Some years ago I bought an elderly wooden GP14. In standard form the GP is nearer to a rather heavy racing dinghy than a cruising boat, and over the years I have modified it to make it more suitable for general use. Basically it has the advantages of good freeboard and sidedecks, so that it heels a long way before water comes in over the side. It also has useful fore and aft decks but, being hard chined, it is still rather wet when beating up against wind and tide because of slop and spray coming over the bows.

My boat had the standard Sitka spruce mast, 23’ 9” long overall, weighing about 30 lbs, and fitting through a slot in the foredeck with the mast heel down the bottom of the boat. I sailed the boat in this form for a time, but found it made rather heavy weather when beating up the Medway estuary against tide and strong wind. We got very wet from spray slopping over the bows, and with our side decks well under it was not quick enough luffing up in squalls. We never capsized, but got uncomfortably close to it, and knew that the previous owner had done so more than once and that the boat had inverted.

I got hold of a GP14 alloy mast from another boat. It had been buckled over where it went through the foredeck after a weather shroud had come adrift in a blow. I cut off the buckled end and filled the remaining 20’ 9” with closed cell foam, then plugged the open end. I reinforced the foredeck with 3’ of 3x3” timber between the mast slat and the bottom of the boat, and then mounted the new mast on the foredeck in a keyway, so that it was held firmly in place by the downward pull of the shrouds. In the original wooden mast, the halyards were fitted internally, but in the alloy mast they were now external, so that the mast was watertight, buoyant and weighed only about 10 lbs.

The improvement in the handling of the boat was remarkable: it moved far better in light breezes, and felt much stiffer in squalls. Clearly, the high-up weight of the original heavy wooden mast had contributed to instability, with this effect increasing the more the boat heeled. I have used this alloy mast ever since, although if I was doing it again I would shorten it to about 18’ and use a smaller mainsail. I have not done so because I have two sets of standard GP14 sails. I have modified the mainsail reefing arrangements so that I can reef well down and still use an effective winch-operated kicking strap. A really firm kicking strap is essential on the GP when the wind is strong, particularly when beating, as too much ballooning in the mainsail increases instability and spoils performance. On occasions the boat will get up on the plane and go uncomfortably fast, and when this happens a tight kicking strap is useful if a gybe should result when trying to slow up by spilling the wind.

I feel sure that many cruising dinghies carry too much sail. It is surprising how little is the loss in speed when smaller or reefed sails are used in light winds, and how much better boats sail with them when the wind is strong. Apart from this, the shorter and lighter mast which can then be used is much more convenient when trailing the boat, and much easier to put up.

I do not use a genoa, as the standard jib seems to give plenty of foresail. I have fitted roller furling gear for the jib as it is convenient to get rid of the jib quickly and have a clear view when coming into beaches.

Obviously one should aim at never capsizing, except under suitable conditions to try things out. If I did capsize, I did not want the boat to invert or be more unstable than need be when right way up but full of water. A light and buoyant mast helps a lot in this respect but, as a further aid, I scrapped the original large buoyancy bag which was fitted under the foredeck and substituted closed cell foam-filled boxes made in mahogany marine ply. They fit high up under the foredeck and follow the inside line of the bows. There is space clear under them to take oars, and between them for storage of bits and pieces. They give about 400 lbs of lift and, being high up and wide apart, should help to keep the boat the right way up if waterlogged. I have fitted another watertight mahogany box, about 40” x 18” x 10”, across the boat, close up to and level with the aft deck. It is easily removable but held in place by clips. It carries the outboard motor and other things I want to keep dry, and adds to stern buoyancy. There are buoyancy bags as well under the aft and side decks.

The GP14 has a wooden pivoted centreboard. To improve stability I experimented with weighting the bottom of the board with 56 lbs of lead insets. It did not seem to help much, and was a nuisance because the plate no longer stayed where it was set unless fastened, and dug in unless got up in time when beaching. I abandoned the idea.

The underside of the GP is ¼” ply and nearly flat. It is likely to suffer when grounding, or from the jockey wheels of the road trailer. I have reinforced the bottom of my boat by bedding an additional thickness of ¼” mahogany marine ply to the inside of the boat bottom, the additional panels being cut to fit closely inside the frame members.

I have an Ailsa Craig Plus 4 outboard. It is an excellent engine, but weighs 40 lbs, and is more powerful than is necessary for my boat. In use it is fitted on the transom through a removable panel cut in the aft deck. In this position it fouls the rudder and mainsheets when sailing, and so is normally carried in the watertight box described above. It would be possible to modify the GP on the lines of the Drascombe boats, so that a small outboard could be carried within the hull and be immediately available for use. Properly designed, I think it would be possible to have the engine immediately available for use without causing drag while sailing or the engine being significantly in the way. So far I have been hesitant about cutting the necessary hole through the bottom of the boat.