boat.

    Beyond that,  if you cannot make a positive identification it becomes detective work!

    If she happens to be a plastic boat,  if you post some photos we can probably between us all identify the model and very possibly the builder,  and establish a date range.

    One of the best insurers of all is Craftinsure,  via the Association group policy.   They may not be the cheapest,  but they are undoubtedly one of the best,  and you get what you pay for.    It helps that their Underwriter is a sailing man himself,  so he properly understands the risks;   their claims settlement is first class;  and they are well used to the fact that with older boats some of the identification information may be lost in the mists of time.

    My personal experience of them,  over very many years,  has been truly excellent,  and we have built up a great deal of mutual trust.   Certainly in my case they are very well used to working with incomplete dating information.     Give them your best estimate of the date,  make clear that it is a best estimate,  tell them how you arrived at that date,  and what you do know and also what you don’t know.     I have done that with my trailer-sailer yacht,  and they are entirely happy with that.

    Hope this heps,

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Floor Boards #17678
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    Although I don’t conclusively know,  I rather suspect that they may well have used ramin.   That suspicion is for no better reason that that it was a popular hardwood at the time,  and I have very definitely known of it being used in boat building in situations where its light appearance was specifically wanted (e.g. in contrasting coloured strips in laminated rubbing beads,  etc.),  and I vaguely recollect that early floorboards were often whitish in colour.   However it is rated as non-durable,  which is an argument against its choice.

    If they did indeed use ramin,  this timber has been seriously over-exploited in the past,  and is now officially listed as an endangered species,  so it is unlikely to be available (except perhaps second-hand).    Online references tell us that most of the limited amount of ramin now harvested is the result of illegal logging.

    But if I am right in that guess,  it follows that you are going to have to choose something else,  which allows you to start with a clean slate.

    However I happen to have a set of vintage GP14 floorboards in my garage (destined for Snowgoose at some future stage),  source and builder unknown,  which although well weathered appear to be a medium hard and medium close-grained timber with a reddish colour;  so they,  at least,  are clearly not ramin.    I don’t think they are any of the mahoganies,  but I could be mistaken.

    If you cannot identify (or can no longer obtain) the original timber I suggest it might be sensible to consider either cedar,  or sapele,  or utile.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

    in reply to: Restoring colour to deck veneer #17646
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    That looks to me to be a case of the varnish lifting because water has got underneath it.   Frost damage,  as identified by Chris,  is another closely related cause.

    I think you will find that sanding down and then revarnishing is amply sufficient,  without needing any colour restoration;   indeed my guess is that you will then find that the finished job is slightly darker and richer than the surrounding wood,  because it will be a newer surface which has had less exposure to UV.

    Given that you know that the problem has arisen,  that the likely cause is water getting under the varnish,  and that the boat is from the 80s,  a likely reason is slight movement of the wood,  cracking the varnish film.     I would therefore be very tempted to use a top quality conventional varnish,  rather than a 2-pot polyurethane,   because it is slightly more tolerant of slight movement of the wood.   In any case,  if the existing finish is one-pot (of whatever persuasion),  or if you don’t know what it is and cannot be 100% certain of it being two-pot you cannot use two pot on it anyway.

    One of the best conventional varnishes in my book is Schooner,  by International Paints.   Not Schooner Gold,  which is not the same product at all;   I have once tried it,  decided that I didn’t like the way it flowed on (or didn’t flow),  and spoke with their Technical Manager who told me that it was designed for a particular market (for people who were not used to varnishing),  and he agreed with me about its flow characteristics and said that if I liked the original Schooner he was not surprised that I did not like Schooner Gold!    Schooner is a tung oil varnish,  with a deep amber colour,  and amongst the conventional varnishes in International’s range it has possibly the optimum combination of  gloss and durability;   it is not quite as hard as their Perfection two-pot polyurethane,  but if there is any suspicion of movement of the wood it is a safer bet to use.

    One tip is worth passing on;   never use the varnish straight from the tin,  because as soon as you open the tin the surface will start to harden,  and eventually form a skin.   Instead decant the amount you expect to use (plus a small margin of safety) into another container,  and immediately re-seal the tin.   Then when you come to apply each of the successive coats,  what is left in the tin will still be in fit condition to use;   each time decant off what you expect to use on that occasion,  and immediately re-seal the tin.

    However on bare wood I would first apply 4 coats of a varnish primer:  International’s Clear Wood Seal Fast-Dry.   That mouthful of a name is indeed descriptive;   in sumer conditions one can apply four coats in a day.   Then four to six coats of Schooner on top.

    International Paints happens to be the brand with which I am most familiar,  but there are other equally good brands of yacht paints and varnishes,  e.g. Blakes,  Hempel,  Awlgrip,  and others.   I am not holding a candle for any one brand over its competitors,  merely describing what I would use from the range with which I happen to be most familiar.

    Photo shows my erstwhile GP14 Strait Laced in 2005,  newly finished in Toplac and Schooner,  as an example of the final finish.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

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    in reply to: Restoring colour to deck veneer #17636
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    It would be helpful to know more about exactly what discolouration your boat is suffering from.   Can you post some photos?

    Having tried wood dye on bare wood which has previously been painted or varnished I would counsel against it.  My experience in 2005 on a GP14 transom was that although the wood looked to have been stripped back to bare wood,  it seems that in fact some  –  but not all  –  of the pores in the wood were still blocked by hardened paint or varnish,  even though not visible,  and this blockage was not uniform;   the result was that when the wood was stained it turned out extremely blotchy and unsightly.

    My second thought was to mix a stain in with varnish before applying it.   This can work,  reasonably well,  but there are some issues.

    First,  the resulting stained varnish is indeed still very transparent,  so you can still see the beauty of the wood through it.

    Second,  if you use International products,  their Mahogany Wood Stain is no longer marketed in the UK.   The last I heard,  it was still available in Germany,  but that was a few years ago.    When I learned that it was being withdrawn I snapped up the last two tins of it from my local chandler,  and I still have one of them;   but,  sorry,  I am keeping that in stock for my own future use.    However it is possible that you may be able to obtain some,   by persistence,   via either the manufacturer or online searches.

    Third,  International’s Technical Helpline confirmed to me that it can be mixed into Schooner varnish;   they had no information on whether it could also be mixed into Perfection Plus varnish,  but I tried it and found that it did indeed work.   Be aware that the wood stain also acts as a powerful thinner,  so you should not add more than about 10% (at maximum) by volume,  the resulting mix will go on very thinly indeed,  and if you try to brush it on thickly it is liable to run;   so you may need several thin coats to build up the desired colour.

    Fourth,  it is possible that a different manufacturer may offer a high quality yacht varnish and a compatible stain;   I am not aware of any,  but I have not had occasion to do the research.

    Fifth,  when I was making my enquiries (in 2005 for conventional finishes and again in 2006 for 2-pot polyurethane (for a different boat)) I drew a blank with Rustin’s.   Quite understandably,  they were unable to advise on the compatibility of their wood stain with another manufacturer’s varnish,  and they do not manufacture a yacht varnish themselves;   or at least they did not at that time,  and I am not aware of them having done so since then.    So it might or might not be possible to mix it in with your preferred deck varnish;   but there is nothing (other than cost,  if the material ends up being wasted) to stop you experimenting on some test pieces that are not part of your boat.

    Hope this helps,

     

    Oliver

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Oliver Shaw.
    in reply to: Towing Weight of GP14 and Trailer #17623
    Oliver Shaw
    Moderator

    It is interesting that this question arises only because of changes in the law,  not because of safety.

    When the boat was designed in 1949 it was specifically designed to be towable behind a typical small family car,  which could be as small as a Morris 8 or Morris Minor (the Morris Minor MM series was released the previous year).

    In the early sixties I regularly towed my GP14 behind a contemporary Mini,  and on occasion loaded camping gear into the boat because the car was already full.   That was perfectly safe,  manageable,  and legal;   and it would remain safe and manageable today,  just not necessarily also legal today!

     

    Oliver

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